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This paper investigates historical changes in economic structure and the spatial distribution of jobs and commuting patterns during a period of consolidating suburban decentralisation in US cities. The analysis of selected US metropolitan areas is based on data drawn from the 1980 and 1990 PUMS (public use microdata samples). First, the paper compares changes in employment composition between regions and between two geographical sub-divisions in each of the metropolitan areas: the suburb and the central city. A diversity index is then measured for suburbs and central cities and an intertemporal comparison is made. Finally, changes in travel characteristics are discussed and analysed by industrial sector and geographical sub-division. The analysis shows a strong growth of suburban cities compared with central cities in each region, increased urbanisation economies in suburban cities and the dominance of suburb-to-suburb commuting. The historical pattern gives urban analysts and planners in Europe and elsewhere much to think about: in particular, the self-reinforcing nature of suburban agglomeration economies, the influence of growing suburban employment centres on commute patterns, the growth of centre-to-suburb commutes and the dominance of suburb-to-suburb commutes; and the ability of cities to reshape themselves as individual firms and households adopt strategies that lower the costs of transacting labour, services and all manner of commodities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent scholarship has suggested that cohesion at the neighbourhood level may not translate into greater cohesion for the broader community and may even have detrimental effects. Employing a sample from a recently developed 'new urbanist' community within a southern US city, the paper simultaneously explores the determinants of perceived cohesion with the local neighbourhood and with the broader community. It is found that there is indeed a positive relationship between the two in this sample. However, the determinants of the two differ: while both strong and weak informal ties in the neighbourhood increase perceived neighbourhood cohesion, only weak ties foster perceived cohesion with the broader community. No effect is found of residents' structural positions within local networks on perceived cohesion beyond the effect of strong and weak ties. The paper ends with a discussion of the implications of the findings for the broader literature viewing the effects of bridging and bonding social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The skills mismatch and spatial mismatch perspectives are often presented as competing explanations of the spatial distribution of unemployment within metropolitan areas. This paper argues that the spatial mismatch hypothesis addresses some of the shortcomings of the skills mismatch perspective, while not denying the importance of skills mismatch. The development of the spatial mismatch hypothesis in the US is traced, before considering its relevance in the British context. A framework in which to conceptualise and reconcile skills mismatch and spatial mismatch within metropolitan areas is developed, incorporating the operation of local housing and labour markets as well as the role of commuting. The paper concludes by arguing that skills and spatial mismatches reinforce each other and that the concept of employability offers some potential to help understand how job searchers and employers make decisions in situations of skills and/or spatial mismatch. The implications for future research are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides new evidence on the effects of impact fees on housing prices, using an inventory of single-family housing sale transactions in the 38 cities and towns within King County, Washington, for the period 1991-2000. Although the effect of impact fees on housing prices has been examined previously, earlier studies have been limited by methodological deficiencies. This paper examines the effect of impact fees on new housing and their differential effect on housing price based on the quality of housing, and finds that the effect of impact fees on the price of new housing is quite significant and elastic, raising new home prices by about 166 per cent of the amount of the fee. The increase is 358 per cent for the higher-quality homes and is statistically insignificant for the lower-quality homes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the implementation of post-disaster US federal assistance programmes for residential reconstruction and investigates the relationship between socio-demographic characteristics of places and access to residential assistance following the Northridge earthquake that hit Los Angeles in 1994. The paper also examines the effects of the distribution of assistance on long-term recovery outcomes. Findings suggest that areas with high levels of socially marginalised populations were at a disadvantage in accessing federal residential assistance. Findings also show that the long-term effects of the earthquake differed depending on levels of assistance relative to damage. Areas that received less assistance experienced losses in population and housing units. These findings indicate that post-disaster recovery programmes in the US do not adequately address the wide range of housing needs that emerge in the case of a major disaster in a large metropolitan area. Implications for post-disaster planning as well as for planning under everyday conditions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper was originally prepared as the keynote address for a 12 April 2003 Research Symposium "Understanding Isolation and Change