Globalization and the Location of Firms

This authoritative collection reprints the key articles in the field of locational clustering, and the relationship between local clusters and the activities of multinational firms. It covers both the principal theoretical and statistical explanations of the clustering of firms in common locations, and includes a selection of important empirical studies of this phenomenon. Special attention is given to the role played by knowledge spillovers, and notably the geographical dimension of the relationship between firms and universities. Further articles demonstrate how, contrary to some popular beliefs, globalisation is not only consistent with the emergence of a new emphasis upon locational clustering, but in many ways it has helped to promote the differentiation of the productive capabilities of different locations, and so has reinforced clustering and reflected it.