Localization Economies and Establishment Scale: A Dartboard Approach

This paper reexamines the relationship between geographic concentration of an industry (localization) and establishment scale. We use an approach that builds on Ellison & Glaeser’s (1997) dartboard location model to measure localization. Contrary to Holmes & Stevens’s (2002) pioneering analysis based on employment location quotients, but in line with the predictions that follow from Alfred Marshall’s concept of localization economies, we find evidence that plants located in areas where an industry exhibits concentration in excess are smaller than plants in the same industry outside such areas.