A measure for identifying substantial geographic concentrations

摘要

Regional industrial policy emphasizes the notion of building on existing concentrations\udof competitive firms. A range of measures to identify such concentrations has been put forward\udin the literature. These measures, however, do not identify substantial concentrations\udwhich have the best potential for further development, tend to concentrate on scale measured\udby employment, and are applied using data for pre-specified administrative boundaries. This\udpaper presents a new concentration index that identifies substantial concentrations and utilizes\udinformation on both the number and size of plants. It also proposes a method for generating\udrelevant industry-specific spatial units