Metropolitan regions and export renewal

Abstract

Metropolitan regions are advantageous location for new export products due to factors such as external economies, diversified industry environment and a large share of skilled labour. This is the main assumption of this paper. What happens to these products when the technology becomes common knowledge? Using empirical data on exports, we find that products with a high specialisation in the metropolitan region have a tendency to be successful in the non-metropolitan regions subsequent years. Also, this export product diffusion does not seem to be related to a location in the immediate proximity to the metropolitan region. Instead, the recipient regions are mainly characterised as being centrally located in its labour market region, having a high share of highly educated individuals. Features related product standardisation such as a large manufacturing sector and low labour costs cannot be distinguished as prominent features.