METROPOLITAN POPULATION AND MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES IN CENTRAL CITIES.

The article reports on metropolitan population and municipal government expenditures in central cities. The importance of the population occupying the land surrounding and adjacent to urban centers for the maintenance of facilities and services within such places has been indicated in many ways. The purpose of the article is to test hypothesis regarding the interdependence of populations lying within and without urban centers. This involves the use of municipal government expenditures. A first assumption is that city services which are bought with municipal government expenditures, are developed to meet the total need generated by activity carried on within the city. Secondly, it is assumed that some of that activity, and hence some of the need for city services, arises from the population residing outside the city boundaries. Given the assumptions that (a) municipal government costs are developed to meet the total need for services generated within the city, and (b) some of that need arises from the population living outside the city's boundaries, then the annual expenditures of city governments should vary with the sizes of populations occupying adjoining areas.