Heritage and Agglomeration:The Akron Tire Cluster Revisited

We use new data on the location and background of entrants into the U.S. tireindustry to analyze the factors that caused the industry to be so regionally concentratedaround Akron, Ohio, a small city with no particular advantages for tire production. Weanalyze the states where firms entered and for the Ohio entrants the counties where theyoriginated and entered, and we conduct various analyses of how proximity to other tirefirms and to demanders affected the longevity of tire producers. We also examine howthe heritage of the Ohio entrants influenced their longevity. Our findings suggest that theAkron tire cluster grew primarily through a process of organizational reproduction andheredity rather than through agglomeration economies, as has been commonly posited byscholars of the industry...