in Urban Neighborhoods", sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. The conference sponsors provided the paper's title and in that way suggested the central theme. As often happens, however, considerable license was taken in interpreting and implementing the brief. For example, the phrase 'spatial mismatch' is used in two ways. First, the paper examines the origins of the spatial mismatch concept that was the central focus of the author's 1964 and 1968 papers. These papers were concerned with the effects of housing market segregation/discrimination on the employment and earnings of Black Chicago and Detroit residents. The spatial mismatch concept was then broadened to include a number of other, perhaps more important, ways in which serious restrictions on the residential choices of Chicago and Detroit Black residents affected their welfare. These included the effects of housing market discrimination on housing prices, home-ownership and educational opportunities. Reflecting the two-way linkages between the author's research on racial discrimination and involvement in on-going policy debates and civil rights litigation, the discussion of these issues was imbedded in something of a personal history of his involvement in these areas in the 30 years following the publication of the original spatial mismatch papers. The paper ends with a discussion of the author's research during the past 10 years into what may be the most serious example of spatial mismatch and its negative impacts on Black welfare—the continued concentration of Black children in low-achieving inner-city schools and the impact of these patterns on the achievement of individual Black children. This research, which is based on data for Texas public schools, provides substantial evidence that continued Black segregation and the resulting concentration of Black children in low-achieving schools accounts for a large part of the Black-White achievement gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the expansion of knowledge-intensive industries in the US, along with intensifying focus on workforce development policy as an economic development strategy, occupations are increasingly being used as basic units of analysis in applied studies of urban and regional economies. An heretofore underappreciated component of occupation-based regional analysis is the need to understand relationships, similarities and dissimilarities among occupations themselves, so that they may be aggregated or grouped in theoretically and empirically meaningful ways. This paper lays out a conceptual framework and empirical approach to identifying knowledge-based occupation clusters, or groups of occupations that share the same broad knowledge characteristics. Following an application of the clusters to a comparison of labour pools in a selected 38 metropolitan economies, the paper discusses the clusters' general value for regional economic analysis, especially their utility as an intermediate step in applied industry cluster analyses where necessary regional occupation data are limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a review of some of the key articles and research examining the relationship between planning regulation and its impact on the housing market in the UK and the US. In both countries, demographic change coupled with economic growth has increased demand for housing units and in the UK, over 4 million new units are estimated to be needed by 2016. Given these pressures, the interaction of the planning system and the housing market is critical. The articles reviewed below mainly adopt a mainstream economics approach to modelling the impact of planning on housing markets. They are concerned with outcomes. An additional or alternative approach is provided by behavioural analyses of the relationship between planning and housing development. These enable the more complex interactions to come to light. This paper indicates the differences that exist between the UK and US planning approaches; however, in both countries, planning constraints are seen to raise price, reduce supply, increase density and, in the UK at least, reduce choice. However, planning is also seen to provide certainty and reduce risk. Of key interest is the price elasticity of supply of housing. Post-war estimates suggest a value for the long-run elasticity to be between 0 and 1 for the UK, and 6 to 13 for the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares Malaysia's Multimedia Super-corridor (MSC) and New York's Silicon Alley to assess whether state-led development of digital districts is a viable alternative to neo-liberal approaches. The changing nature of east Asia's developmental states as they adopt neo-liberal elements (such as venture capital) casts doubt on the idea that east Asian cities are 'embedded' in developmental frameworks. Using actor-network theory to conceptualise the nesting of cities as processes of 'translation', the paper examines how state frameworks in the US and Malaysia shaped the respective efforts of district entrepreneurs to weave together ideas, resources and relationships. The findings confirm actor-network theory's claim that the significance of a particular element depends on the network it becomes enmeshed in. In the case of Silicon Alley, neo-liberal regimes did not directly participate but promoted devices (such as venture capital, options) that enabled venture capitalists to bring together myriad enterpreneurs. In contrast, the Malaysian state, which is deemed a 'developmental hybrid', devised a comprehensive plan for the MSC and itself used devices such as venture capital to enrol participants. While Silicon Alley was a temporary base for circulating capital, the MSC effort