Search

A U. S. county workplace-to-workplace or latent migration data set is generated from overlapping migration and commuting networks. The latent migration network is the estimated number of movers between places of work, which is then compared with the actual number of migrants between places of residence. This allows both employment-related and amenity-related migration and pull/push factors as causes of migration flows to be identified and contrasted. Certain counties and cities that are not important migration destinations (e.g., with <200,000 net in-migrants between 1995 and 2000) according to official data are in fact important targets when additional in-migrants who commute into surrounding counties also are considered. An econometric analysis is then used to examine whether different regressors have different effects on the residence- versus employment-based migration patterns. This is a first assessment of whether or not the proposed approach has merit. Results are consistent with prior expectations regarding the factors that would motivate latent versus actual migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labor market areas (LMAs) have long been a staple of regional and urban analysis. As commuting patterns have expanded over time, these areas have become larger and more complex, and the dichotomous designation of a county either belonging to an LMA or not may no longer be adequate. We apply recent advances in network science to conduct a more refined analysis of U.S. commuting patterns, and examine their effects on local economic growth. Results show that network degree and entropy measures explain variations in county per capita income growth patterns. Higher in- and out-commuting entropies are associated with lower per capita income growth, but their interaction enhances economic growth in places simultaneously open to both in- and out-commuters. Using these results, common ground may be found for creating new forms of regional governance that better reflect local realities of cross-county border flows of workers and economic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linkages among changes in employment, earnings per worker, and pollution per square mile are estimated for 3,036 U.S. counties for the period 1987 to 1995 using a three-equation disequilibrium adjustment model. Counties with higher shares of African-Americans experienced higher earnings growth rates over the period 1987-1995, as did counties with proportionally more females. Counties in states with higher shares of unionized workers had higher earnings growth rates but generated fewer new jobs. Firm size had a significant and negative effect on earnings growth while higher costs of living were associated with higher earnings growth. Also, metro counties and counties in the Northeastern U.S. experienced higher earnings growth than their non-metro counterparts and counties in other geographic regions. Statistically, faster job growth was found to accelerate the rate of earnings growth per worker. The authors conclude that counties concerned with job growth should recruit or attempt to spawn the creation of larger firms, recognizing that for some firms such a strategy may come at the cost of more rapid increases in pollution. Counties concerned with increasing the rate of growth in per worker earnings should instead focus on the creation of smaller firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimates a Barro-type economic growth models for the years 1982 to 1991 to determine empirically the effect of environmental conditions and policies in state-level per capita income growth in the United States. Measures of environmental policy and quality for individual states; Model of economic growth.