Producer services in the urban core and suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona

Recent research shows growing concentration of corporate decision-making functions in metropolitan cores and strong relationships between managerial activities and producer services. The paper investigates the location of 12 disaggregated producer service sectors in Phoenix, Arizona. Concentration of legal, accounting and computer services underpin the economy of the inner core. Second-order unweighted and employment-weighted distance-based clustering of establishments in each sector are calculated. Clustering of legal establishments is particularly high and there is a consistent pattern of higher clustering levels among the larger establishments of most sectors. Establishment size in several sectors is inversely related to distance from the centre. These results are interpreted as evidence that large establishments are drawn to central locations to exploit information externalities. Concentration in the inner core, clustering and the sensitivity of establishment size to distance from the CBD are significantly correlated.