Logistics agglomeration in the US

Governments around the world are investing significant resources in the development of logistics clusters. This paper develops a methodology for identifying them and applies it to answer several lingering questions in the context of the US. It contributes to a more general debate in the general industrial clusters literature: while many authors see industrial clusters growing, others see them dispersing. To answer this and related questions in the context of logistics clusters the paper first analyzes the prevalence of such clusters using a two-index methodology to identify clusters in the US. Evidence of increasing concentration of the logistics industry in clusters in the US over time is tested and documented. In addition, some evidence that logistics activities in counties inside clusters show higher growth than counties outside clusters is found.

•Governments around the world are investing in logistics clusters.•Logistics companies are clustering geographically rather than dispersing over time.•A new two-index methodology for identifying logistics clusters is tested and validated using US data.•Logistics operations inside logistics clusters are growing faster than operations outside such clusters.•The concentration of the US logistics industry seems to be increasing over time.