SOCIOECONOMIC PERFORMANCE IN METROPOLITAN AND NONMETROPOLITAN AREAS DURING THE 1980S

The socioeconomic gap between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas i ncreased during the 1980s. We test three competing explanations for th is trend during the 1980s: overdependence on manufacturing, especially in nonmetro labor markets, the emergence of producer services as st c atalyst of socioeconomic growth, and federal spending. Using a model t hat is informed by a variety of perspectives in sociology and economic geography, and commuter zones (CZs) as spatial units of analysis, we estimate the effects of manufacturing concentration, producer service concentration, and federal spending on per capita income, per capita e arnings, and private nonfarm employment growth during the 1983-1988 bu siness cycle recovery. The OLS and interaction models show that all th ree factors help explain why metro areas outperformed nonmetro areas d uring this time period. The effects of producer service concentration, however, best fit with our expectations. Implications of our findings are discussed.