Regional specialization and industry location in Europe: the possible patterns of core and periphery

Building on the most relevant and recent contribution in economic geography theory, panel data estimates are produced from a dataset relative to local units and employment of 18 manufacturing sectors for 140 European regions, with the aim of verifying existing patterns of localization and industrial specialization across Europe and discriminate across factors those presumed to affect localization of economic activity. Coupled with the descriptive analysis the results suggest a scenario that can be summarized as follows: economies of scale and agglomeration economies have a significant impact on concentration and more specifically both factors exert a strong and positive influence in the case of central regions, while a negative relationship between concentration and agglomeration economies comes out for the peripheral ones, second, regional specialization is found to be very much dependent from income, economies of scale in sectors present in the region, and transport costs; third it is not possible to state univocally that core and periphery patterns exist in industry localization: each macroarea exhibits a typical behavior, but some similarities emerge, so that the most concentrated sectors are both in the central and in the peripheral regions high-tech sectors, and traditional sectors are those designated to catch up the most in localization. The main findings are in line with the recently developed approaches of economic geography