IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/por/fepwps/161.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Measuring the Localization of Economic Activity: A Random Utility Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Paulo Guimarães

    (Universidade do Minho and CEMPRE)

  • Octávio Figueiredo

    (CEMPRE, Faculdade de Economia da Universidade do Porto)

  • Douglas Woodward

    (University of South Carolina)

Abstract

The recent index proposed by Ellison & Glaeser (1997) is now well established as the preferred method for measuring the localization of economic activity. We build on McFadden's Random Utility (Profit) Maximization framework, to develop a parametric version of this measure that is more consistent with the theory originally proposed by Ellison and Glaeser (EG). Given that our method is regression based, it goes beyond the descriptive nature of the EG index, allowing us to evaluate how the localization measure behaves with changes in the determinants that drive firms' location decisions.

Suggested Citation

  • Paulo Guimarães & Octávio Figueiredo & Douglas Woodward, 2004. "Measuring the Localization of Economic Activity: A Random Utility Approach," FEP Working Papers 161, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    • Handle: RePEc:por:fepwps:161
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.fep.up.pt/investigacao/workingpapers/04.10.25_WP161_octavio.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bartik, Timothy J, 1985. "Business Location Decisions in the United States: Estimates of the Effects of Unionization, Taxes, and Other Characteristics of States," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 3(1), pages 14-22, January.
    2. Paulo Guimarães & Octávio Figueirdo & Douglas Woodward, 2003. "A Tractable Approach to the Firm Location Decision Problem," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(1), pages 201-204, February.
    3. Luís M B Cabral & José Mata, 2003. "On the Evolution of the Firm Size Distribution: Facts and Theory," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1075-1090, September.
    4. Devereux, Michael P. & Griffith, Rachel & Simpson, Helen, 2004. "The geographic distribution of production activity in the UK," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 533-564, September.
    5. Ellison, Glenn & Glaeser, Edward L, 1997. "Geographic Concentration in U.S. Manufacturing Industries: A Dartboard Approach," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(5), pages 889-927, October.
    6. Coughlin, Cletus C & Terza, Joseph V & Arromdee, Vachira, 1991. "State Characteristics and the Location of Foreign Direct Investment within the United States," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 73(4), pages 675-683, November.
    7. Guimaraes, Paulo & Figueiredo, Octavio & Woodward, Douglas, 2000. "Agglomeration and the Location of Foreign Direct Investment in Portugal," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 115-135, January.
    8. Gilles Duranton & Henry G. Overman, 2005. "Testing for Localization Using Micro-Geographic Data," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(4), pages 1077-1106.
    9. Guy Dumais & Glenn Ellison & Edward L. Glaeser, 2002. "Geographic Concentration As A Dynamic Process," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(2), pages 193-204, May.
    10. Louviere,Jordan J. & Hensher,David A. & Swait,Joffre D. With contributions by-Name:Adamowicz,Wiktor, 2000. "Stated Choice Methods," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521788304.
    11. Hansen, Eric R., 1987. "Industrial location choice in Sao Paulo, Brazil : A nested logit model," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 89-108, February.
    12. Mata, Jose & Portugal, Pedro & Guimaraes, Paulo, 1995. "The survival of new plants: Start-up conditions and post-entry evolution," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 459-481, December.
    13. Thomas J. Holmes & John J. Stevens, 2002. "Geographic Concentration and Establishment Scale," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(4), pages 682-690, November.
    14. Schmenner, Roger W. & Huber, Joel C. & Cook, Randall L., 1987. "Geographic differences and the location of new manufacturing facilities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 83-104, January.
    15. Figueiredo, Octavio & Guimaraes, Paulo & Woodward, Douglas, 2002. "Home-field advantage: location decisions of Portuguese entrepreneurs," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 341-361, September.
    16. Head, Keith & Ries, John & Swenson, Deborah, 1995. "Agglomeration benefits and location choice: Evidence from Japanese manufacturing investments in the United States," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(3-4), pages 223-247, May.
    17. Krugman, Paul, 1998. "What's New about the New Economic Geography?," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 14(2), pages 7-17, Summer.
