The agglomeration of knowledge-intensive business services firms

Valter Di Giacinto, Giacinto Micucci () and Alessandro Tosoni ()
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Giacinto Micucci: Bank of Italy – Ancona Branch
Alessandro Tosoni: Bank of Italy – L’Aquila Branch

The Annals of Regional Science, 2020, vol. 65, issue 3, No 1, 557-590

Abstract: Abstract We analyse the geographic localization and the productivity of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) in Italy, using both census data and balance sheet data at the firm level. We find that KIBS are generally agglomerated in urban areas where they attain significantly higher labour productivity levels. Urban productivity advantages are found to be strongly associated with the local availability of human capital and to standard proxies of Marshall–Arrow–Romer and Jacobs agglomeration economies. Forward demand linkages and some factors impacting on the thickness of the local labour market also appear to be relevant. On the whole, the set of explanatory factors considered could explain the entire urban productivity premium estimated for Italian KIBS firms.

JEL-codes: J24 L84 R30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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DOI: 10.1007/s00168-020-00995-3

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