Dresden 2003 – scientific programme

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AKSOE: Physik sozio-ökonomischer Systeme

AKSOE 7: Makro-ökonomische Modelle und Wirtschaftswachstum II

AKSOE 7.1: Talk

Wednesday, March 26, 2003, 14:00–14:30, BAR/205

Local Self-organisation in the Spatial Distribution of Industries — •Thomas Brenner — Max-Planck-Institut zur Erforschung von Wirtschaftssystemen, Kahlaische Str. 10, 07745 Jena

Local clusters have attracted increasing attention in economics, geography and politics in recent years. However, the question of why they exist is rarely addressed theoretically. This paper develops such a theory on the basis of the very general assumption that firms benefit from their co-location. A self-organisation process results that is mathematically formulated and analysed. It results that there is either one stable state or a group of stable states. In the former case the stable state is characterised by a distribution of firms among regions that corresponds to the attractiveness of the regions. In the latter case the stable states are characterised by the existence of two types of regions: regions with a large number of firms and regions with a low number of firms. The latter case can be interpreted economically as a case in which local clusters exist. From these findings predictions about the spatial distribution of firms in an industry can be deduced. These predictions are tested empirically with the help of data for Germany. For half of the manufacturing industries it can be shown that local clusters exist in Germany. For all manufacturing industries the spatial distribution of firms is adequately described by the model developed on the basis of self-organisation.