Income Migration and Income Convergence across U.S. States, 1995–2010

In this paper we examine how internal migration redistributes earned income across U.S. states between 1995 and 2010. We examine interregional income flows by first describing the movement of earned income between U.S. states. Second, we examine the effect of income migration on spatial patterns of income inequality. The question we ask is, “does migration increase or decrease convergence income across U.S. States?” A primary contribution of this paper is that instead of using only 1 year of income migration data to explore these issues, we use yearly data from the first year the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data started including income (1995/1996) up to the most current data available (2009/2010). Results indicate that income convergence/divergence across states varies by whether or not there is general economic expansion or contraction. Nevertheless, some high‐amenity states continually attract high‐income households.     

Globalization and Regional Change in the U.S. Furniture Industry

ABSTRACT Furniture manufacturing has experienced rapid globalization in recent years. This is mainly the result of global production networks established by large manufacturers and retailers seeking to reduce costs in a highly competitive environment. The industry's globalization has been facilitated by technological innovations and the global reduction of trade and investment barriers. In the U.S., furniture‐producing regions are experiencing tumultuous change. Growing numbers of firms are outsourcing production to China, which is now responsible for about half of all U.S. furniture imports. Employment levels have plummeted. However, an analysis of spatial patterns of employment, output, and capital investment in U.S. furniture manufacturing shows that regional change is not uniform. Southern regions characterized by larger firms specializing in wooden case goods production have been especially vulnerable to job loss.     

The Changing Regional Structure of the U.S. Economy

This paper utilizes newly available industry-specific historical measures of Gross Regional Product to highlight the changing regional structure of the U.S. economy between 1963 and 1986. During this period, the percentage of U.S. output produced in the eight different regions changed significantly. The largest changes occurred in the Great Lakes (?3.65 percent), Mideast (?3.32 percent), and Southeast (+3.64 percent). Four major industry sectors (Agriculture, Mining, Construction, and Government) declined in relative importance in all eight regions. Five major industry sectors (TCPU, Retail Trade, Wholesale Trade, FIRE, and Services) expanded in relative importance. Somewhat surprisingly, Manufacturing output expanded for the U.S. as a whole and for six of the eight regions. The perception of decline in the relative importance of manufacturing in the U.S. is clearly based on the dramatic declines in the once dominant manufacturing base of the Mideast and Great Lakes regions.     

Low‐Income Dynamics in Canadian Communities: A Place‐Based Approach

ABSTRACT Canadian poverty rates have persisted at disappointingly high levels despite almost 15 years of continuous economic growth. The problem is exacerbated by some communities and neighborhoods having exceedingly high poverty, including very high rates for vulnerable demographic groups, such as aboriginals and recent immigrants. We investigate low‐income rates (poverty rates) for 2,400 Canadian “communities” over the 1981–2001 period. By focusing on communities, we fill a void in the related Canadian literature, which tends to focus on individuals, case studies, or more aggregate measures, such as provinces. Our approach allows us to assess the role of place‐based policies. Particular attention is given to communities with differing shares of aboriginal Canadians and recent immigrants. One novel feature is our analysis of both “short‐term” and “long‐term” causes of differential community poverty rates. The results suggest that community low‐income rates are more affected by initial economic conditions in the short term, with certain demographic factors becoming relatively more important in the long run.     

Maquiladoras and U.S.‐Bound Migration in Central Mexico

Over the past one and a half decades, smaller cities and nonmetropolitan areas in Mexico have attracted manufacturing plants, led by the export manufacturing sector. Maquiladoras in particular are increasingly locating their plants in such places in the “deep interior” Mexico—outside of the border states. Using 1980 and 1990 Mexican census data for 19 growth centers and 27 high‐emigration municipios (counties) in Central Mexico, this paper suggests that foreign‐owned assembly (maquiladora) jobs decentralized significantly over the 1980s, locating closer to emigrant municipios. An examination of 17 emigrant municipios in the industrialized states of Jalisco and Guanajuato found that an emigrant municipio's accessibility to maquiladora jobs, and jobs indirectly related to maquiladora growth, was positively related to its overall employment growth, which was, in turn, negatively related to its U.S. migration rate over the decade. Although the migration reduction inherent in these relationships is relatively small, it could be accelerated by U.S. and Mexican policies giving incentives for more peripheral locations of export‐oriented and other manufacturing.     

