Agglomeration economies and clustering – evidence from German and European firms

Kurt A. Hafner
2013 Applied Economics  
The aim of this annual workshop is to offer a forum for young researchers from the field of International Economics to present and to discuss their current topics of research with other experts. The workshop also provides the opportunity to gain an overview of recent developments, problems and methodological approaches in this field. Detailed information on past workshops and the planning for the 2009 workshop are available at Abstract The paper quantifies the impact of agglomeration economies
more » ... n the clustering of German firms. Therefore, I use the 2006 Innobarometer survey, which focuses on cluster characteristics and activities of German firms, to empirically identify agglomeration economies derived from the New Economic Geography and Marshall externalities. At the industry specific level, I find that within-industry spillovers are important for German low-tech firms but not for high-tech firms or knowledge intensive firms. At the department level, Marshall externalities such as hiring skilled labor and technological spillover effects are empirically confirmed for some departments like Human Resources or R&D but rarely for others like Production. JEL Classification: C20, D21, F12, R12
doi:10.1080/00036846.2012.690850 fatcat:752gb7qvsbhkllc756wqxfapdq