IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirc/v25y2007i5p671-691.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Firm Location in a Polycentric City: The Effects of Taxes and Agglomeration Economies on Location Decisions

Author

Listed:
  • Janet E Kohlhase

    (Department of Economics, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-5019, USA)

  • Xiahong Ju

    (Houston – Galveston Area Council, 3555 Timmons Lane, Houston, TX 77227, USA)

Abstract

The authors explore the determinants of firm location in a polycentric city with the aid of data for the Houston region. Firm location is modeled in a discrete-choice framework, with eight employment centers and outlying areas used as possible choices. Agglomerative and dispersive forces are explicitly treated, as are taxes and other characteristics that vary over space. The findings suggest that property taxes have large deterrent effects on firm locations for the four industrial groups analyzed here: oil and gas; manufacturing; finance, insurance and real estate (FIRE); and services. When agglomeration economies are present, they are weaker than the tax effects and are positive for only the FIRE and services industrial groups.

Suggested Citation

  • Janet E Kohlhase & Xiahong Ju, 2007. "Firm Location in a Polycentric City: The Effects of Taxes and Agglomeration Economies on Location Decisions," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 25(5), pages 671-691, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:25:y:2007:i:5:p:671-691
    DOI: 10.1068/c0649
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/c0649
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/c0649?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Timothy J. Bartik, 1991. "Who Benefits from State and Local Economic Development Policies?," Books from Upjohn Press, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, number wbsle, November.
    2. Miles Finney, 1994. "Property tax effects on intrametropolitan firm location: further evidence," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(2), pages 29-31.
    3. W. Warren McHone, 1986. "Supply-Side Considerations in the Location of Industry in Suburban Communities: Empirical Evidence from the Philadelphia SMSA," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 62(1), pages 64-73.
    4. William F. Fox, 1981. "Fiscal Differentials and Industrial Location: Some Empirical Evidence," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 18(1), pages 105-111, February.
    5. Segal, David, 1976. "Are There Returns to Scale in City Size?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 58(3), pages 339-350, August.
    6. Shukla, Vibhooti & Waddell, Paul, 1991. "Firm location and land use in discrete urban space : A study of the spatial structure of Dallas-Fort worth," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 225-253, July.
    7. Charney, Alberta H., 1983. "Intraurban manufacturing location decisions and local tax differentials," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 184-205, September.
    8. Craig, Steven G. & Ng, Pin T., 2001. "Using Quantile Smoothing Splines to Identify Employment Subcenters in a Multicentric Urban Area," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 100-120, January.
    9. McGuire, Therese J., 1985. "Are local property taxes important in the intrametropolitan location decisions of firms? An empirical analysis of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 226-234, September.
    10. Moomaw, Ronald L., 1998. "Agglomeration economies: Are they exaggerated by industrial aggregation?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 199-211, March.
    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. Yingcheng Li & Kai Zhu, 2017. "Spatial dependence and heterogeneity in the location processes of new high-tech firms in Nanjing, China," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 96(3), pages 519-535, August.
    2. Katarzyna Kopczewska & Mateusz Kopyt & Piotr Ćwiakowski, 2021. "Spatial Interactions in Business and Housing Location Models," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-25, December.
    3. Feldman, Maryann & Lowe, Nichola, 2015. "Triangulating regional economies: Realizing the promise of digital data," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(9), pages 1785-1793.
    4. Yong Liu & Wenze Yue & Peilei Fan, 2011. "Spatial Determinants of Urban Land Conversion in Large Chinese Cities: A Case of Hangzhou," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 38(4), pages 706-725, August.
    5. Yong Liu & Peilei Fan & Wenze Yue & Jingnan Huang & Dong Li & Zongshun Tian, 2019. "Assessing Polycentric Urban Development in Mountainous Cities: The Case of Chongqing Metropolitan Area, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-15, May.
    6. Wenze Yue & Yong Liu & Peilei Fan, 2010. "Polycentric Urban Development: The Case of Hangzhou," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 42(3), pages 563-577, March.
    7. Steven G. Craig & Janet E. Kohlhase & Adam W. Perdue, 2016. "Empirical Polycentricity: The Complex Relationship Between Employment Centers," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(1), pages 25-52, January.
    8. Timothy F. Leslie, 2010. "Identification and Differentiation of Urban Centers in Phoenix Through a Multi-Criteria Kernel-Density Approach," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 33(2), pages 205-235, April.
    9. Yue, Wenze & Wang, Tianyu & Liu, Yong & Zhang, Qun & Ye, Xinyue, 2019. "Mismatch of morphological and functional polycentricity in Chinese cities: An evidence from land development and functional linkage," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    10. Peter Nijkamp & Roger Stough & Maria Teresa de Noronha Vaz, 2007. "Local Knowledge and Innovation Policy," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 25(5), pages 633-637, October.
    11. Raimund Krumm & Harald Strotmann, 2013. "The impact of regional location factors on job creation, job destruction and employment growth in manufacturing," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 33(1), pages 23-48, February.
    12. Raimund Krumm & Harald Strotmann, 2010. "The Impact of Regional Supply and Demand Conditions on Job Creation and Destruction," IAW Discussion Papers 61, Institut für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung (IAW).
    13. Avin, Uri & Rodriguez, David A., 2010. "Discussion of "The Role of Employment Subcenters in Residential Location Decisions"," The Journal of Transport and Land Use, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, vol. 3(1), pages 1-5.
    14. Yi Niu & Chengri Ding & Gerrit-Jan Knaap, 2015. "Employment Centers and Agglomeration Economies," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 29(1), pages 14-22, February.

