ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING OF CITIES, SUBURBS, AND NONMETROPOLITAN AREAS,1977-1992

Earlier research on the impact of national economic restructuring on c entral-city economies suffered from several problems, including excess ive aggregation of the data and reliance on absolute change in economi c activity to measure growth. When these factors are corrected, one se es that central cities frequently attracted more new firms than other locations (absolute growth), but their growth rate was below that in s uburbs and nonmetropolitan areas (relative growth) as well as the nati onal rate. These below-average rates occurred in many of the 13 econom ic sectors studied, including low-skill and high-skill services, in wh ich central cities were expected to perform well. The few bright spots -central cities in the South and West, which initially outperformed al l other locations in those regions-have faded as well.