The Advantages of Agglomeration in the Knowledge Economy: Empirical Evidence for German Municipalities

Do pools of highly-qualified workers in a region guarantee growth? This correlation often underpins policies to promote regional development and promote the settlement and networking of knowledge-intensive branches and companies. The empirical evidence presented by this article, however, shows that agglomeration advantages do not always arise. The success of such a cluster and network policy largely depends on the efficacy of regional agglomeration forces and is therefore not guaranteed.