MANUFACTURING LOCATION IN A POLYCENTRIC URBAN AREA - A STUDY IN THE COMPOSITION AND ATTRACTIVENESS OF EMPLOYMENT SUBCENTERS

Attention has shifted to the role of subsidiary urban centers as the n ew ''spatial nodes'' within metropolitan areas as manufacturing employ ment has dispersed away from its traditional central city locations ov er the past decades. Understanding the character and evolving function s of these new ''centers'' is crucial to predicting (or influencing) f uture metropolitan spatial patterns. This paper explores the nature an d role of the principal employment centers within the Dallas-Fort Wort h region from the perspective of locational choices by firms in three- digit SIC Manufacturing. First the centers are empirically identified via a methodology that ''maps'' employment land-use polygons onto a zi p code-level geography. The industrial attributes of firms choosing su ch centers are then investigated using multinomial logit. The general attractiveness to firms in manufacturing of various spatial characteri stics of these centers are next studied through a discrete choice fram ework. Finally, a ''mixed'' conditional logit model is specified and i mplemented to identify special affinities between a type of firm and a kind of location. Results of the exercise enable judgment on the util ity of the employment center concept and on industrial location behavi or in a modem urban context.