Geoindustrial Clusters

There is bountiful scientific literature in economics and regional science on economic and regional clusters, addressing how and why businesses with similar or related activities locate close to one another. Classical examples of such clusters include the Silicon Valley, with respect to the tech industry, or central Italian districts (around Arezzo for instance) with respect to leather goods and footwear.

Clusters are analysed for a wide range of industries, but also non discriminately for a varying array of geographical scales, and there is still a lack of understanding of how the geographical scales of analysis (neighbourhood, city, region) relate to one another and impact the observed phenomenon, and to which extent the clusters are industrially bound or geographically consistent.

In this project, we would like to assess the possibility of developing a similar analysis to one conducted in London for the Paris region, in order to compare the scales of geoindustrial clustering in the two cities using similarly restricted datasets. This is also an opportunity to scope future potential partners in London and Paris to carry out a larger research project. An outcome of this project is thus the constitution of a European network of researchers interested in using firms' microdata to analyse the clustering of activity in cities.

Area

Built Environment

UCL leads

• Professor Elsa Arcaute, Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis