The Origin and Location of Entrants in the Evolution of the U.S. Tire Industry

During its early and formative years, the U.S. tire industry was heavily concentrated around Akron, Ohio. We test the extent to which entrants in Ohio were attracted to the Akron area by agglomeration benefits, contributing to a self-reinforcing process envisioned in many modern theories of geography. We trace the geographic and intellectual heritage of the Ohio entrants and analyze the factors underlying their creation and location at the county level. Our findings suggest it was the creation of entrants, largely spurred by the supply of entrepreneurs, and not the attraction of entrants to the Akron area that fueled the agglomeration of the industry there.