Spatial Co-location Patterns of Aerospace Industry Firms in Mexico

The Aerospace Industry (AI) is considered strategic in Mexico due to the opportunities it offers Mexican business communities to insert themselves into a global value chain of high competitive standards. Due to its production specificities, it needs to develop a chain of suppliers that may lead to externalities or intentional knowledge transfer and the creation of networks with local economies and business co-locations. This paper aims to investigate patterns of co-location of firms and establishments around the AI across Mexico. The analysis applies spatial statistical techniques to detect spatial agglomerations of different industrial sectors related to the AI. The findings include a detailed description of the spatial distribution of AI co-location patterns in terms of industrial branch and firm size. Results indicate that the AI industry is mainly spatially co-located by itself and by industries in the electronics, machinery and equipment sectors. Our findings could potentially provide input to policy makers in terms of clustering and public policies according to regionally productive vocations.