Interpreting Producer Service Suburbanization: The Public Accounting Industry in Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul

For some analysts the suburban expansion of producer services is evidence that suburbs have come to replace cities as centers of highly advanced activities. Others maintain that city and suburban producer services remain distinct, with the most advanced producer services bound to the urban core by agglomeration economies. This paper examines these conflicting views of suburbanization via an analysis of the intrametropolitan location of public accounting employment, establishments, and activities in Chicago and the Twin Cities. Specifically, it seeks to determine if an intrametropolitan spatial division of labor exists within the industry and assesses the role of proximity and face-to-face contact in the location and production of public accounting services. Findings indicate both readings of producer service suburbanization are overly simplistic with respect to public accounting and illustrate that the benefits of proximity and spatial clustering are not confined to a particular district or jurisdiction but are broader in scope.