Shifting balances in U.S. metropolitan and nonmetropolitan area growth
Garnick, D.H.
International Regional Science Review 9(3): 257-273
1984
ISSN/ISBN: 0160-0176 PMID: 12267008 DOI: 10.1177/016001768400900305Document Number: 412715
"This paper assesses some of the recent attempts to explain the perceived growth reversal between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas in the United States during the 1970s. The paper argues that the reversal in population trends was not a one-time, radical shift in settlement trends, but rather the result of more continuous underlying industrial trends. Indeed, since 1979, population growth has again become faster in metropolitan than nonmetropolitan areas." The paper includes three sections. Regional and area population and industrial earnings growth patterns are first summarized for the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Theories of polarization and polar reversal are then evaluated and found to be inadequate. Finally, a reconstruction of the neoclassical model is proposed.