Regional Differences in the Competitive Characteristics of U.S. Machine Tool Companies

The U.S. machine tool (MT) sector has undergone substantial restructuring over the past three decades. Despite signs of a commercial rebound in recent years, however, a number of critical issues remain for this industry. Not all firms share these concerns, in that differences exist between producers located in the core manufacturing belt and those located elsewhere. This paper examines the characteristics, competitive problems, and markets of firms located in these two regions. Survey data from a sample of 104 machine tool companies reveal that significant core–periphery differences exist with regard to firm–specific difficulties and markets served. The data also show that firms in the periphery have been growing significantly faster than firms in the core. The paper concludes with a discussion of the likely reasons for regional variability in the characteristics of firms in this industry. Directions for future research are also suggested, notably with regard to the interplay between national regulatory conditions and the competitive performance of MT firms.     

Race,Place, and the Persisting Income Divide in the U.S. Southeast, 2000–2014

Despite economic growth since the recession, the gap between the richest and the poorest segments of the population remains one of the most pressing concerns of contemporary America. This paper uses IR‐95/20, IR‐80/20, and IR‐65/35 ratios to measure the income divides between the richest and the poorest segments in the mid‐to‐large‐sized metropolises of the U.S. Southeast, their variation across ethnicities, and their association with metropolitan level attributes such as diversity, segregation, socio‐economic, and other built‐environment, and labor characteristics. The income divide ratios serve as the dependent variables whereas principal components along with state‐dummy variables serve as the explanatory variables in regressions analyses. The metropolises that are large, diverse, and better educated are the most income‐divided whereas those with lower educated people are less divided. Metropolises with larger shares of their labor engaged in primary sectors of economy have higher income divides; this observation also holds true for African Americans and Hispanics. Metropolises that gained in intermixing during 2000–2014 are associated with a lower income divide and vice versa.     

Dynamics of the U.S. interstate migration system, 1975-1992

This note further develops an analysis of the U.S. interstate migration system by K.E. McHugh and P. Gober. Specifically, it uses annual state-to-state migration flow data from Internal Revenue Service for the period 1975-1992 to analyze migration trends. Some modifications to earlier conclusions are suggested. "First the note concludes that the emergence of a new pattern of population redistribution in the U.S. in the 1980s, as reported by McHugh and Gober, was indeed significant, but that it was transitory. Second, the note's analysis does not support McHugh and Gober's conclusion of a fairly strong inverse relationship between migration effectiveness and economic expansions and contractions."     

Retail Trade on the U.S.‐Mexico Border During the NAFTA Implementation Era

ABSTRACT When NAFTA was implemented in 1994, there was a general expectation that it would hurt U.S. retailers along the U.S.‐Mexico border. This paper asks whether there was a significant change in the pattern of retail trade in border MSAs in the years surrounding NAFTA's implementation. Data from MSAs in the four border states are analyzed. After controlling for other potential influences on retail trade, there remained a statistically significant change in the pattern of retail trade between 1992 and 1997. The changes cannot be unquestionably attributed to NAFTA but do suggest that NAFTA had a negative influence on retail sales on the U.S. side of the border.     

Growth of Creative Occupations in U.S. Metropolitan Areas: A Shift‐Share Analysis

ABSTRACT This article uses a shift‐share model to investigate the growth of creative occupations in U.S. metropolitan areas during the 1990s. Empirical findings indicate that the performance of the creative economy varied widely across the U.S., and that the highest competitive growth rates of the creative workforce occurred in the Rocky Mountain, Southeast, and Southwest regions. Further analysis focused on whether high competitive workforce growth between 1990 and 2000 translated into high competitive employment growth from 1999 to 2003. The results show that many of the areas with the highest competitive growth rates of creative economy employment from 1999 to 2003 were some of the weakest regions in terms of creative workforce growth during the 1990s. This raises questions about the extent to which jobs follow people in the creative economy, and suggests that an initial strong presence in the creative economy is not a prerequisite for future growth.     

