Relationships among homogeneous clusters in adjoining cities

Abstract

This paper discusses relations between industrial clusters of the same type in six cities in China’s Pearl River Delta. The homogenous clusters in metropolitan areas are negatively related to one another. In other words, if the size of a cluster (measured by LQ in terms of the cluster’s number of firms) in one city becomes larger, the size of the same type of clusters that are located in the adjoining cities will become smaller. Furthermore, such negative relations would be intensified if the peripheral cities had clusters similar to those of the metropolitan areas in question.