Hierarchical Clusters: Emergence and Success of the Automotive Districts of Barcelona and São Paulo JORDI CATALAN TOMÀS FERNÁNDEZ-DE-SEVILLA This article analyzes the causes for the long-term success of the Barcelona (Spain) and São Paulo (Brazil) automobile industry clus- ters. Comparative evidence suggests that both clusters emerged in the early twentieth century through the formation of Marshallian external economies. Nevertheless, neither Barcelona nor São Paulo reached mass automobile production before 1950. The consolida- tion of the clusters required the adoption of strategic industrial policy during the golden age of capitalism. This policy succeeded in encouraging a few hub firms to undertake mass production by using domestic parts. The strategic policy also favored these leading corporations transferring their technical, organizational, and distri- bution capabilities, which in turn amplified the advantages of the clusters. Local institutions did not make a significant contribution. © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. doi:10.1017/eso.2019.27 Published online February 4, 2020 JORDI CATALAN is full professor of Economic History at the University of Barcelona. Contact information: Department of Economic History, Faculty of Economics, Universitat de Barcelona, Diagonal 690, 08034 Barcelona (Catalonia), Spain. E-mail:
[email protected]. TOMÀS FERNÁNDEZ-DE-SEVILLA is the Kurgan-van Hentenryk Postdoctoral Fellow in Business History at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management.