The dynamic spatial impact of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

This paper is about the agglomeration effect of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and its implications for location policy regarding the airport region. We focus on a specific case, namely the important concentration of European Distribution Centers (EDCs) around the airport. The traditional answer to the question why EDCs are attracted to the airport is due to the importance of having air transport services at their disposal. However, we show that this is only a partial answer and that economies of agglomeration are the most important determinants. Moreover, we show that the spatial economic development of the airport area needs to be accompanied by new insights concerning location policy.