1. The concentration factors of logistic activities
55th congress ERSA
World Renaissance: Changing roles for people and places
Lisbon, Portugal August 2015
The concentration factors of logistic activities
- The case of French warehousing companies
Sophie MASSON - Romain PETIOT
Univ. Perpignan Via Domitia
Acteurs, Ressources et Territoires dans le Développement (ART-Dev), UMR 5281
F-66860, Perpignan, France 1

2. 55th congress ERSA
World Renaissance: Changing roles for people and places
Lisbon, Portugal August 2015
Introduction
Logistic infrastructures: major tools of logistics services production at the core of the Supply Chain.
A strong geographic concentration of logistic infrastructures (Masson et Petiot, 2014).
What are the factors of polarization warehousing activities in France?
What is the role of agglomeration economies in the spatial concentration of warehousing activities?
The concentration factors of logistic activities - The case of French warehousing companies S. Masson / R. Petiot 2

3. Results, limits and perspectives
55th congress ERSA
World Renaissance: Changing roles for people and places
Lisbon, Portugal August 2015
Contents
Location of freight transport and storage activities on the French metropolitan territory
Theoretical framework and methodology for estimating agglomeration effects
Econometric tests
Results, limits and perspectives
The concentration factors of logistic activities - The case of French warehousing companies S. Masson / R. Petiot 3

4. Geographical concentration observed in a number of metropolitan areas:
55th congress ERSA
World Renaissance: Changing roles for people and places
Lisbon, Portugal August 2015
Location of freight transport and warehousing activities on the French metropolitan territory
Strong trends of the concentration-decentralization of the logistics warehousing activities.
Geographical concentration observed in a number of metropolitan areas:
The United-States (Dablanc and Ross, 2012 ; Cidell, 2010);
The United-Kingdom (McKinnon, 2009);
The Netherlands (Van den Heuvel et al., 2013);
Belgium (Strale, 2013a, b);
France (Masson and Petiot, 2014 ; Raimbault et al., 2013 ; Wemelbeke and Mariotte, 2007).
The concentration factors of logistic activities - The case of French warehousing companies S. Masson / R. Petiot 4

5. 55th congress ERSA
World Renaissance: Changing roles for people and places
Lisbon, Portugal August 2015
The concentration factors of logistic activities - The case of French warehousing companies S. Masson / R. Petiot 5

6. 55th congress ERSA
World Renaissance: Changing roles for people and places
Lisbon, Portugal August 2015
The concentration factors of logistic activities - The case of French warehousing companies S. Masson / R. Petiot 6

7. (percent of the national total)
55th congress ERSA
World Renaissance: Changing roles for people and places
Lisbon, Portugal August 2015
Job distribution of the warehousing activities by administrative region
(percent of the national total)
Specialization in jobs in warehousing in French regions  
The concentration factors of logistic activities - The case of French warehousing companies S. Masson / R. Petiot 7

8. 55th congress ERSA
World Renaissance: Changing roles for people and places
Lisbon, Portugal August 2015
Theoretical framework and methodology for estimating agglomeration effects
Hypothesis : the process of concentration of logistics activities results from the research of externalities.
Agglomeration economies.
2 elements of agglomeration economies :
The urbanisation economies related to the population concentration and the presence of a large number of companies from various sectors in the same zone  
 inter-sectorial agglomeration economies;
The location economies related to the presence of a large number of companies from the same industry in the same area: MAR externalities
 intra-sectorial agglomeration economies.
The concentration factors of logistic activities - The case of French warehousing companies S. Masson / R. Petiot 8

9. 55th congress ERSA
World Renaissance: Changing roles for people and places
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Theoretical framework and methodology for estimating agglomeration effects
Production model specification: Cobb-Douglass function
Urbanisation economies
𝑙𝑛 𝑃𝑇 𝑖𝑧 = ∝+ 𝛽𝑙𝑛 𝐷𝐸 𝑧 + 𝜀 𝑧 (1)
where 𝑃𝑇 𝑖𝑧 denotes the productivity at the labour cost for firm 𝑖 located in the employment zone 𝑧;
and 𝐷𝐸 𝑧 denotes the job density in the employment zone 𝑧.
𝑙𝑛 𝑃𝑇 𝑖𝑧 = ∝+ 𝛽𝑙𝑛 𝐷𝐸 𝑧 + 𝛾𝑙𝑛 𝑆𝑈𝑅𝐹 𝑧 + 𝜀 𝑧 (2)
where 𝑆𝑈𝑅𝐹 𝑧 denotes the surface area of the employment zone 𝑧 (to estimate the influence of the size of the employment area and the effect of density in the case of a given surface area).
𝑙𝑛 𝑃𝑇 𝑖𝑧 = ∝+ 𝛽𝑙𝑛 𝐷𝐸𝑇𝐵 𝑧 + 𝛾𝑙𝑛 𝑆𝑈𝑅𝐹 𝑧 + 𝜀 𝑧 (3)
where 𝐷𝐸𝑇𝐵 𝑧 denotes the companies density in the employment zone 𝑧. 9

