Spatial Economic Impacts of International Head Office Locations: a Case-study of Amsterdam South

Introduction The demand for office locations has been growing rapidly during recent decades. This has been the consequence of several important developments in the economy, including an increasing emphasis on the service sector. In addition, decreasing transport costs and reductions in trade restrictions are giving firms a stronger international orientation (Dunning and Norman, 1987). A related development is the growth in the number of international organizations. Larger cities have tried to attract these national and international companies and organizations by offering high-quality head office locations. This article investigates the regional economic impacts of the development of a head office location, by describing a case-study of Amsterdam South. First, we present a concise review of the literature. We then give an introduction to the plans in Amsterdam South and identify the impacts of development there. Finally we draw conclusions and offer policy recommendations. World cities and head office locations In the literature on metropolitan development, the concept of 'world city' has achieved popularity during the last decade. Hall (1966) used the term; it was given more precise meaning in the work of Friedmann (1986) and Sassen (1986). World cities are considered to play a major role in the international division of labour. They host important command and control centres such as the headquarters of multinational firms, and provide the financial and other business services these headquarters need. In addition, world cities offer a physical and social infrastructure in terms of office locations, transport systems (internal and international) and quality of labour force. Cities such as New York, Tokyo and London have large numbers of international firms and qualify as world cities beyond any doubt. In addition, there are other metropolitan areas where it is less easy to determine the extent to which they qualify as a world city. This is especially the case with polycentric city systems as found in the Netherlands (the Randstad area), Germany (Ruhr area) and Belgium (Brussels, Antwerp, Gent). World cities have been studied from many perspectives such as social polarization (see Sassen, 1986; Hamnett, 1994) and international migration (see Beaverstock and Smith, 1996). In this contribution we pay attention to another aspect: the issue of head office locations. World cities usually have a very expensive high-quality head office location, although there are exceptions. As Shachar (1994) indicates, the Randstad metropolitan area with a population of about 5m inhabitants and with a large number of medium-sized cities …