IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jpolec/doi10.1086-676557.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Coagglomeration, Clusters, and the Scale and Composition of Cities

Author

Listed:
  • Robert W. Helsley
  • William C. Strange

Abstract

Cities are neither completely specialized nor completely diverse. However, prior research has focused almost entirely on the polar cases of complete specialization and complete diversity. This paper develops a model that can also generate the intermediate case of cities that feature the coagglomeration of some but not all industries, thus giving theoretical foundations to the analysis of business clusters. The analysis sharply challenges the conventional wisdom that the size and composition of cities are necessarily driven primarily by agglomerative efficiencies.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert W. Helsley & William C. Strange, 2014. "Coagglomeration, Clusters, and the Scale and Composition of Cities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 122(5), pages 1064-1093.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jpolec:doi:10.1086/676557
    DOI: 10.1086/676557
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/676557
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/676557
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/676557?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Klepper, Steven, 2010. "The origin and growth of industry clusters: The making of Silicon Valley and Detroit," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 15-32, January.
    2. Rosenthal, Stuart S. & Strange, William C., 2001. "The Determinants of Agglomeration," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 191-229, September.
    3. Wagner, Alfred, 1891. "Marshall's Principles of Economics," History of Economic Thought Articles, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, vol. 5, pages 319-338.
    4. Sundaram,Rangarajan K., 1996. "A First Course in Optimization Theory," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521497190, January.
    5. Glenn Ellison & Edward L. Glaeser & William R. Kerr, 2010. "What Causes Industry Agglomeration? Evidence from Coagglomeration Patterns," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(3), pages 1195-1213, June.
    6. Au, Chun-Chung & Henderson, J. Vernon, 2006. "How migration restrictions limit agglomeration and productivity in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 350-388, August.
    7. Abdel-Rahman, Hesham M., 1996. "When do cities specialize in production?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 1-22, February.
    8. John S. Chipman, 1970. "External Economies of Scale and Competitive Equilibrium," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 84(3), pages 347-385.
    9. Sundaram,Rangarajan K., 1996. "A First Course in Optimization Theory," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521497701, January.
    10. Anas, Alex & Xiong, Kai, 2005. "The formation and growth of specialized cities: efficiency without developers or Malthusian traps," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 445-470, July.
    11. Ajay K. Agrawal & Iain M. Cockburn & Alberto Galasso & Alexander Oettl, 2012. "Why are Some Regions More Innovative than Others? The Role of Firm Size Diversity," NBER Working Papers 17793, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Agrawal, Ajay & Cockburn, Iain, 2003. "The anchor tenant hypothesis: exploring the role of large, local, R&D-intensive firms in regional innovation systems," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 21(9), pages 1227-1253, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Carlino, Gerald & Kerr, William R., 2015. "Agglomeration and Innovation," 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 349-404, Elsevier.
    2. William R. Kerr & Frederic Robert-Nicoud, 2020. "Tech Clusters," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(3), pages 50-76, Summer.
    3. Giulia Faggio & Olmo Silva & William C Strange, 2020. "Tales of the city: what do agglomeration cases tell us about agglomeration in general? [The anchor tenant hypothesis: exploring the role of large, local, R&D-intensive firms in regional innovation ," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 20(5), pages 1117-1143.
    4. Aaron Chatterji & Edward Glaeser & William Kerr, 2014. "Clusters of Entrepreneurship and Innovation," Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 14(1), pages 129-166.
    5. 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.
    6. repec:bof:bofrdp:urn:nbn:fi:bof-201512111472 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Xiwei Zhu & Ye Liu & Ming He & Deming Luo & Yiyun Wu, 2019. "Entrepreneurship and industrial clusters: evidence from China industrial census," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 595-616, March.
    8. Carlino, Gerald & Kerr, William R., 2015. "Agglomeration and Innovation," 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 349-404, Elsevier.
    9. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2015_027 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. J. Vernon Henderson, 2003. "Urbanization and Economic Development," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 4(2), pages 275-341, November.
    11. repec:zbw:bofrdp:urn:nbn:fi:bof-201512111472 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Martin, Philippe & Mayer, Thierry & Mayneris, Florian, 2011. "Spatial concentration and plant-level productivity in France," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 182-195, March.
    13. Hiroyasu Inoue & Kentaro Nakajima & Yukiko Umeno Saito, 2019. "Localization of collaborations in knowledge creation," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 62(1), pages 119-140, February.
    14. Guangliang Yang & Lixing Li & Shihe Fu, 2020. "Do rural migrants benefit from labor market agglomeration economies? Evidence from Chinese cities," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 910-931, September.
    15. Borowiecki, Karol Jan, 2013. "Geographic clustering and productivity: An instrumental variable approach for classical composers," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 94-110.
    16. Jofre-Monseny, Jordi & Marín-López, Raquel & Viladecans-Marsal, Elisabet, 2011. "The mechanisms of agglomeration: Evidence from the effect of inter-industry relations on the location of new firms," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 61-74.
    17. Kim, Ho Yeon, 2012. "Shrinking population and the urban hierarchy," IDE Discussion Papers 360, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    18. Jorge Díaz-Lanchas & Peter Mulder, 2021. "Does decentralization of governance promote urban diversity? Evidence from Spain," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(6), pages 1111-1128, June.
    19. Edward L. Glaeser & Sari Pekkala Kerr & William R. Kerr, 2015. "Entrepreneurship and Urban Growth: An Empirical Assessment with Historical Mines," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(2), pages 498-520, May.
    20. Moretti, Enrico, 2011. "Local Labor Markets," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 14, pages 1237-1313, Elsevier.
    21. Guo, Di & Jiang, Kun & Xu, Chenggang & Yang, Xiyi, 2023. "Geographic clusters, regional productivity and resource reallocation across firms: Evidence from China," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(2).
    22. Nakajima, Kentaro & Saito, Yukiko Umeno & Uesugi, Iichiro, 2012. "Measuring economic localization: Evidence from Japanese firm-level data," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 201-220.
    23. Richard Harris, 2011. "Models Of Regional Growth: Past, Present And Future," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(5), pages 913-951, December.

    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:ucp:jpolec:doi:10.1086/676557. 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: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JPE .

    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.