Collaborative Research: The Clustering of U.S. Business Enterprises in the 1990s

该项目将利用连续的美国和点流程建模技术的机密企业级数据来记录至1999年间美国企业集群的基本趋势(按行业、技术密集度、规模等)。该项目将调查企业集群是否利用科学和政策文献中假定的关键外部性。除了一套描述性空间分析技术外，这项研究还使用了两种互补的方法--D函数和空间持续时间模型，这两种方法使用病例对照设计将溢出效应与影响集群的其他因素分开。这项研究将探索与溢出相关的集聚，至少在某些行业或行业组，在20世纪90年代似乎正在加强或减弱。越来越多的联邦、州和地方经济发展政策倡议以企业从紧密的空间邻近中获得的特定优势为前提，或试图利用这些优势。这些政策倡议包括产业集群、技术转让和商业网络计划。与此同时，其他公共政策和计划预计，在信息时代，电信技术使商业机构的地理集中度变得不那么必要。科学和理论文献还没有确定，对于今天的企业来说，地理集中是否是一个不像早期工业时代那么重要的战略考虑。该项目将通过提供有关20世纪90年代美国不同部门集群的重要基线经验信息，为科学和政策辩论提供信息。

This project will utilize confidential enterprise-level data for the contiguous U.S. and point process modeling techniques to document basic trends in clustering of U.S. businesses between 1989 and 1999 (by sector, degree of technology intensity, size, etc.). The project will investigate whether enterprises cluster to take advantage of key externalities postulated in the scientific and policy literatures. In addition to a suite of descriptive spatial analysis techniques, the study uses two complementary methodologies, D-functions and spatial duration models, that employ case-control designs to isolate spillover effects from other factors influencing clustering. The study will explore whether clustering related to spillovers, at least in some industries or groups of industries, appears to be strengthening or weakening during the 1990s.A growing number of federal, state, and local economic development policy initiatives are premised on, or attempt to leverage, specific advantages enterprises gain from locating in close spatial proximity. Such policy initiatives include industry clusters, technology transfer, and business network programs. At the same time, other public policies and programs anticipate that, in the information age, telecommunications technologies make the geographic concentration of business establishments less necessary. The scientific and theoretical literature is undecided on whether geographic concentration is a less important strategic consideration for businesses today than in earlier industrial eras. This project will inform scientific and policy debates by providing important baseline empirical information about clustering in different U.S. sectors during the 1990s.