SOURCES OF GROWTH AND CYCLICAL STABILITY FOR NEVADA COUNTIES - TRANSFER PAYMENTS AND PROPERTY INCOME

The growing relative number, the improved economic well-being, and the migration of elderly retirees is not only reshaping the social and ec onomic structure of many areas, it is also modifying both long-term an d short-run patterns of economic growth. Transfer payments and propert y incomes, two of the most important source of elderly income, have be en among the leading sources of national income growth over the past s everal decades. Unlike most labor-related industry sources of earnings , the level of transfer payments and property incomes received by the residents of the region is not directly dependent upon local economic activity. Consequently, as transfer payments and property incomes of e lderly retirees become increasingly important sources of income and pu rchasing power within a region, they also can alter regional short-run cyclical patterns of income growth. This article examines the pattern of growth of transfer payments and property incomes in the context of national economic cycles, and explores the implication of those findi ngs on metropolitan and nonmetropolitan Nevada economies.