RESIDENTIAL AMENITIES, FIRM LOCATION AND ECONOMIC-DEVELOPMENT

Amenities are regarded as increasingly important to the location decis ions of certain types of firm, Yet they are often ignored in economic development research because of the assumption that they attract only workers, and that this workforce, in turn, attracts firms, This paper argues for a reduced form model of the impact of amenities on corporat e location, When testing such a model at the intra-metropolitan scale, it will be necessary to measure amenities not only at the potential w orksite, but also where employees are likely to live, This paper tests such a firm location model using a sample of municipalities in northe rn New Jersey, Results support the hypothesis that firms evaluate cert ain amenities with respect to the likely residential locations of thei r employees.