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- Title
Decentralization and the Growth of Urban Manufacturing Employment.
- Authors
Swan, Philip L.
- Abstract
Recent patterns of urban growth have reflected the redistribution of manufacturing employment within and among metropolitan areas. As the production requirements for manufacturing have changed, so have the economic strengths of alternative production sites. This paper focuses on the determinants of metropolitan (SMSA) differentials in the extent of manufacturing decentralization, and city differentials in the growth of manufacturing employment. Location decisions within SMSAs depend on the significance of agglomeration economics found in the city relative to potentially lower unit labor and land costs available outside it. The most important of the agglomerative forces are urbanization economics, not readily transferable to suburbs. External economics accrue from central city locations to groups of firms, resulting in lower average costs of production. The most important economies come from the availability of ancillary services, centralized shipping points, and larger, more skilled labor supplies. Firms dominated by urbanization economies are typically small and use space vertically rather than horizontally. Thus, higher unit land costs in cities are less an obstacle to centralized firms than to those for which horizontal plant layouts will minimize costs.
- Subjects
UNITED States; DECENTRALIZATION in management; UNITED States manufacturing industries; EMPLOYMENT forecasting; INDUSTRIAL location; URBANIZATION; LABOR market; MANUFACTURED products; EMPLOYEES; METROPOLITAN areas; URBAN policy
- Publication
Land Economics, 1973, Vol 49, Issue 2, p212
- ISSN
0023-7639
- Publication type
Report
- DOI
10.2307/3145284