is creating an enduring foundation for digital industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to understand why secession movements gained momentum in Los Angeles and what their effect will be on regional governance. A brief discussion of liberal theories of secession demonstrates that they cannot explain secession movements at the urban scale, as they are exclusively focused on cases of nationalist secession from a nation-state. Furthermore, liberal theories of secession offer normative arguments on the right to secede. Following a change in California legislation granting municipalities the right to secede, the secessionist debate in Los Angeles is not so much concerned with normative issues, but more with devising an effective and revenue-neutral process for secession. Using a threefold theoretical approach based on theories of secession, regulation theory and theories of state rescaling, and theories of social movements, this paper argues that the 'political opportunity structures' provided by globalisation and the prevalent neo-conservatism, might explain how secession movements in Los Angeles were able to mobilise large efforts to their cause. We hold that globalisation has forced cities to re-open the debate on size and governance. Secession movements have been very successful in raising public awareness on the issue. Their strength lies mostly in their populism, well in tune with the prevalent wave of neo-conservatism. These movements use arguments well grounded in Southern California's complex history of regional fragmentation and consolidation. As a social project of the Right, they offer secession as a potential 'solution' to the problems of urban governance in the age of globalisation, in a context of simultaneous consolidation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1994/95, the economic crisis in Mexico strongly affected not only the Mexican economy but also the everyday lives of the Mexican population. The weaker sectors of the economy and the poorer segments of the Mexican population were particularly affected. This paper attempts to link these global trends to a specific location: Mexico's fourth-largest city, Puebla. In order better to understand the relationship between international developments, like a financial crisis, and local issues, like employment and the household economy, relevant aspects of the political and social spheres must be considered. This relationship will be discussed on a theoretical basis employing regulation theory. The paper proposes that regulation is not only important at the macro level (government, parties and trade unions), but also at the micro level (households). Puebla serves as an example useful for portraying the conditions of human labour and the strategies of survival of people as 'micro regulation' in a Mexican urban environment. The households suffered greatly during the economic crisis in Mexico because the major actors in the government and the administration did not support the people very effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines the race-based, neighbourhood projection hypothesis which holds that, in choosing neighbourhoods, households care less about present racial composition than they do about expectations about future neighbourhood conditions, such as school quality, property values and crime. Race remains relevant, however, since households tend to associate a growing minority presence with structural decline. Using a unique data-set that links households to their neighbourhoods, this paper estimates both exit and entry models and then constructs a simple simulation model that predicts the course of racial change in different communities. Doing so, the paper concludes that the empirical evidence is more consistent with the race-based projection hypothesis than with other common explanations for neighbourhood racial transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continued advances in information and communications technology are fundamentally changing the structure of the workplace and the organisation of work. Temporary work and self-employment are increasing, while job tenure is declining. This paper examines how these changes may affect both commuting patterns and metropolitan form. The growing number of workers who do not have a long-term attachment to a specific employer are termed 'contingent workers'. Using 1990 Public Use Micro Sample data for the Los Angeles region, the paper compares the commuting and location patterns of contingent and non-contingent workers. Results are quite mixed: residential location patterns do not differ significantly across worker categories, but commute length varies by category, with the self-employed having the shortest commutes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates some of the impacts associated with a metropolitan university. The impact of the university in the metropolitan arena is conceptualised as a series of backward (expenditure) and forward (knowledge-related) linkages. These relationships can be both positive and negative and can operate in both the short and long terms. Their correct identification requires that the counter-factual situation of the area without the university be adequately specified. On the basis of a case study of the impacts associated with Northwestern University on the Chicago metropolitan area, some of these issues are highlighted. The results emphasise the magnitude of the university expenditure links with the metropolitan economy and the importance of scale when comparing these with more localised negative impacts. The paper concludes with some public policy implications relating to the role of the university as a non-profit organisation competing with