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Differences in Labor versus Value Chain Industry Clusters: An Empirical Investigation
Author(s) -
RENSKI HENRY,
KOO JUN,
FESER EDWARD
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
growth and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.657
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1468-2257
pISSN - 0017-4815
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2257.2007.00375.x
Subject(s) - pooling , proxy (statistics) , economic geography , underpinning , business cluster , cluster (spacecraft) , dimension (graph theory) , value (mathematics) , global value chain , business , economics , industrial organization , international trade , comparative advantage , engineering , mathematics , epistemology , machine learning , artificial intelligence , computer science , philosophy , civil engineering , pure mathematics , mechanism (biology) , programming language
Regional analysts often identify industry clusters according to a single dimension of industrial interdependence, typically by trading patterns as revealed in national or regionalized input–output data. This is despite the fact that the theory underpinning regional industry cluster applications draws heavily on Marshall's theory of external economies, including the important role of labor pooling economies and knowledge spillovers in addition to spatially co‐located suppliers. This article investigates whether industry clusters identified based on trading relationships (value chain clusters) are meaningfully different in industrial composition and geography than those derived from an analysis of occupational employment requirements (labor‐based clusters). The results suggest that value chain linkages are a weak proxy for shared labor requirements, and vice versa.