Italian Firms' Location in Technological Industrial Districts: A Robust Analysis

Recent debates in economic-statistical research concern the relationship between firms' performance and their capabilities to develop new technologies and products. Technological clusters literature argues that economic performance and firms' level of technological intensity strongly affect firms’ geographical location. Indeed, firms with different levels of technology often locate close to production facilities and tend to spread in different areas. This paper deals with the role of technology in firms’ location strategies and develops a model to identify the relationships between firms’ location strategy in industrial districts and their technology level and performance (sales, added value, etc.). We use a robust logit model based on the forward search algorithm that allows us not only to model this relationship but also to test the estimates stability. This method reveals how the fitted regression model depends on extreme units and the results show how the firms' geographical agglomeration (cluster) is widely heterogeneous and strongly influenced by firms’ technology level.