Economic Clustering and Urban Form: The Case of Hamilton, Ontario

A body of literature has emerged over the past three decades to quantify the sprouting form of our contemporary cities. This paper adds to this literature by investigating the urban form of the City of Hamilton in Ontario, Canada. The novelty of this research is the use of firm micro data for the examination of the types of economic clustering and their influence on urban form. Furthermore, we devise a statistical approach for the identification of agglomeration economies and for the examination of the evolution of urban form. Our findings suggest: (1) a strong existence of agglomeration economies, (2) an emerging multinucleated urban form and (3) that the changing urban form affects travel behavior in Hamilton.