Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation,
Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies

Abstract: An empirical method to identify the existence of a spatial cluster is proposed. The method, based upon regression analysis, offers researchers to categorise regions, municipalities, or cities with respect to their over- or under-representation in number of establishments and employment for any arbitrary industry. It is suggested that a necessary condition for the existence of a cluster entails a significant overrepresentation in both the number of establishments as well as in employment for any given sector in a region. Furthermore, this over-representation should be related to the size of the region. The categorisation generated by the proposed method has evident policy implications for any region aiming at developing and supporting a potential or emerging cluster. This paper offers an analysis of the ICT-sector in Sweden, where the proposed method is used to identify potential clusters in the 81 Swedish functional regions. A comparison in time between 1990 and 2000 is also presented.

Keywords: Industrial clusters; agglomeration; economies of scale; ICT sector; functional region; Sweden

JEL-codes: L10; M13; O31; O40

22 pages, November 24, 2004

Full text files

cesiswp12.pdf  

Download statistics

• Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies
• Home page for this series

Questions (including download problems) about the papers in this series should be directed to Vardan Hovsepyan ()
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson ().

This page generated on 2024-02-21 12:08:38.