The spatial dimension of productivity : Connecting the dots across industries, firms and places

This working paper offers a synthesis of the current knowledge on the determinants ofproductivity. It carefully reviews both “spatial” (e.g. agglomerations, infrastructure,geography) and “aspatial” (e.g. human capital, labour regulations, industry-levelinnovation and dynamism) productivity drivers and demonstrates how the underlyingspatial dynamics behind the latter group makes all productivity determinants “spatial”in nature. The paper demonstrates that productivity is inherently a spatialphenomenon and its understanding without a local/regional dimension is incomplete