THE INTRAMETROPOLITAN LOCATION OF NEW OFFICE FIRMS

Empirical evidence on the determinants of new office-firm location within a metropolitan area is of interest for several reasons. To a large extent, the future well-being of central cities will depend on how successful they are in attracting new office development and in maintaining what they presently have. Accordingly, an understanding of new office location is useful to policymakers concerned with anticipating the future needs of central cities. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the office location and new firm location literature by presenting and testing a model to explain the intrametropolitan location of new office firms. The theoretical model makes location choice a function of spatial variation in variables that affect profits. To test the theoretical model, a Tobit model is derived and estimated separately for independent and branch offices established in metropolitan Atlanta from 1981 to 1983. -from Authors