Moonlighting in a High Growth Economy: Evidence from U.S. State‐Level Data

Despite the prevalence of multiple jobholding, there is relatively little research into its causes. Existing research has tested the predictions of standard labor models with micro data. Yet, there has been virtually no research into the relationship between moonlighting and structural differences in regional labor markets such as wages and employment growth. In this manner, this study examines the large differences in multiple jobholding rates across U.S. states. The findings indicate that multiple jobholding acts as a short‐term shock absorber to cyclical changes. However, in the long‐term, these effects dissipate, indicating that moonlighting plays a similar role as do changes in unemployment and labor‐force participation to regional labor market shocks. Conversely, multiple jobholding rates are inversely related to average weekly earnings. Thus, job growth accompanied by real wage (and productivity) growth may result in a decline in multiple jobholding, further exacerbating potential labor shortages. Other key factors found to influence multiple jobholding include occupational structure and education.     

Patterns of Broadband Efficiency in the U.S

Data envelopment analysis is used to assess the efficiency of broadband Internet adoption and use in the U.S. Analyses at the state level from 2005 to 2007 suggest that broadband adoption and use is not equally efficient across the U.S. states. Although the instantaneous efficiencies are relatively high for many states, the changes in total factor productivity suggest that the efficiency of broadband adoption and use still increases over time. Moreover, it is observed that efficiency values are often spatially autocorrelated, which suggests spatial dependency from spillovers or interstate competition. This leads to a particular spatial diffusion pattern in broadband adoption. Although states have different strategies in support of broadband expansion they need to identify their shortcomings and use the appropriate mix of inputs (and outputs) to improve their efficiencies.     

Genetic and Molecular Characterization of Vernalization Genes Vrn‐A1, Vrn‐B1, and Vrn‐D1 in Spring Wheat Germplasm from the Pacific Northwest Region of the U.S.A.

The objective of this study was to determine the Vrn‐1 allelic composition of spring wheat germplasm from the Pacific Northwest region of the USA. Individual plants from 56 spring wheat lines were crossed to near‐isogenic tester lines carrying the dominant allele Vrn‐A1, Vrn‐B1 or Vrn‐D1. F₂ progeny were evaluated for growth habit in the field and Vrn‐1 allelic composition was determined through chi‐square analysis. Lines also were analysed with DNA sequence‐based Vrn‐1 allele‐specific markers. A majority of the germplasm carried the dominant allele Vrn‐A1a alone or in combination with Vrn‐B1, Vrn‐D1 or Vrn‐B3 alleles. Vrn‐B1 and Vrn‐D1 were almost always associated with other dominant Vrn‐1 allele(s). Based on DNA sequence analysis, a novel Vrn‐B1 allele referred to as Vrn‐B1b, which carried a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and a 36 bp deletion, was identified in cultivar ‘Alpowa’. These results will be useful to wheat breeders for choosing parents with different Vrn‐1 alleles for crossing to maximize diversity at the Vrn‐1 loci with an expectation of identifying superior Vrn‐1 allelic combinations for cultivar improvement.     

Sources of Output Change in the U.S. Economy

Output changes in the U.S. economy from 1972 to 1977 are analyzed using a 477-sector input-output framework. The empirical model is based on benchmark data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Commodity output changes are attributed to technical change, import substitution, changes in domestic final demand, and changes in export demand. Special attention is given to the importance of international trade and the patterns of change observed in rapidly growing and declining sectors. The results indicate that 71 percent of the sectors lost domestic market share to imports, but on balance international trade contributed to positive output change through increased exports. Technology changes became increasingly important in sectors of the economy experiencing either rapid growth or decline. Conversely, final demand, exports, and import substitution generally appeared to be most important in the slowly changing sectors. These findings confirm and expand on earlier work that indicated a dominant role for technology changes in explaining output changes in emerging and declining industries.