LOCATION DETERMINANTS OF BUSINESS SERVICES WITHIN A REGION WITH LARGE URBAN ASYMMETRIES

We carry out an analysis of the determinants of location for business services within a region, as opposed to the more usual comparisons among nations or regions. The expected higher concentration patterns at this level can be further biased when one or more urban centers have a disproportionate weight in regional economic activity. We propose an econometric analysis of location determinants (scale, urbanization and agglomeration economies, human capital and infrastructures) taking into account the influence of this kind of asymmetry. To this end, we identify one region with this characteristic (a disproportionate weight of the capital city’s share with respect to the total, as shown via several location coefficients), namely the Spanish region of Aragon. Using intra-regional data, our results show that including the capital city in the regressions or not alters the conclusions on the determinants of location.