Firm Productivity and Agglomeration Economies : Evidence from Egyptian Data

This paper attempts to shed the light on the nexus between firms’ productivity and economies of agglomeration in Egypt. Using a large dataset of firms in 342 firms’ four-digit activities in 27 regions (62,108 firms), we introduce three measures of agglomeration which are urbanization or firm diversi...

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Main Authors:	Badr, Karim, Rizk, Reham, Zaki, Chahir
Format:	Journal Article
Published:	Taylor and Francis 2019
Subjects:	PRODUCTIVITY FIRM PRODUCTIVITY AGGLOMERATION ECONOMICS AGGLOMERATION ECONOMIES
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32356

id	okr-10986-32356
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-323562021-05-25T10:54:44Z Firm Productivity and Agglomeration Economies : Evidence from Egyptian Data Badr, Karim Rizk, Reham Zaki, Chahir PRODUCTIVITY FIRM PRODUCTIVITY AGGLOMERATION ECONOMICS AGGLOMERATION ECONOMIES This paper attempts to shed the light on the nexus between firms’ productivity and economies of agglomeration in Egypt. Using a large dataset of firms in 342 firms’ four-digit activities in 27 regions (62,108 firms), we introduce three measures of agglomeration which are urbanization or firm diversification measured by the number of firms by governorate, localization and specialization measured by the average productivity by governorate and sector (generating externalities and knowledge spillovers) and finally competition measured by the number of firm operating in the same governorate and the same sector. We find strong evidence for the existence of agglomeration in Egypt after controlling for firm age, location, economic activity and legal status. In the Egyptian context, productivity spillovers gained from agglomeration measures outweighed the negative effects of competition implied by congestion. The latter is chiefly due to the lack of good infrastructure. When regressions are run by firm size, location and activity, our main findings show first that micro and small firms are more likely to benefit from localization and diversification compared to medium and large firms. Service firms benefit more from high level of diversification while manufacturing firms gain more benefits from knowledge spillovers and specialization in Egypt. 2019-09-09T16:51:24Z 2019-09-09T16:51:24Z 2019-05-10 Journal Article Applied Economics 0003-6846 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32356 CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Taylor and Francis Publications & Research :: Journal Article Publications & Research Middle East and North Africa Egypt, Arab Republic of
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
topic	PRODUCTIVITY FIRM PRODUCTIVITY AGGLOMERATION ECONOMICS AGGLOMERATION ECONOMIES
spellingShingle	PRODUCTIVITY FIRM PRODUCTIVITY AGGLOMERATION ECONOMICS AGGLOMERATION ECONOMIES Badr, Karim Rizk, Reham Zaki, Chahir Firm Productivity and Agglomeration Economies : Evidence from Egyptian Data
geographic_facet	Middle East and North Africa Egypt, Arab Republic of
description	This paper attempts to shed the light on the nexus between firms’ productivity and economies of agglomeration in Egypt. Using a large dataset of firms in 342 firms’ four-digit activities in 27 regions (62,108 firms), we introduce three measures of agglomeration which are urbanization or firm diversification measured by the number of firms by governorate, localization and specialization measured by the average productivity by governorate and sector (generating externalities and knowledge spillovers) and finally competition measured by the number of firm operating in the same governorate and the same sector. We find strong evidence for the existence of agglomeration in Egypt after controlling for firm age, location, economic activity and legal status. In the Egyptian context, productivity spillovers gained from agglomeration measures outweighed the negative effects of competition implied by congestion. The latter is chiefly due to the lack of good infrastructure. When regressions are run by firm size, location and activity, our main findings show first that micro and small firms are more likely to benefit from localization and diversification compared to medium and large firms. Service firms benefit more from high level of diversification while manufacturing firms gain more benefits from knowledge spillovers and specialization in Egypt.
format	Journal Article
author	Badr, Karim Rizk, Reham Zaki, Chahir
author_facet	Badr, Karim Rizk, Reham Zaki, Chahir
author_sort	Badr, Karim
title	Firm Productivity and Agglomeration Economies : Evidence from Egyptian Data
title_short	Firm Productivity and Agglomeration Economies : Evidence from Egyptian Data
title_full	Firm Productivity and Agglomeration Economies : Evidence from Egyptian Data
title_fullStr	Firm Productivity and Agglomeration Economies : Evidence from Egyptian Data
title_full_unstemmed	Firm Productivity and Agglomeration Economies : Evidence from Egyptian Data
title_sort	firm productivity and agglomeration economies : evidence from egyptian data
publisher	Taylor and Francis
publishDate	2019
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32356
_version_	1764476377340313600

Firm Productivity and Agglomeration Economies : Evidence from Egyptian Data

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