ABSTRACT
This chapter presents detailed case studies of two areas, northeastern New Jersey and Delaware, that have been successful in attracting many back offices and data processing centers of financial firms, especially those of New York-based firms. Non-cost attributes of locations, such as labor force availability and quality, regulation, climate, and telecommunications quality, play an important role in making locations attractive for particular back office and data processing facilities. The success of northeastern New Jersey in competing for the back office and data processing centers of New York-based financial firms is an important component of New Jersey's general economic success in the last decade. The location of most back office and data processing facilities quite close to Manhattan indicates the importance of proximity for New York firms. The desire to facilitate interaction between company headquarters and data processing and back office operations keeps many New York firms from relocating these facilities too far from the center.
