School of Economics & Management University of Lisbon Department of Economics CarlosAmélia Pestana Branco Barros & João & NicolasCarlos Lopes Peypoch The Economic Performance of Clustered and Non ClusteredA Comparative Firms Analysis along theof Productivity different PhasesChange inof Italian the Cluster and Life Cycle: ThePortuguese Portuguese Airports Cork Industry Case WP 26/2013/DE/UECE/GHES ________________________________ _________________________ WP 006/2007/DE _________________________________________________________ WORKING PAPERS ISSN Nº 0874-4548 The Economic Performance of Clustered and Non Clustered Firms along the different Phases of the Cluster Life Cycle: The Portuguese Cork Industry Case Amélia Branco 1 and João Carlos Lopes 2 1 ISEG - School of Economics and Management, Lisboa University and GHES – Group of Social and Economic History, Lisbon, Portugal
[email protected] 2 ISEG - School of Economics and Management, Lisboa University and UECE - Research Unit on Complexity and Economics, Lisbon, Portugal
[email protected] November, 2013 ABSTRACT This paper is about the relative economic performance of clustered and non-clustered companies in the different phases of the cluster life cycle. It starts with the explanation of a puzzling localization behaviour, namely that most of the Portuguese cork manufacturing firms are concentrated in Santa Maria da Feira, a small county in the north of the country, whereas the bulk of the cork is produced in the south (Alentejo and Ribatejo). The historical roots and past and path dependence of the trajectory of this cluster are examined, as well as the identification of its life cycle phases. A comparative analysis of the economic performance of firms localized in Santa Maria da Feira and in other regions of the country is then made, using labour productivity data for a long time span of several decades.