An empirical analyis of district external economies based on a structure-conduct-performance framework

Since its appearance, the concept of the Marshallian industrial district has attracted growing interest which has manifested itself in a large body of theoretical literature. However, empirical research with statistical methods applied to the inner working and performance of districts is scarce, probably due to the difficulty associated with the measuring of some of their intrinsic elements. The aim of this paper is to show the feasibility of empirically testing the internal dynamics of the Marshallian industrial district. To this end, we specify a model which is based on a structure-conduct-performance framework with multiple feedbacks. This model, which consists of three equations, is then estimated using data from a sample of 45 industrial districts located in the Spanish region of Castilla-La Mancha for the years 1999 and 2004.