Industrial Agglomeration and Regional Development. Local Productive Systems in Portugal

Abstract

In this paper we attempt to identify and locate the local production systems (LPS) that exist today in Portugal. We use the methodology proposed by Lainé (2000), adjusted and revised with subsequent contributions made by Giner, Santa María and Fuster (2006) for the analysis of the Valencian case and with the incorporation of new detection criteria of industrial agglomerations that have been used in other studies. The concelho is adopted as the basic unit for the LPS location analysis, and the Portuguese Classification of Economic Activities, Revision 3 (CAE Rev. 3), taking the information relative to 2012, as statistical classification for quantitative analysis. We conclude in detecting 25 LPS in Portugal, some of them specialized in more than one activity, concentrated mainly in the northern half of the country, in particular near the Atlantic coast, which represent approximately 15% of the Portuguese industry in terms of employment and number of establishments.