The MAUP in the firm’s location and the economies of agglomeration
The analysis of the impact of agglomeration economies on firm location
is one of the main issues on Regional Economics. However, despite of the broad
and solid theoretical developments in this area, empirical findings show a worrying
lack of robustness. This paper examines one possible cause: The Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP). To that end, it is estimated the influence of agglomeration
economies on the firm location in Spain for five different divisions of the territory.
The results indicate that the estimates are very sensitive to the definition of areas of
analysis which cannot be neglected to contrast the hypotheses. Finally, it proposes a
methodology to reduce the drawbacks of MAUP and exploit his potential benefits.
Check other articles from the issue Monográfico 2009 'Innovación, emprendimiento y territorio' or from other issues.