Las actividades económicas intensivas en conocimiento y sus formas de localización en el territorio metropolitano: un estudio para la Región Metropolitana de Barcelona

Abstract

The discussion centered on the importance of the territory presents itself as an attractor of new and more specialized economic developments, recovers the value that has the territory to the concentration of economic activity in some regions over others. This phenomenon is studied for the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (MAB) and in particular how it’s located in the territory of knowledge-intensive economic sectors (KIS). The specific interest is in identifying the location patterns of these sectors and if they are dissimilar to those of other economic activities. For the analysis takes into account information for the period 1991-2001 on employment located in each of the municipalities in the Region linked to KIS activities, according to information from population censuses of 1991 and 2001 the National Institute of Statistics (INE). Nodes of employment were identified in these activities according to the methodology of reference thresholds (cut-offs), developed by Giuliano and Small (1991) in Los Angeles with adjustments made to the model García-López (2007) for the MAB. The results suggest that KIS has concentration phenomena, which tend to be higher than that of other economic sectors, except high-tech industries, which tend to be more dispersed. There was also a process of decentralization from the central urban area to the whole territory of the MAB.