What is the role of urban morphology in agglomeration economies?

人们越来越一致地认为，大城市可以通过提供更大的“集聚经济”来提高生产力和经济增长。本文试图了解城市的规模是否是产生聚集经济的唯一重要因素，或者城市的空间组织是否也可能发挥作用。特别是，该研究探讨了“共享，匹配和学习”机制（Duranton和Puga，2003年）如何在城市中发挥作用，以及这些机制如何被城市街道网络塑造。在这里，"共享"包括共同使用不可分割的公共产品、市场和供应链;"匹配"包括劳动力市场上技术人员的互补匹配;而"学习"包括传播知识和新的做事方式。虽然这些机制被广泛认为对聚集经济很重要，但人们对它们在城市中的具体运作方式以及它们如何受到建筑环境的影响了解较少。英国的曼彻斯特被选为案例研究，特别关注纺织业，该行业集中在市中心，与英国其他地方相比，该行业的生产力特别高。鉴于政府的新产业战略，分析曼彻斯特等城市的集聚经济的空间维度是及时的。此外，英国城市通过权力下放获得了影响空间设计和基础设施的新权力，了解这些权力如何影响未来的经济增长将使其受益。主要研究阶段有三个：-对曼彻斯特次城市层面的行业和技能数据进行分析。这将有助于更好地了解行业和拥有不同技能的人如何在城市结构中分散，以及这如何促进或阻碍网络的形成-从而促进集聚经济。除了空间语法分析外，该分析还将利用哈佛Grown Lab开发的"行业空间"映射。产业空间测绘不仅仅是简单地测绘经济多样性，而是分析不同产业如何通过共享技能和知识相互联系。 - 将进行一项民族志案例研究，以更好地了解城市空间在曼彻斯特北部纺织业"分享、学习和匹配"经济中的作用。东伦敦的另一个案例研究将作为比较;- 利用通过人种学和城市层面研究开发的假设，本论文将利用现有的一套空间句法地图，探索其他全球城市的空间配置与生产力指标之间的潜在联系，和经合组织大都市数据库。本论文在开展具体研究以探索城市集聚经济的空间方面是新颖的。本文借鉴了两种方法，特别是-空间句法，和“行业空间映射”，并把它们放在一起的第一次。这也是第一次将"工业空间"模型在城市空间上进行映射。此外，虽然空间句法分析以前曾被用于分析建筑设计对创新和知识共享的影响，但在城市规模上还没有类似的方法。这项研究有助于EPSRC提高英国经济竞争力，同时也与“制造未来”的研究主题相联系，这项研究是在与哈佛增长实验室的弗兰克·内夫克、曼彻斯特新经济的约翰·霍尔顿和鲁珀特·格林拉格以及经合组织城市项目负责人鲁迪格·阿伦德密切接触的情况下进行的。

There is increasing agreement that larger cities boost productivity and economic growth through offering greater 'agglomeration economies'. This thesis seeks to understand whether the size of cities is the only important factor in generating agglomeration economies, or whether the spatial organisation of cities may also play a role. In particular, the research explores how 'sharing, matching and learning' mechanisms (Duranton and Puga, 2003) work in cities, and how these are shaped by urban street networks. Here, 'sharing' includes the joint use of indivisible public goods, market places and supply chains; 'matching' includes complementary matches of skilled people in the labour market; while 'learning' includes the spread of knowledge and new ways of doing things. While these mechanisms are widely recognised as being important to agglomeration economies, there is less understanding of how they work concretely in cities, and how they might be influenced by the built environment. Manchester in the UK has been chosen as a case study, with a particular focus on the textiles sector, which is concentrated in the city centre, and which is particularly productive compared with elsewhere in the UK. Analysing the spatial dimensions of agglomeration economies in cities such as Manchester is timely given the government's new industrial strategy. Further, UK cities have been gaining new powers to influence spatial design and infrastructure through devolution, and will benefit from understanding how such powers might influence future economic growth.There are three main research stages: - an analysis of data on industries and skills at a sub-city level in Manchester. This will enable a better understanding of how both industries, and people with different skills, spread themselves out across the urban fabric, and how this may facilitate or obstruct network formation - and hence agglomeration economies. This analysis will draw on 'industry space' mapping developed by Harvard Grown Lab, in addition to space syntax analysis. Industry space mapping goes beyond simply mapping economic diversity, to analyse how different industries are linked through shared skills sets and knowledge. - an ethnographic case study will be carried out to better understand the role of urban space in 'sharing, learning and matching' economies in the textiles industry in north Manchester. An additional case study in East London will serve as a comparator; - drawing on hypotheses developed through the ethnographic and city level research, the thesis will explore potential links between the spatial configuration of other global cities with productivity indicators, drawing on an existing set of space syntax maps, and the OECD Metropolitan Database.The thesis is novel in developing concrete research to explore the spatial aspects of agglomeration economies in cities. The thesis draws on two methodologies in particular - space syntax, and 'industry space mapping' and brings them together for the first time. This is also the first time that the 'industry space' model has been mapped spatially across a city. Further, while space syntax analysis has been previously used to analyse the influence of building design on innovation and knowledge sharing, a similar approach has not been made at the urban scale.This study contributes to the EPSRC remit to boost economic competitiveness in the UK, while also linking to the research theme of 'Manufacturing the Future', with its strong focus on the textiles industry.The research is being carried out in close contact with Frank Neffke at the Harvard Growth Lab, with John Holden and Rupert Greenlagh at Manchester New Economy, and with Rudiger Ahrend, Head of the OECD Urban Programme.