TY - UNPB

T1 - WP/084 Measuring Industry Agglomeration and Identifying the Driving Forces

AU - Howard, Emma

AU - Tarp, Finn

AU - Newman, Carol

N1 - JEL Classification: L14, L60, O14, O33

PY - 2012/10

Y1 - 2012/10

N2 - Understanding industry agglomeration and its driving forces is critical for the formulation of industrial policy in developing countries. Crucial to this process is the definition and measurement of agglomeration. We propose a new measure and examine what it reveals about the importance of transport costs, labour market pooling, and technology transfer for agglomeration processes. We contrast this analysis with insights from existing measures in the literature and find very different underlying stories at work. An exceptionally rich set of data from Vietnam makes us confident that our measure is superior at least in developing country contexts.

AB - Understanding industry agglomeration and its driving forces is critical for the formulation of industrial policy in developing countries. Crucial to this process is the definition and measurement of agglomeration. We propose a new measure and examine what it reveals about the importance of transport costs, labour market pooling, and technology transfer for agglomeration processes. We contrast this analysis with insights from existing measures in the literature and find very different underlying stories at work. An exceptionally rich set of data from Vietnam makes us confident that our measure is superior at least in developing country contexts.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - industry agglomeration

KW - technology spillovers

KW - labour market pooling

KW - Vietnam

M3 - Working paper

T3 - WIDER Working Paper

BT - WP/084 Measuring Industry Agglomeration and Identifying the Driving Forces

PB - UNU-WIDER

ER -