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World Renaissance: Changing roles for people and places
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Theoretical framework and methodology for estimating agglomeration effects
Location economies
 Role of the intra-sectorial density
𝑙𝑛 𝑃𝑇 𝑖𝑧 = ∝+ 𝛽𝑙𝑛 𝐷𝐸𝐻 𝑧 + 𝛾𝑙𝑛 𝑆𝑈𝑅𝐹 𝑧 + 𝜀 𝑧 (4)
where 𝐷𝐸𝐻 𝑧 denotes the job density for the Freight transport and warehousing sector in the employment zone 𝑧.
𝑙𝑛 𝑃𝑇 𝑖𝑧 = ∝+ 𝛽𝑙𝑛 𝐷𝐸𝑇𝐵𝐻 𝑧 + 𝛾𝑙𝑛 𝑆𝑈𝑅𝐹 𝑧 + 𝜀 𝑧 (5)
where 𝐷𝐸𝑇𝐵𝐻 𝑧 denotes the density of the Freight transport and warehousing companies in the employment zone 𝑧.
 Role of specialisation
𝑙𝑛 𝑃𝑇 𝑖𝑧 = ∝+ 𝛽𝑙𝑛 𝑆𝑃𝐸𝐶𝐻 𝑧 + 𝜀 𝑧 (6)
where 𝑆𝑃𝐸𝐶𝐻 𝑧 denotes the job specialisation for the Freight transport and warehousing sector in the employment zone 𝑧.
Agglomeration economies
𝑙𝑛 𝑃𝑇 𝑖𝑧 = ∝+ 𝛽𝑙𝑛 𝐷𝐸 𝑧 + 𝛾𝑙𝑛 𝑆𝑃𝐸𝐶𝐻 𝑧 + 𝛿𝑙𝑛 𝑆𝑈𝑅𝐹 𝑧 + 𝜀 𝑧 (7) 10

11. 3. Econometric tests 55th congress ERSA Data
World Renaissance: Changing roles for people and places
Lisbon, Portugal August 2015
3. Econometric tests
Data
French annual survey of transport firms ( );
Group 52.1 "Warehousing and storage";
1,284 observations in the basic sample  546 observations after a database clean-up.
The dependent variable
productivity at the labour cost : annual turnover / annual remunerations.
Individual observations at employment zone level. 11

12. 55th congress ERSA
World Renaissance: Changing roles for people and places
Lisbon, Portugal August 2015
Economies d’urbanisation
Economies de localisation
Economies d’agglomération
Urbanisation economies
Location economies
Agglomeration economies 12

13. 55th congress ERSA
World Renaissance: Changing roles for people and places
Lisbon, Portugal August 2015
Urbanisation economies
Location economies
Agglomeration economies 13

14. Location deseconomies
55th congress ERSA
World Renaissance: Changing roles for people and places
Lisbon, Portugal August 2015
4. Resultats, limits and perspectives
Urbanisation economies
Weak relation between job density and productivity at the labour cost;
Weak relation between companies density and productivity at the labour cost;
Significantly negative elasticity (between -4.8% and -8.2%).
Location economies
Weak relation between Freight transport and warehousing job density and productivity at the labour cost;
Weak relation between Freight transport and warehousing companies density and productivity at the labour cost;
Significantly negative elasticity (between -4.7% and -7.2%).
High relation between job specialisation for the Freight transport and warehousing sector and productivity at the labour cost;
Highly significantly negative elasticity (between -20.4% and -20.7%)
Location deseconomies 14

15. Agglomeration deseconomies
55th congress ERSA
World Renaissance: Changing roles for people and places
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4. Resultats, limits and perspectives
Agglomeration economies
The geographical proximity, intra-sectorial or inter-sectorial, does not seem to be a cause of performance gains for warehousing companies in France
Agglomeration deseconomies 15

16. 4. Resultats, limits and perspectives
55th congress ERSA
World Renaissance: Changing roles for people and places
Lisbon, Portugal August 2015
4. Resultats, limits and perspectives
Limits:
Sample narrowness;
Exclusive observation of single-establishments companies;
Consideration of the productivity to the labor cost only;
Lack of some variables in the specifications
(market area, impact of the industrial chains...).
Perspectives:
Increasing sample;
Testing other production functions;
Improving dependent variable (TFP) ;
Estimating the role of the market size, the market accessibility or the equipment endowment, etc. 16

17. Thank you for your attention!
55th congress ERSA
World Renaissance: Changing roles for people and places
Lisbon, Portugal August 2015
Thank you for your attention! 17