The Geography of Producer Services

Abstract

Today the service economy is evident in the developed countries. In particular, producer services are rapidly increasing their employment and their output. They influence “space”, and create a new spatial pattern of the urban system and the internal structure of the cities.This paper aims to review the studies on the geography of producer services in Europe and North America, especially in the UK and the USA. The author emphasizes the theoretical approaches. The main themes are:1) Export and economic base theory.2) Office location.3) Industrial linkages.4) Social and spatial divisions of labor.5) Structural changes.6) Regional uneven development.7) Urban systems.Before reviewing these themes, we must consider the economists' attitude to service industries. Their attitude is generally negative toward service industries, and does not properly evaluate the relationship between manufacturing and service industries. Today, this relationship has begun to be modified and regarded as interdependent because producer services influence the performance of manufacturing.J. N. Marshall and P. W. Daniels are eagerly studying producer services, but the approach of Marshall is different from that of Daniels, because Marshall's approach stems from“industrial linkages”, while Daniels' comes from“office location”. They have studied each theme and recognized producer services as important. Marshall stresses the linkage between manufacturing and producer services, and Daniels emphasizes the offices which are occupied by producer services.The findings of the review are as follows:1) In general, economic geographers have not regarded services as a“basic industry” until now because consumer services were prominent. But recently some geographers are acknowledging the interregional trade in producer services and look on it as an important economic base for all metropolitan areas.2) The location of producer services is associated with office location, because services are traded by means of offices. For this reason, some geographers argue that the location of producer services influences office location especially in the urban core region.3) Producer services are closely related to manufacturing or other industries. This relationship is starting to be emphasized these days. Furthermore, recent works stress that producer services are not necessarily dependent on manufacturing, and the linkages between them are interdependent.4) As producer services grow, their functions are differentiating. And it is now pointed out that spatial division of labor has emerged here as well as in manufacturing. But according to the recent literature, the pattern of spatial division of labor of producer services is little different from that of manufacturing, because the“peripheral”function of producer services includes also high-order activities.5) Recently, some researchers have explained the prominence of producer services in the context of“structural changes”. This is the reason why producer services growth is associated with flexible production systems or corporate restructuring which are derived from structural changes in the economy.6) The discussion about spatial division of labor in producer services has developed into an interest in regional uneven development. Some geographers attribute this fact to the uneven distribution of producer service employment and facilities, and they argue that the core area benefits from much employment and high-order functions of the producer service, while the peripheral area is disadvantaged by the poor performance of producer service activities.7) The relationship between producer services and urban systems is now considered very important because producer services create a new hierarchical pattern.