Economic growth of nonmetropolitan and agricultural region cities.

摘要

Economic growth of nonmetropolitan regions is an important aspect of the U.S. economy in terms of overall productivity and national integration. Cities offer a nexus for understanding and affecting growth of these regions as critical points of attachment in the socioeconomic geography. The objective of this research is gain a better understanding of the economic growth patterns and factors for cities located in these nonmetropolitan regions.; Analysis of real per capita income trends among 926 U.S. cities, between 1969 and 2000, provides evidence that these economies are diverging. City economies are found to be diverging at a rate of about one percent per year, consistent with previous research. New growth ideals of endogenous growth provide a basis for discussing this economic landscape.; It is important to understand the factors contributing to these diverging growth paths in designing policies to pursue national economic development goals. Factorial analysis of nonmetropolitan U.S. city growth offers new insight into the economies of the nation's smaller cities. Industrial concentration, competitive freight transportation service, and human capital levels are all found to be significant influences in the economic growth of mesopolitans. Mesopolitans are those cities between the 75th and 50 th percentiles in a distribution of U.S. cities based on population.; Human capital is found to be the single largest influential factor in mesopolitan growth between 1980 and 2000. The division of labor and local industry competition benefits associated with industrial specialization are positively related to economic growth among mesopolitan cities. Finally, cities in agricultural regions do not significantly differ from other nonmetropolitan cities in their economic growth factors.; These results offer important insight for revisiting policies designed to grow nonmetropolitan and rural economies. Given the perpetual and self-reinforcing nature of endogenous growth forces, it may be necessary to offer more assertive economic development and economic growth policies to realize national economic egalitarian goals. In addition, the economies of nonmetropolitan areas do exhibit economic growth characteristics that differentiate them from those of large urban. These differences should be considered in formulating national policies and regional initiatives.