Abstract
Geographical agglomeration of productive units is expected to affect positively cooperation in “multiple winners” games in which costs from increased neighbour competition are not too high. Small-medium firm export activity is a typical game with these features. Economies of scale in the provision of export services and informal face-to-face exchanges of information about export markets may in fact facilitate participation to export activity without threatening potential profits due to productive capacity constraints and the large scale of the market. The current paper carries an empirical test and finds that geographical agglomeration of small-medium firms in a delimited area significantly affects their export intensity and their probability of becoming exporters. The effect is stronger for exports towards non EU markets and is negatively related to firm size. The significance of geographical agglomeration persists in spite of all controls included in the estimate which show how the dependent variable is also (positively) affected by export subsidies, formal export cooperation among firms, size and age. Paper results suggest that geographical agglomeration, by shifting firms from domestic to foreign markets, may then be — if technological benefits from more competition are relatively higher on foreign markets — an important engine for endogenous growth in a downsized system, such as Italy, with a strong specialisation in Traditional and Specialised sectors.
A previous version of this paper has been presented at the International Workshop on “Italian industrial districts: internationalisation and export performance”. The authors thank M.Bagella, M. Bellandi, G.Dei Ottati, G.Esposito, K.Kaiser, G. Pellegrini, G. Scanagatta, S. Sacchi for useful comments and suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies. Although this paper is a common research work sections 1 and 4 have been written by S.Rossi and sections 2, 3 and 5 have been written by L.Becchetti.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Amemiya T., 1973, Regression analysis when the dependent variable is truncated normal, in Econometrica 41.
Aumann R. and Shapley L., 1976, Long Term Competition: a Game Theoretic Analysis, mimeo.
Bagella M., Becchetti L. and Caggese A., 1996, Financial constraints on investments: evidence from direct revelation, in Rivista di Politica Economica.
Bagella M., Becchetti L. and Caggese A., 1996, Finanza, Investimenti ed Innovazione in Italia: il divario Nord-South in B.Quintieri (ed.) Finanza, Istituzioni e sviluppo regionale: il problema del Mezzogiomo, Il Mulino.
Bagella M. and Becchetti L., 1998, Geographical agglomeration in R&D games: theoretical and empirical evidence, in The Competitive advantage of Italian district: theoretical and empirical analysis, M.Bagella (ed.) Physica Verlag, and Quaderni di Politica Industriale, N.19, Mediocredito Centrale.
Bagella M. and Pietrobelli C., 1995, Distretti industriali e internazionalizzazione. Presupposti teorici ed evidenza empirica dell’America Latina, in Economia e Politica Industriale 86,2.
Becattini G.,1987, Mercato e Forze Locali: Il Distretto Industriale, Bologna, Il Mulino.
Becattini G., 1991, Il distretto industriale marshalliano come concetto socio-economico, in Pyke F., Becattini G., W. Sengenberger (eds.), Distretti industriali e cooperazione tra imprese in Italia, Quaderno n. 34 di Studi e Informazione della Banca Toscana
Becchetti L. and Rossi S.P.S., 1998, Distretti industriali e destinazione dell’export: quali le determinanti?, in Quaderni di Politica Industriale, N. 19, Mediocredito Centrale.
Becchetti L. and Rossi S., 1999, The positive effect of Industrial District on the export performance of Italian firms, The Review of Industrial Organisation, (forth.).
Bellandi M., 1996, Innovation and change in the Marshallian Industrial District, in European Planning Studies, Vol. 4, n. 3.
Bianchi P., 1989, Concorrenza Dinamica, Distretti Industriali e Intervenu Locali, in F. Gobbo, Distretti Industriali e sistemi produttivi alla soglia degli anni ′90, F. Angeli, Milano.
Brusco S., 1991, La genesi dell’idea del distretto industriale, in Pyke F., Becattini G., W. Sengenberger (eds.) Distretti industriali e cooperazione tra imprese in Italia, Quaderno n. 34 di Studi e Informazione della Banca Toscana.
De Cecco M., and Ferri G., 1997, Merchant Banks and Industrial Investment in Italy, paper presented at the 1997 Financial Conference in Venice.
Fudenberg D., and Tirole J.J., 1992, Game Theory, MIT Press, Cambridge Massachusetts.
D’Aspremont C., Gabszewicz J.J. and Thisse J.F., 1979, On Hotelling’s stability in competition, in Econometrica, Vol.47.
Del Colle E., 1997, Le aree produttive. Struttura economica dei sistemi regionali in Italia. Franco Angeli.
Kirsty Hughes, 1996, Export and technology, Cambridge University Press.
Momigliano F. and Dosi G., 1983, Tecnologia e organizzazione Industriale Internazionale, Bologna, Il Mulino.
Moran P.A.P., 1950, Notes on continuous stochastic phenomena, in Biometrika, 37.
Nuti F., 1992, I Distretti Industriali Manifatturieri, Vol. 1, CNR.
Onida F., Viesti G. and Falzoni A.M., 1992, Distretti Industriali: Crisi o Evoluzione?, CESPRI, Egea.
Porter M., 1991, Il vantaggio Competitivo delle Nazioni, Milano, Mondadori.
Pyke F. and Sengenberger W., 1992, Industrial GA and local Economic Regeneration, Geneva, International Institute for Labour Studies.
Rubinstein A., 1979, Equilibrium in Supergames with the Overtaking Criterion, in Journal of Economic Theory, 21, 1–9.
Sforzi F., 1991, Sistemi Locali di Piccola e Media Impresa, IRPET.
Sforzi F., 1995, Sistemi Locali di Impresa e Cambiamento Industriale in Italia, AGEI-Geotema no2.
Shaked A. and Sutton J., 1983, Natural oligopolies, in Econometrica, Vol. 51.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2000 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Becchetti, L., Rossi, S.P.S. (2000). EU and Non EU Export Performance of Italian Firms. Is There an Industrial District Effect?. In: Bagella, M., Becchetti, L. (eds) The Competitive Advantage of Industrial Districts. Contributions to Economics. Physica, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-57666-9_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-57666-9_6
Publisher Name: Physica, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-7908-1254-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-57666-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive