A Review of the Empirical Studies on Producer Services

Today, the service economy is prominent in the developed countries. In particular, producer services are rapidly increasing their employment and their outpt. They influence "space", and create a new spatial pattern of the urban systems and the internal structure of the city. The economist's attitude toward service industries is generally negative. This is also true in Japan. Economists do not properly evaluate the relationship between manufacturing and service industries. Today, this relationship has been modified and is regarded as interdependent because producer services influence the performance of manufacturing. This paper aims to review the empirical studies on the geography of producer services in Europe, North America, and Japan. The author classified these studies into five themes. They are : 1) The Iocational trend of producer services. 2) The performance of producer services in the core area and the periphery. 3) The office activities of producer services. 4) The urban systems from the viewpoint on producer services. 5) The spatial structure of producer services inside the city. The findings of the review are as follows : 1) A number of the studies directed at the locational patterns of producer services are mainly focused on the unevenly distributed employment. 2) The interest in uneven distribution of producer service employment has motivated the studies about the difference of producer service activities between the "core" area and the peripheral zone. 3) Producer services are closely related with manufacturing or other industries. Scholars now emphasize the importance of this relationship. In this reason, the location of producer services is associated with the office location of other activities. Recent literature points out that the industrial linkages are not only the forward linkages but also backward ones in the production processes. 4) The relationship between producer services and urban systems is now evaluated very important because producer services create a new hierarchical pattern. Some authors argue that the hierarchy of consumer service functions supports the central place theory, but not producer services. 5) The growing prominence of producer services has stimulated the studies of producer service activities in urban areas, especially in the CBD. It is pointed out that many advanced services, including producer services, influence the structure of the city. We must consider whether these empirical results about the geography of producer services in other countries can be duly adapted in Japan.