local businesses and as an export base sector in the metropolitan economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an account of recent urban change and policy initiatives in the US. The paper describes how processes of global change have impacted upon economic activity and social life in the US, leading to the decline and isolation of inner-city areas. The urban, housing and community development policies of the Clinton administration, which aim to enable these communities to rejoin the economic mainstream, are then discussed. These strategies include: tackling homelessness addressing the problems of distressed public housing communities; the expansion of affordable housing (with an emphasis on home-ownership); opening housing markets to all Americans regardless of race and ethnic origins; and, increasing the economic opportunities of inner-city populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of space and race/ethnicity on labour force participation outcomes among minority and immigrant youth in the Los Angeles metropolitan areas. This research contributes to the spatial mismatch literature by analysing the differences between firstand second-generation immigrants in addition to exploring the role of race and job accessibility on the likelihood of working. It does so by comparing the employment status of comparable youth (16-21 years of age) who reside in central cities, inner-ring suburbs and outer-ring suburbs using 2000 Census PUMS data. Finally, the decision to attend school and to work is modelled in a bivariate probit framework to discover how the correlation across decisions may change the estimated impact of race and space on employment. The results of this study suggest that both space and race play a role in the probability that a youth will work, but that the decision to attend school does not influence the estimated impact of space and race on employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has long identified racial differences in perceptions of criminal injustice. Given that race is confounded with neighbourhood context, it remains unclear the extent to which individual or neighbourhood attributes explain racial differences in these perceptions. This paper advances research on racial differences in perceptions of unjust police practices in the US by relying on a survey of 3000 residents in 53 Cincinnati neighbourhoods. A propensity score weighting approach is used to identify a model by which Whites and Blacks living in similar neighbourhood environments can be compared with each other. The results demonstrate that race remains a significant predictor of perceptions of unjust police practices, even after taking into account the ecological structuring of neighbourhoods and their perceived environmental context. These findings suggest that racial consciousness with regard to perceived injustices by the police is not purely a condition of personal or structural disadvantage. The implications of these findings for police reform efforts to mend minority relations in urban cities are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1990s, public policy-makers in the US have renewed support for mixed-income housing development as a means towards inner-city neighbourhood revitalisation and poverty amelioration. Yet, research to date finds that, while these mixed-income developments have promoted neighbourhood revitalisation, they have accomplished less for people in these areas who live in poverty. This paper theorises about the conditions that may in principle lead to these alternative outcomes. The approach emphasises the continuity in goal sets and capacities among four sets of urban actors - investors, local government, non-profits and community residents. To examine extant theory and an alternative model, case study evidence is offered from two comparable cities with different mixed-income initiatives and different configurations of goals and capacities among the four stakeholder groups. It is found that place-based outcomes (i.e. neighbourhood revitalisation) from mixed-income efforts hinge on the continuity of goals and effective capacities of investors, government and non-profits, but not community residents. It is also found that, with or without goal consonance and capacity, existing residents are relatively underserved by mixed-income initiatives while other stakeholders realise a variety of benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty remains a persistent problem in central cities across the US and the government's approach to measuring it is not without shortcomings. This paper applies recently developed innovations in poverty measurement and presents improved estimates of central-city poverty across time. A broader and more comprehensive income concept is employed to measure family resources and important distributional aspects of poverty are incorporated by using the Sen index. In general, Sen indexes for the central city are significantly reduced when comprehensive income is used to evaluate poverty. Motivating these changes are the substantial reductions that occur in the depth of poverty and the relative income inequality among poor central-city residents. Regionally, the results suggest that the elements of comprehensive income have their greatest impact on estimates of poverty in Southern central cities, while the central cities of the West are least affected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Driven by negative externalities from suburban sprawl, many states in the US have adopted comprehensive growth management legislation in an effort to regulate land development more directly. Most extant scholarship evaluating the effects of growth management programmes employs a design