ABSTRACT
Now that we’ve approached the individual location decision within the context of firms’ goals, the needs and markets of the activity at hand, and the characteristics of places, we’re ready to pursue a different, complementary approach. The characteristics of places-availability of local resources, labor, and markets-influence the location and competitiveness of every activity located within the region. Thus, we can look at the aggregate pattern of regional industrial activity as a consequence of regional characteristics, as well as the reflection of all the industrial location decisions made to date in the region. This macroeconomic approach, aggregating decisions across actors, is the focus of this chapter.
