Measuring Metropolitan Development.

This article focuses on the application of an existing macroeconomic framework to the problem of measuring development in a metropolitan area and its component counties. The method of analysis used in this study, shift-share analysis, can be applied to any metropolitan area to measure development change. The technique allows simultaneous treatment of both income and employment, it utilizes secondary data, and it allows periodic updates at minimal cost with relative ease. The shift-share analysis defines regions by relating them quantitatively, and to some extent qualitatively, to the national norms and to one another, it characterizes the economic structure of the various regions in relative terms, it highlights the extent to which various aspects of growth are uniform across the nation, it identifies the growth elements in the area and it allows description of key economic relationships. The first factor, the national-growth effect, measures the employment and income change of an area in terms of the national economy. The second factor, the industrial-mix effect, results from differences between the income or employment structure of an area and of the nation. The third factor, the regional-share effect, measures the competitive position of an area or component in the area in relation to the rest of the nation.