Inter- and intra-firm linkages: Evidence from microgeographic location patterns

Kristian Behrens and Vera Sharunova

No 10921, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: Multiunit firms can draw on internal resources, thus their plants should depend less on external agglomeration benefits than comparable standalone plants. Because interacting at a distance is costly, multiunit firms should also be geographically 'compact'. We dissect the microgeographic location patterns of hundreds of thousands of Canadian establishments and find robust evidence for these predictions: multiunit firms are compact, and their plants locate in areas offering potentially less external agglomeration benefits. Within firms, plants with stronger vertical links are geographically more central. The latter effect is stronger for plants in high transport cost industries that produce durables and source a larger share of non-homogeneous inputs. These findings suggest that vertical supply chains are important in explaining firms' internal spatial organization.

Keywords: Inter-firm linkages; Intra-firm linkages; Microgeographic location patterns; Multiunit firms; Spatial organization of firms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D22 L22 R12 R32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-geo and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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