CHANGES IN RURAL VRRSUS URBAN MANUFACTURING EMPLOYMENT : A SHIFT AND SHARE ANALYSIS ON FRENCH DATA

From a shift and share analysis on French data, we examine whether the differential of changes in manufacturing employment between urban and rural areas can be due to differences in their sectoral composition rather than to space-specific factors affecting all sectors indifferently. The increase in the share of manufacturing employment in rural areas is shown to be ascribable to advantages specific to low density territories. These rural advantages are not negligible while that such areas attract firms belonging rather to declining sectors. Conversely, urban centers, and especially the largest ones, combine a positive composition effect (i.e. preferential urban location of the most dynamic sectors) with a negative geographical effect (i.e. a tendency for urban industrial employment to fall). The urban fringes provide attracting characteristics for location of any industrial sector without the existing sectoral structure playing a significant role either positively or negatively.