that averages growth management's effect across all of the growth management states. Yet, this approach largely ignores descriptive analyses of individual state growth management approaches which show large variation in both the methods and intensity of means by which states manage growth. This paper seeks to ascertain if differences in growth management intensity yield different evaluative outcomes. Analysis of panel data for nine growth management states using fixed effects regressions, across eight different model specifications, shows that only states with the strongest growth management intensity experience consistent success at reducing the expansion of urban land and increasing population densities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines sociospatial issues for two forms of school choice that are popular in the US, magnet schools and charter schools. It argues that geographical analyses can be taken up to expand understandings of such issues as the spatial organisation of race in public school choice plans, how rapidly increasing immigrant student populations impact classroom space in urban districts and parents' everyday challenges managing the distances between home and school. The geographical analysis of data from a two-year ethnographic study of a large school district in the Los Angeles metropolitan region found that, by offering choice to those who are unable to accomplish choice unless they have necessary resources such as time and supports such as transport, districts may inadvertently be perpetuating the historical inequities and inequalities that have stubbornly embedded themselves into the sociospatial relations of urban schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many agree that increasing physical activity will improve public health. This paper reports on empirical findings on the relationship between the density of the residential environment, walking and total physical activity. Using multiple objective and self-reported measures for 715 participants in the US, and improved techniques for sampling and analysis, it finds that density is associated with the purpose of walking (travel, leisure) but not the amount of overall walking or overall physical activity, although there are sub-group differences by race/ethnicity. Overall, higher densities have many benefits in terms of efficient use of infrastructure, housing affordability, energy efficiency and possibly vibrant street life. But higher densities alone, like other built environment features, do not appear to be the silver bullet in the public health campaign to increase physical activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional cost-of-living differences affect the quality of life that individuals and families experience in different metropolitan areas. Yet, lack of metropolitan cost-of-living indexes has left analysts without the ability to make accurate cost-of-living adjustments to measures of economic wellbeing. This paper evaluates alternative approaches to cost-of-living measurement and then applies the ACCRA cost-of-living index to various US metropolitan area datasets, including median household income, the number of people living in poverty, and family eligibility for the Free and Reduced Price School Lunch and Head Start programmes to illustrate some of the policy impacts of adjusting economic indicators of wellbeing for geographical cost-of-living differentials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a comparative case study of residential segregation in three US ‘new towns’. New towns are distinct from older suburban and other master-planned communities in four regards: larger size, mixed use of land, existence of a master developer and phased planning. The study investigates whether the three new towns, which are considered highly successful in the field of urban planning, have broken the older patterns of racial diversity and residential segregation. Based on 2000 Census data, it is found that these new towns are much less segregated overall than their surrounding metropolitan areas and suburbs, although each community indicates different patterns of racial diversity and integration. By contrasting each community's planning visions and practices with the levels of racial diversity and segregation, the paper explores the contributions of urban planning to residential integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically evaluates the traditional metropolitan model of an urban core and a homogeneous suburban ring. Using place data from the US Bureau of the Census from 1980 to 2000, it examines 1639 suburbs from a sample of 13 metropolitan areas in the US. Poor, manufacturing, Black and immigrant suburbs are identified to show that metropolitan areas are less a simple dichotomous structure and more a mosaic of very diverse suburban places. The results suggest the need for more subtle frameworks in order better to understand the structure of contemporary metropolitan areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper extends the discussion of the spatial Gini index proposed by Dawkins. Two spatial Gini indices, a nearest neighbour index and a monocentric index, are calculated for a sample of 237 US metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). For this sample of MSAs, an exploratory analysis is conducted to determine the relationship between the two spatial Gini indices and other traditional measures of residential segregation. Spatial segregation patterns across US census regions and selected US metropolitan areas are also examined. The analysis suggests that the Gini index provides a useful basis for a multidimensional investigation of residential segregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite