Getting there fast: Globalization, intercontinental flights and location of headquarters

Information exchanges across firms within cities are considered to be one of the major agglomeration forces in the regional economics literature. In addition, the quality of transport infrastructures arises as one of the major determinants in the location decisions of firms across cities and hence on urban economic growth. However, the significance of information exchanges between cities and the role of airports as a mean of managing such information efficiently has received much less attention. We deal with these issues through the empirical analysis of the determinants of the location of large firms´ headquarters across major European urban areas, focusing the attention on the attractiveness of a city for large firms due to the supply of non-stop intercontinental flights.