Empirical Analysis of Relationship between High-Tech Industries and US Metropolitan Statistical Areas

This study highlights the spatial patterns of high-tech clusters and the effects of high-technology ("high-tech") industries on the urban economy in US Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) by employing a new Cluster Quotient index (CQ) and Seemingly Unrelated Regression model (SUR). The study finds that San Jose, CA and Washington, DC are the high-tech centers in the United States, and MSAs in California and Colorado play an important role in high-tech industries. After running the SUR model, the elasticity of the gross domestic product (GDP) is 0.15% for high-tech industries, and an increase of 1% of high-tech industries generates an increase of 0.29% in GDP at the 0.01 significance level. The findings of this article highlight that high-tech industries and the GDP interact with each other and have a positive two-way relationship. The results in this paper allow urban planners to develop policies to increase the number or proportion of high-tech industries for the economic growth of US MSAs.