Analysing the competitive advantage of cities in the Dutch randstad by urban market overlap

Abstract

In the modern economy, cities are assumed to be in fierce competition. In contrast with this, regional and national Dutch policymakers advocate the Randstad region as a single urban region in which economic complementarities are supposed to be numerous. Using insights from urban systems theory and urban ecology, we introduce an indicator to estimate the degree of revealed competition between cities based on patterns of inter-firm relations between these cities. Results indicate that urban competition is more the rule than the much-anticipated urban complementarities, as urban functional influences of the Randstad cities spatially overlap.