The Impact of Knowledge-Intensive Employment Centers on the Rent Structure of Rotterdam

The proclamation of clusters is a popular way to attract investment into knowledge-intensive activities. However, little research has been undertaken on their effects on the rent structure of a given city. This thesis examines how rents behave with differing distance from knowledge-intensive employment centers in the city of Rotterdam using a linear regression model while controlling for other relevant factors. The results show that distance from clusters matters for rents albeit not always in the theorized ways probably due to upwards-sloping bid-rent gradients. While moderately knowledge-intensive clusters do exhibit negative rent gradients, very knowledge-intensive one either have insignificant or even positive distance effects.