earlier attempts to evaluate the consequences of urban containment policy adoption, the transport implications of these policies have been overlooked. This paper examines the impact that containment policies have on population density and vehicle miles travelled per capita. An empirical analysis is conducted, relying on a fixed-effects model for panel data for the largest 25 metropolitan areas in the US during the 1982–94 time-period. Because the outcomes are endogenously related, instrumental variable regression is used to test hypotheses about the effect of the presence and age of containment policies on travel. The findings suggest that local containment policies and state-level involvement in enabling or mandating growth management are associated with higher population density and more miles travelled. The results uncover unanticipated relationships of containment policies and travel outcomes, and underscore the importance of a co-ordinated strategy to mitigate some of the potential travel consequences of containment policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With accelerated world market integration, cities compete with each other cities as sites of production and consumption, targeting firms and households as semi-autonomous location decision-makers. Distinction may be sought in productive structure, consumption and identity. In this paper, contradictory trends towards homogenisation and distinctiveness are theorised. Studying the occupational structure of 50 large US metropolitan areas, it is found that distinctiveness has been increasing in economic base occupations though some heavily blue-collar cities' edge is eroding. Employment in consumption activities has been growing faster than in the economic base and cities are becoming more alike in consumption structure. It is concluded that the search for niches in exporting sectors and related occupational mix is key to urban resurgence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores relationships between seven dimensions of land use in 1990 and subsequent levels of three traffic congestion outcomes in 2000 for a sample of 50 large US urban areas. Multiple regression models are developed to address several methodological concerns, including reverse causation and time-lags. Controlling for prior levels of congestion and changes in an urban area's transport network and relevant demographics, it is found that: density/continuity is positively related to subsequent roadway ADT/lane and delay per capita; housing centrality is positively related to subsequent delay per capita; and housing–job proximity is inversely related to subsequent commute time. Only the last result corresponds to the conventional wisdom that more compact metropolitan land use patterns reduce traffic congestion. These results prove two points: that the choice of congestion measure may substantively affect the results; and that multivariate statistical analyses are necessary to control for potentially confounding influences, such as population growth and investment in the transport network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a critical analysis of recent US policy to promote low-income homeownership. It examines the ideology and assumptions buttressing this policy, evidence on the effects of low-income homeownership and the viability of homeownership as a strategy for low-income families. Evidence suggests that the prospect for sustained growth in low-income homeownership may be limited. Research does not provide uniform support for it as a tool for asset accumulation, neighbourhood economic development or other social and political goals. Alleged effects of homeownership may be artefacts of self-selection and the conflation of homeownership with unobserved characteristics coincident with buying homes. What homeownership does and why are not well understood because of difficulties disentangling what homeownership means. The elevation of low-income homeownership to its current status has deflected political attention away from alternative policies for affordable housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of restaurants, as consumption spaces, in defining the consumptional identity of 243 American cities. Specifically, it is asked whether, and how, US cities can be classified on the basis of the local prevalence of specific types of restaurants—are some cities culinary deserts, while others are gastronomic oases? A two-stage cluster analysis reveals four distinct city types, which fall along two intersecting dimensions: a quantitative dimension of restaurant availability and a qualitative cultural dimension. These four city types are characterised and connected to the existing literature on consumption spaces, with particular attention to a strong parallel between these city types and the communities discussed by Richard Florida. Several directions for future research using the city classification as a conceptual framework are offered. Additionally, these analyses involve the development and application of a new method of measuring a city's number of consumption spaces, which is theoretically superior to traditional per capita measures and which is described in a methodological appendix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complex systems, such as urban systems, emerge unpredictably without the influence of central control as a result of adaptive behaviour by their component, interacting agents. This paper analyses city size distributions, by decade, from the south-western region of the United States for the years 1890–1990. It determines if the distributions were clustered and documents changes in the pattern of clusters over time. Clusters were