Measuring the geographical concentration factor of factory industries and the importance of industrial specialization in the provinces of Iran

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to study the regional imbalance coefficient and spatial inequality in the Iranian industrial sector. In other words, the evaluation of how the industry's spatial distribution is structured has been studied in a geographical context. In this study, Ellison and Glycer Index, LQ Index, Gini Index, and Herfindahl Geographical Concentration Index were used to measure industrial spatial imbalance coefficient. The findings indicate that the distribution of industrial activities in the provinces of the country is not appropriate. According to the results of the calculation of these indices, the highest geographical concentration coefficient is related to the printing industry and the lowest concentration coefficient is related to the production of non-metallic mineral products. Also, according to the research results, 20 ISIC Second Code industries have a strong geographic focus, accounting for more than half of the industries. The calculations also show that the three provinces of Tehran, Isfahan and Khuzestan have the highest industrial space concentration. According to the location factor index, the highest location factor is in the coke industry, petroleum products and nuclear fuels.

Keywords

• spatial concentration
• industrial specialization
• gini coefficient
• lq index