    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. Michael Wasylenko, 1997. "Taxation and economic development: the state of the economic literature," New England Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, issue Mar, pages 37-52.
    2. Thomas F. Luce JR, 1994. "Local Taxes, Public Services, and the Intrametropolitan Location of Firms and Households," Public Finance Review, , vol. 22(2), pages 139-167, April.
    3. Albert Solé Ollé & Elisabet Viladecans Marsal, "undated". "Creación de empleo e impuestos municipales: evidencia empírica con datos de panel," Studies on the Spanish Economy 102, FEDEA.
    4. Sung Hoon Kang & Mark Skidmore & Laura Reese, 2015. "The Effects of Changes in Property Tax Rates and School Spending on Residential and Business Property Value Growth," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 43(2), pages 300-333, June.
    5. Kusmin, Lorin D., 1994. "Factors Associated with the Growth of Local and Regional Economies: A Review of Selected Empirical Literature," Staff Reports 278733, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    6. Darin Wohlgemuth & Maureen Kilkenny, 1998. "Firm Relocation Threats and Copy Cat Costs," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 21(2), pages 139-162, August.
    7. McMillen, Daniel P. & Smith, Stefani C., 2003. "The number of subcenters in large urban areas," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 321-338, May.
    8. Rockoff, Jonah E., 2010. "Local response to fiscal incentives in heterogeneous communities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 138-147, September.
    9. Jordi Jofre-Montseny & Albert Solé-Ollé, 2007. "Tax differentials and agglomeration economies in intraregional firm location," Working Papers XREAP2007-05, Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP), revised Jun 2007.
    10. Miguel Angel Garcia Lopez & Ivan Muñiz Olivera, 2005. "Employment descentralisation: polycentric compaction or sprawl? The case of the Barcelona Metropolitan Region 1986-1996," Working Papers wpdea0511, Department of Applied Economics at Universitat Autonoma of Barcelona.
    11. Cho, Eun Joo & Rodriguez, Daniel & Song, Yan, 2008. "The Role of Employment Subcenters in Residential Location Decisions," The Journal of Transport and Land Use, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, vol. 1(2), pages 121-151.
    12. Jordi Jofre Monseny & Alberto Sole Olle, 2007. "Tax Differentials and Agglomeration Economies in Intraregional Firm Location," Working Papers in Economics 180, Universitat de Barcelona. Espai de Recerca en Economia.
    13. McMillen, Daniel P. & William Lester, T., 2003. "Evolving subcenters: employment and population densities in Chicago, 1970-2020," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 60-81, March.
    14. Brown, Dennis M., 1999. "Highway Investment and Rural Economic Development: An Annotated Bibliography," Miscellaneous Publications 320016, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    15. John M. Quigley, 1998. "Urban Diversity and Economic Growth," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 127-138, Spring.
    16. Mark D. Partridge & Dan S. Rickman, 1999. "Static and Dynamic Externalities, Industry Composition, and State Labor Productivity: A Panel Study of States," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 66(2), pages 319-335, October.
    17. McMillen, Daniel P., 2001. "Nonparametric Employment Subcenter Identification," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 448-473, November.
    18. Robert Tannenwald, 1994. "Massachusetts' tax competitiveness," New England Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, issue Jan, pages 31-49.
    19. William Levemier & Brian Cushing, 1994. "A New Look at the Determinants of the Intrametropolitan Distribution of Population and Employment," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 31(8), pages 1391-1405, October.
    20. N Bania & L N Calkins, 1992. "Interstate Differentials in State and Local Business Taxation, 1971–86," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 10(2), pages 147-158, June.

    More about this item

    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:sae:envirc:v:25:y:2007:i:5:p:671-691. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.