The Impact of 9/11 on the Geography of Financial Services in New York: A Few Years Later

An economic census and a survey of seventy-nine firms revealed a changing geography of financial services after 11 September 2001. Although the suburbs benefited from the outward relocation of financial services from Manhattan immediately afterward, they lost considerably two years later, demonstrating the interdependence of the central city and its suburbs. Executives of financial services firms ranked highly locational attributes such as prestige, public transportation, and proximity to clients and other financial services before 11 September, but terrorism also emerged as a major locational factor after 11 September. The impact of terrorism and how it interacts with agglomeration economies, technological changes, and globalization to shape the geography of financial services is examined under the framework of quaternary place theory.