The lure of silicon Not all cities can be winners in the race to attract high-tech companies Site selection factors beyond the control of city planners are important to computer companies, according to a study of 317 cities from 1977 to 1992, published in the February European Economic Review. Cities nationwide have dedicated considerable public resources to lure high-tech industries. Now researchers at Brown University have found that many site-selection factors which are crucially important to highly mobile computer companies may be beyond the control of city planners.
Most cities have no computer production.
The industry is concentrated in a few locations and even within those areas there is a lot of mobility in a relatively short period of time. Henderson and Mark A. Beardsell, a graduate student at the time, analyzed statistics on the nation's 317 metropolitan areas for the years 1977 to 1992. During that period, employment in urban areas doubled then halved as the industry exploded with the introduction of personal computers then shrank as manufacturing moved to other countries. Four of the eight cities that had the largest computer employment in 1977 fell from that list during the time period covered by the study. Of the four cities that remained in the top eight, only San Jose and Orange County had increases.