A key goal for many public policies is to increase the competitiveness of local industries and make areas more attractive for firm location and development. However, little is known about firm relocations even though they are of crucial importance in understanding economic development within a region and the effectiveness of the policies proposed. This paper contributes to filling this gap by looking further into the firm relocation process by estimating models for the decision to relocate and to where. The studied area consists of four counties on the western coast of Norway that generate about half of Norway’s traditional exports. Changes in firm relocations for approximately 16,500 firms within this study area are analyzed. In addition, interviews with firms that relocated are also carried out to support the findings from the model. The results indicate that the decision to relocate is influenced by a firm’s internal and external characteristics such as agglomeration. The results are relevant for regional planning and development as firms seem to have different preferences regarding what makes a location attractive or not. The results might serve as input in land-use interaction models, where changes in firm location patterns from transport investments are estimated.

中文翻译：

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企业选择向何处以及为什么选择移动？来自挪威的经验证据

许多公共政策的主要目标是提高本地产业的竞争力，并使区域对公司的位置和发展更具吸引力。然而，尽管公司搬迁对于理解一个地区的经济发展和所提议的政策的有效性至关重要，但人们对其知之甚少。本文通过估计用于重新安置的决策模型和位置来进一步研究公司的重新安置过程，从而为填补这一空白做出了贡献。研究区域包括挪威西海岸的四个县，约占挪威传统出口的一半。分析了该研究区域内大约16,500家公司的公司搬迁变化。此外，还对搬迁的公司进行了采访，以支持该模型的发现。结果表明，搬迁决定受企业内部和外部特征（例如集聚）的影响。这些结果与区域规划和发展有关，因为公司似乎对使地理位置具有吸引力或不具有吸引力的偏好有所不同。结果可以用作土地利用相互作用模型的输入，其中可以估计运输投资带来的公司位置模式的变化。