Jurisdictional Advantage

In this paper, we define jurisdictional advantage, the recognition that location is critical to firms' innovative success and that every location has unique assets that are not easily replicated. Drawing from the well-developed literature on corporate strategy, we consider analogies to cities in their search for competitive advantage. We argue that jurisdictions may benefit from a strategic orientation that considers the unique and not easily replicated assets, resources, and skifi set contained in a jurisdiction; the position of the jurisdiction vis-à-vis the hierarchy of cities in the national and world economy; and the maximization of wages and property values within the jurisdiction. We review recent advances in our understanding of patterns of urban specialization and the composition of activities within cities, which suggest strategies that may generate economic growth and some strategies to avoid. This paper then considers the role of firms and their responsibifity to jurisdictions in light of the net benefits received from place-specific externalities, and it concludes by considering the challenges to implementing jurisdictional advantage.