Abstract.
Spatial association patterns of manufacturing activities are examined in this paper with the corresponding economic linkage patterns. Four specifications are used to measure the spatial association pattern: intraindustry/intracounty (locational Gini), intraindustry/intercounty (Moran’s I), interindustry/ intracounty (correlation coefficient) and interindustry/intercounty (“spatial” correlation coefficient). Two sets of spatial specification were used for the different locational context: unconstrained (full dataset) and constrained (dataset without zeros). The result on the 3,110 US counties for 361 manufacturing sectors revealed that, in the intraindustry context, there is little proof that stronger economic linkage results in and/or from a more concentrated pattern of the industry. However, interindustry economic linkage reflected and/or was reflected from the spatial distribution pattern in a significantly positive way. There was a pattern in the intraindustry model that the industry that showed clustering at a county scale had relatively weaker spatial concentration at a multi-county scale and vice versa. Results of the unconstrained and constrained specification of the data revealed important differences, implying that special care should be taken in the spatial specification to be used and how the results are to be interpreted. However, the relationship between economic linkage and spatial proximity did not substantially change between two cases except Moran’s I that had conflicting signs.
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This is the revised version of a finalist paper om tje 16th Annual Competition of the Charles M. Tiebout Prize in Regional Science, 2002. The author is indebted to Luc Anselin for his comments on an earlier draft and to Geoffrey J.D. Hewings for his comprehensive comments and suggestions.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sohn, J. Do birds of a feather flock together?: Economic linkage and geographic proximity. Ann Reg Sci 38, 47–73 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00168-003-0145-x
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00168-003-0145-x