Philip Sargant Florence

Philip Sargant Florence (25 June 1890 – 29 January 1982) was an American economist who spent most of his life in the United Kingdom. His most noted areas of research were in the area which might be known as regional economics and include the measurement of spatial industrial concentration; this includes the invention of both a location quotient and a coefficient of specialization.

Life

Born in Nutley, New Jersey in the United States, he was the son of Henry Smyth Florence, an American musician, and Mary Sargant Florence, a British painter. His sister was Alix Strachey. He was educated at Windlesham House School, Rugby School and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, before studying for his PhD at Columbia University in New York City. In 1917 he married the writer and birth control advocate Lella Faye Secor., the couple had two sons.

He was awarded an honorary CBE in 1952.

Selected publications Florence, P. Sargent (assisted by Baldamus, W.). 1948. Investment, Location, and Size of Plant. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.