The knowledge-intensive economic sectors: identifying the location patterns in the metropolitan area: a study for the metropolitan region of Barcelona

Abstract

The territory, in particular metropolitan areas, has a growing importance as space attractors for new and more specialized economic development. This roll leads to the necessary reflection about patterns of agglomeration of economic sectors that are leading this process: knowledge-intensive economic sectors (KIS). It responds to the cluster of economic activities with a greater degree of specialization ofthe labor market than other activities. This phenomena is studied for the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona (MRB) in the period 1991-2001 using the census data on locally based workplaces. Nodes concentration of employment in KIS was identified using the methodology of reference thresholds (cut-offs). That methodology was developed by Giuliano and Small (1991) in Los Angeles; the methodology was adjusted by Garcia-Lopez (2007) for the MRB. The results suggest that the concentration phenomena of KIS tends to be higher than that of other economic sectors, except for high-tech industries, which tend to be more dispersed. The work confirms a process of decentralization of these sectors from the central conurbation to the whole territory of the MRB, where absolute values are higher in non-employment nodes and percentage values are higher in employment nodes.