IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wiw/wiwrsa/ersa02p266.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The European metropolitan region of Zurich - a cluster of economic clusters?

Author

Listed:
  • Dümmler, Patrick
  • Thierstein, Alain

Abstract

Switzerland is a small country and possesses only two or three major economic regions of a metropolitan character. From a Swiss perspective the most important region is the European Metropolitan Region of Zurich (EMRZ). The EMRZ covers the whole of the Zurich economic area as well as adjacent areas like Zug, Lucerne and Basel. In empirical terms the EMRZ shows an above average percentage share of manufacturing industries and advanced service companies. Although the EMRZ is recognised as the prime Swiss economic engine there is only vague perception about the locational situation of its more important industries such as pharmaceuticals, machinery, financial services and others. A true-type cluster analysis for the EMRZ is still lacking. This deficit of fundamental knowledge about the region seems all the more important since several economic promotion agencies market the greater Zurich economic area as a region with clusters in financial service industries and medical equipment. The paper thus presents in a first step the EMRZ delimitation using some selected statistical data which are put into relation with the whole of Switzerland. The emphasis of this analysis lies on the identification of the major manufacturing and service industries that are located within the EMRZ. Followed by a short overview of the different cluster theories and a working definition for an empirical cluster analysis. The next section produces a cluster analysis based on data from the Swiss Federal Office of Statistics. This results in the identification of major clusters, locational coefficients as well as a first glimpse at the interrelations between selected clusters. The paper finishes off with a hypothesis whether the spatial proximity of economic clusters in the case of the EMRZ bears any causality with its economic development. Key words: cluster analysis, European metropolitan region of Zurich, regional innovation system, spillovers

Suggested Citation

  • Dümmler, Patrick & Thierstein, Alain, 2002. "The European metropolitan region of Zurich - a cluster of economic clusters?," ERSA conference papers ersa02p266, European Regional Science Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa02p266
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www-sre.wu.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa02/cd-rom/papers/266.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Manfred M. Fischer, 2001. "Innovation, knowledge creation and systems of innovation," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 35(2), pages 199-216.
    2. Allen J. Scott, 2001. "Globalization and the Rise of City-regions," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(7), pages 813-826, October.
    3. Andr Torre Shaw & Jean-Pierre Gilly, 2000. "On the Analytical Dimension of Proximity Dynamics," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(2), pages 169-180.
    4. Cowan, Robin & Gunby, Philip, 1996. "Sprayed to Death: Path Dependence, Lock-In and Pest Control Strategies," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(436), pages 521-542, May.
    5. Gernot Hutschenreiter, 1994. "Technologische Cluster in der österreichischen Industrie," WIFO Monatsberichte (monthly reports), WIFO, vol. 67(11), pages 624-627, 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. Shuai Shi & Kathy Pain, 2020. "Investigating China’s Mid-Yangtze River economic growth region using a spatial network growth model," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(14), pages 2973-2993, November.
    2. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Riccardo Crescenzi, 2008. "Mountains in a flat world: why proximity still matters for the location of economic activity," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 1(3), pages 371-388.
    3. Nurettin Can & Lutfu Sagbansua, 2015. "Quantitative Analysis on Innovation Index of OECD Countries," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 5(8), pages 210-220, August.
    4. David A. Hennessy, 2006. "On Monoculture and the Structure of Crop Rotations," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 88(4), pages 900-914.
    5. Ciarli, Tommaso & Ràfols, Ismael, 2019. "The relation between research priorities and societal demands: The case of rice," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 949-967.
    6. Franz Tödtling & Michaela Trippl, 2013. "Innovation and Knowledge Links in Metropolitan Regions: The Case of Vienna," Advances in Spatial Science, in: Johan Klaesson & Börje Johansson & Charlie Karlsson (ed.), Metropolitan Regions, edition 127, chapter 0, pages 451-472, Springer.
    7. Tappeiner, Gottfried & Hauser, Christoph & Walde, Janette, 2008. "Regional knowledge spillovers: Fact or artifact?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 861-874, June.
    8. Bo Liu & Desheng Xue & Yiming Tan, 2019. "Deciphering the Manufacturing Production Space in Global City-Regions of Developing Countries—a Case of Pearl River Delta, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-26, December.
    9. Nicola Francesco Dotti & André Spithoven, 2018. "Economic drivers and specialization patterns in the spatial distribution of Framework Programme's participation," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 97(4), pages 863-882, November.
    10. Nejla YACOUB, 2012. "Brevetabilité des médicament, innovation et l’avenir de l’industrie pharmaceutique en Tunisie DRUGS PATENTABILITY INNOVATION AND THE FUTURE OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY IN TUNISIA THEORETICAL STUDY ," Working Papers 248, Laboratoire de Recherche sur l'Industrie et l'Innovation. ULCO / Research Unit on Industry and Innovation.
    11. Stavins, Robert & Jaffe, Adam & Newell, Richard, 2000. "Technological Change and the Environment," Working Paper Series rwp00-002, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    12. Tom Broekel & Wladimir Mueller, 2018. "Critical links in knowledge networks – What about proximities and gatekeeper organisations?," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(10), pages 919-939, November.
    13. John Kemp & Ted Wilson, 1999. "Monetary Regime Transformation: The scramble to gold in the late nineteenth century," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 125-149.
    14. Jacquet, Florence & Butault, Jean-Pierre & Guichard, Laurence, 2011. "An economic analysis of the possibility of reducing pesticides in French field crops," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(9), pages 1638-1648, July.
    15. Teis Hansen, 2014. "Juggling with Proximity and Distance: Collaborative Innovation Projects in the Danish Cleantech Industry," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 90(4), pages 375-402, October.
    16. Stefano Usai & Emanuela Marrocu & Raffaele Paci, 2017. "Networks, Proximities, and Interfirm Knowledge Exchanges," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 40(4), pages 377-404, July.
    17. Yongwang Cao & Xiong He & Chunshan Zhou, 2023. "Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Population Migration under Different Population Agglomeration Patterns—A Case Study of Urban Agglomeration in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-25, April.
    18. Peter Karl Kresl (ed.), 2010. "Economic Strategies for Mature Industrial Economies," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14116.
    19. Konstantinos Chatzimichael & Margarita Genius & Vangelis Tzouvelekas, 2015. "Health-Damaging Inputs, Workers' Health Status and Productivity Measurement," Working Papers 1505, University of Crete, Department of Economics.
    20. Jordi Molas-Gallart & Pablo D’Este & Oscar Llopis & Ismael Rafols, 2016. "Towards an alternative framework for the evaluation of translational research initiatives," Research Evaluation, Oxford University Press, vol. 25(3), pages 235-243.

    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:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa02p266. 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: Gunther Maier (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ersa.org .

    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.