Industrial Corridors: A Marketing Device, Dynamic Economic Regions, or Both ?

Abstract

The answer to the question raised in the title of this paper is, of course, both.　In this paper we explore the several values of a widely used term “industrial corridor”.　We find that even though this term is frequently and often carelessly used, it has real value for understanding marketing potentials and economic complexities in a specified area.　As a marketing device it contributes to “reputation” and “buzz” and when qualified by terms such as “technology,” it can help brand an area.　When used to describe a dynamic economic region the notion of a corridor suggests a place where firms of a similar type will locate, where linked firms might locate, where there is an emphasis on development of appropriate transport, energy, and other infrastructure and where intra-corridor networking is a fact of everyday life.　In this paper we evaluate the place of corridors in the literature of regional science and in the applied science of regional economic development.　To bring focus to the discussion we will draw upon the example of the Tucson Technology Corridor.

JEL Classification: P25, O14, O21, O30, R12