Geographical determinants of the creation of manufacturing firms: The regions of Spain

The complexity of the mechanisms determining the entry and exit of firms increases when geographical differences in production structure, human capital and unemployment are considered. Inter-reginal variations in the rate of the new firms start-ups within each industrial activity persist through long periods of time, a circumstance that indicates that there are non-conjunctural determinants to the capacity of regions to create new industrial projects. This study is concerned with establishing the influence o geographical variables on the setting up of new manufacturing establishments. The manufacturing industries (NACE R-25) in the Spanish regions (NUTS-2) have been taken as the units of analysis for the period 1980-1992.