Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP7102
Authors: Philippe Martin; Thierry Mayer; Florian Mayneris
Abstract: This paper analyzes empirically a public policy promoting industrial clusters in France. Cluster policies have become popular in many countries but have not been extensively evaluated empirically. We use data on production and employment for firms that benefited from the policy and on firms that did not, both before and after the policy started. We first show that the policy selected firms in relative decline. Furthermore, our results suggest that the policy had no major effect on their productivity but may have helped them in terms of employment.
Keywords: clusters; localization; economies; public policies
JEL Codes: C23; R10; R11; R12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| LPS policy (H53) | TFP (F16) |
| LPS policy (H53) | Employment (J68) |
| LPS policy (H53) | Productivity growth (O49) |
| LPS policy targets backward regions and declining industries (L52) | Firm performance (L25) |