    18. Carlton, Dennis W, 1983. "The Location and Employment Choices of New Firms: An Econometric Model with Discrete and Continuous Endogenous Variables," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 65(3), pages 440-449, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Valter Di Giacinto & Marcello Pagnini, 2008. "Agglomeration within and between regions: Two econometric based indicators," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 674, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    2. Vladimir Marianov & H. A. Eiselt, 2016. "On agglomeration in competitive location models," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 246(1), pages 31-55, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Paulo Guimarães & Octávio Figueiredo & Douglas Woodward, 2004. "Location Modelling and the Localization of Portuguese Manufacturing Industries," ERSA conference papers ersa04p28, European Regional Science Association.
    2. Guimaraes, Paulo & Figueiredo, Octávio & Woodward, Douglas, 2002. "Modeling industrial location decisions in U.S. counties," ERSA conference papers ersa02p060, European Regional Science Association.
    3. Josep‐Maria Arauzo‐Carod & Daniel Liviano‐Solis & Miguel Manjón‐Antolín, 2010. "Empirical Studies In Industrial Location: An Assessment Of Their Methods And Results," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 685-711, August.
    4. Woodward, Douglas & Figueiredo, Octavio & Guimaraes, Paulo, 2006. "Beyond the Silicon Valley: University R&D and high-technology location," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 15-32, July.
    5. Head, Keith & Mayer, Thierry, 2004. "The empirics of agglomeration and trade," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 59, pages 2609-2669, Elsevier.
    6. Kristian Behrens & Mark Brown & Théophile Bougna, 2014. "The Determinants of Agglomeration Redux: Transportation, Trade, and Input-Output Linkages," ERSA conference papers ersa14p32, European Regional Science Association.
    7. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/10191 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Koster, Hans R.A. & van Ommeren, Jos & Rietveld, Piet, 2014. "Estimation of semiparametric sorting models: Explaining geographical concentration of business services," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 14-28.
    9. Combes, Pierre-Philippe & Gobillon, Laurent, 2015. "The Empirics of Agglomeration Economies," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 247-348, Elsevier.
    10. BARRIOS, Salvador & BERTINELLI, Luisito & STROBL, Eric, 2002. "Coagglomeration and growth," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2002053, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    11. Miguel Angel Quiroga Suazo, 2002. "Agglomeration economies: influence on the distribution of foreign investment in Chile," Estudios de Economia, University of Chile, Department of Economics, vol. 29(1 Year 20), pages 139-163, June.
    12. Gilles Duranton & Henry G. Overman, 2008. "Exploring The Detailed Location Patterns Of U.K. Manufacturing Industries Using Microgeographic Data," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 213-243, February.
    13. Figueiredo, Octavio & Guimaraes, Paulo & Woodward, Douglas, 2002. "Home-field advantage: location decisions of Portuguese entrepreneurs," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 341-361, September.
    14. Salvador Barrios & Holger Görg & Eric Strobl, 2006. "Multinationals' Location Choice, Agglomeration Economies, and Public Incentives," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 29(1), pages 81-107, January.
    15. Marius Brülhart & Kurt Schmidheiny, 2015. "Estimating The Rivalness Of State-Level Inward Fdi," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 139-148, January.
    16. Michael Devereux & Rachel Griffith & Helen Simpson, 2004. "Agglomeration, regional grants and firm location," IFS Working Papers W04/06, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    17. Paulo Guimaraes & Robert J. Rolfe & Douglas P. Woodward, 1998. "Regional Incentives and Industrial Location in Puerto Rico," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 21(2), pages 119-138, August.
    18. Fabienne Boudier‐Bensebaa, 2005. "Agglomeration economies and location choice: Foreign direct investment in Hungary," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 13(4), pages 605-628, October.
    19. Guido Buenstorf & Christina Guenther, 2007. "No place like home? Location choice and firm survival after forced relocation in the German machine tool industry," Jena Economics Research Papers 2007-053, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    20. Marius Brülhart & Kurt Schmidheiny, 2015. "Estimating The Rivalness Of State-Level Inward Fdi," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 139-148, January.
    21. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/1kv8mtgl748r0ahh12air9erdc is not listed on IDEAS
    22. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/10191 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Figueiredo, Octavio & Guimaraes, Paulo, 1999. "Start-Ups Domestic Location Decisions, and the Entrepreneur's Geographical Origin," ERSA conference papers ersa99pa045, European Regional Science Association.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C25 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models; Discrete Regressors; Proportions; Probabilities
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)
    • R39 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Other

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:por:fepwps:161. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fepuppt.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.