Evaluating the influence of amenities on the location of manufacturing establishments in urban areas

Public and private planners concerned with economic growth and development are increasingly marketing intangible characteristics. This paper investigates the notion that amenities influence manufacturers' location choices in urban areas. If amenities affect wages, land values and other costs, then amenities will influence location decisions. Using urban, county-level, Census data, regression models were estimated for the location of small and medium-sized manufacturing establishments. Holding constant scale and agglomeration economies, amenities, measured by a quality-of-life index, are found to influence manufacturers' location with the effects varying by industry. Labour-intensive industries are more strongly attracted to high-amenity urban locations.