ABSTRACT
In large cities in developed countries, the share of manufacturing has declined drastically in the last decades, and the share of services has grown. Many manufacturing plants have closed or moved to lower-cost locations. Manufacturing is pushed out of cities because of space constraints, rising costs of land and real estate, and an increasing environmental awareness; at the same time it is pulled to other regions because of cost advantages, availability of space, and/or better transportation possibilities. The ongoing process of globalisation seems to speed up the shift of manufacturing employment to lower-cost locations. ‘Routinised’ activities tend to disappear more rapidly than complex manufacturing.
