Rethinking Agglomeration Economies and the Role of the Central City

This article investigates the unique locational attributes central cities are purported to have and the importance of agglomeration economies in intra-metropolitan site selection via a locational analysis of the public accounting industry in the Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul regions. Relying on data from a telephone survey of public accounting offices and interviews with public accounting executives and industry experts, findings suggest that the agglomeration argument has been overstated in explaining the industry's location and that the traditional conception of agglomeration economies as confined to the urban core is spatially restrictive.