The Formation and Significance of New Industrial Districts: A Study of Four Countries' Experience

伴随着全球生产和贸易联系日益一体化的是新工业区的兴起。这些是空间上截然不同的经济活动领域，由一系列专门的以贸易为导向的产业主导，这些产业反过来促进人口和就业增长。关于新工业区的文献主要集中在集聚力和外部性、企业之间的网络和关系以及当地劳动力市场的功能。由于这些工业区的形式多种多样，而且在将哪些地区指定为新的和专门的地区方面存在分歧，这项研究将扩大和推广它们的形成和选址理论。研究的理论部分将集中在非地方嵌入性、非本地外部性、区域间劳动力流动以及国家在新工业区形成中的作用。实证部分将考察四个国家的学区：美国、日本、韩国和巴西。将制定工业区的类型学，并测试具体的假设，这些假设反映了每个区域类型在理论上预期的属性。分析数据将来自每个国家公布的统计数据。一个由国际研究人员组成的团队将在每个国家的案例研究区域开展工作，他们将在不同的国家背景下比较和对比他们的发现。这项研究将在对嵌入性、外部性和发展动因进行更广泛的分析的基础上，产生更全面的新产业区形成的基本理论。这将产生一种更全面、更适应各种国情的新工业区类型。四个国家对新工业区的比较将允许解释各国在政治结构、发展阶段、经济战略和公司结构方面的差异如何制约它们的成长和形成。

Accompanying the increasing integration of global production and trade connections has been the rise of new industrial districts. These are spatially distinct areas of economic activity dominated by a specialized set of trade-oriented industries which induce in turn population and employment growth. The literature on new industrial districts focuses on agglomeration forces and externalities, the networks and relationships among firms, and the functioning of local labor markets. Because of the wide variety of forms such industrial districts take on, and because disagreement exists over which districts to designate as new and specialized, this research will amplify and generalize the theory of their formation and location. The theoretical portion of the study will concentrate on non-place embeddedness, non-local externalities, interdistrict labor mobility, and the role of the State in new industrial district formation. The empirical portion will examine districts in four countries: the United States, Japan, Korea, and Brazil. A typology of industrial districts will be developed, and specific hypotheses will be tested which reflect the theoretically expected attributes attributed to each district type. Data for the analysis will come from published statistics available in each country. An international team of researchers will work on case study districts in each country, and they will compare and contrast their findings across national contexts. This research will produce a fuller basic theory of new industrial district formation based on a broader analysis of embeddedness, externalities, and developmental agents. It will result in a typology of new industrial districts which is more comprehensive and adaptable to various national situations. The four nation comparison of new industrial districts will permit an interpretation of how national differences in political structure, stage of development, economic strategy, and corporate structure, condition their growth and formation.