Publication

This paper analyzes changes in employment specialization in Germany for the period of 1976 to 2002 as a result of declining spatial transaction costs. The authors argue that production locations of goods and services which require face-to-face contacts will continue to be concentrated in core cities of large agglomerations. Meanwhile locations of standardized production activities with high codified information content will spread to more peripheral locations. The paper shows an increasing concentration of 'white collar' employees relative to 'blue collar' workers in core cities which even gains momentum in particular in the second half of the 1990s.