determined utilising a kernel density estimator and cluster analysis. The data were clustered as determined by both methods. The analyses identified 4–7 clusters of cities in each of the decades analysed. Cities cluster into size classes, suggesting variability in growth rates at different scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the literature on sub-national income convergence relates to states and regions. This paper focuses upon metropolitan areas as the germane geographical units for studying income convergence. Evidence of metropolitan wage divergence, the opposite of convergence, is presented. A theoretical basis for wage divergence is found in endogenous growth models and in two-sector trade models. Cross-section regression equations are estimated in which the level and the growth of metropolitan wages are related to variables that the empirical evidence and the theory suggest may be important sources of wage divergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the substantial literature devoted to examining the causes of US Black–White residential segregation by race, there is little evidence on the persistence of residential segregation outcomes across generations. This paper examines the following two questions: Do households reside in neighbourhoods with racial compositions that resemble the household head's childhood neighbourhood? Do residential segregation outcomes persist across generations, controlling for household-level determinants of residential location choice? The empirical work relies on household-level data from the US Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) matched to the racial composition of the household's census tract of residence to estimate regression models where the dependent variable is a measure of own-race residential segregation in 1980 and 1990 for each household head in the sample. The independent variables include various contemporaneous household characteristics, characteristics of each household head's parents in 1968 and the lagged 1968 neighbourhood racial composition of the household head's childhood residence. Results from several regression models suggest that households choose to reside in neighbourhoods with racial compositions that resemble the household head's childhood neighbourhood. Observable parental characteristics, particularly measures of parental interracial contact, explain much of the intergenerational persistence in segregation among African American households. Among Whites, the intergenerational persistence of residential segregation remains even in models with an extensive set of controls. Across both racial groups, the neighbourhood social ties of parents living in more integrated neighbourhoods are shown to reduce the propensity for children to choose segregated neighbourhoods upon reaching adulthood. These findings suggest that interracial contact may reduce the persistence of residential segregation over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theoretical and empirical arguments suggest that fear of violence will cause consumers, employees and entrepreneurs to alter their routine activities in areas that experience a surge in violent activity. This paper argues that understanding how businesses respond to violence has important implications for understanding community crime cycles and offers further evidence of how crime impacts the choices individuals make with regard to where they live, shop and work. Using newly available longitudinal business data and homicide data disaggregated to the ZIP code level, an examination is made of the impact of violence surges on the creation, destruction and growth of business establishments in five large US cities between 1987 and 1994. Controlling for pre-existing levels of violence, it is found that increased violence has the greatest consequences for service-related establishments in low-crime neighbourhoods. This finding is consistent with the notion that the fear of victimisation imposes additional indirect costs to society through its negative impact on local business establishments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the uncharted terrain of the ‘remote city’, an ubiquitous modern urban space. Concentrating on four cities to the north-east of Tokyo and New York, it argues that worldliness is hardly a monoply of ‘world cities’; that historical narratives of connection not only construct the ‘locality’ of many places, but establish imperatives for regular re-engagement. The remote, local, historical and small are revealed as aspects of globality, rather than alternatives. The worldly narratives of Bangor and Lewiston, Maine (US), and Hakodate, Japan, are contrasted not only with each other, but with the studied non-worldliness of the larger but still remote Japanese city of Niigata. The essay ends with a possible explanation for why ‘heroic’ or local worldliness actually flourishes in an era of the global mundane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficacy of the urban regime and growth machine concepts beyond the US remains a matter of considerable debate. Some argue that these frameworks retain considerable value so long as they are 'properly' applied and that recent concerns about the limits to these frameworks result from no more than their 'misapplication'. I critically examine this argument through a review of recent work on the mobilisation of business interests in British cities. The central claim is that, even when focused on the 'right' issues and questions, US frameworks quickly exhaust their explanatory capacity. In the context of a widening diversity of alternative approaches, I suggest that it is time to move squarely beyond growth coalition and regime accounts. The paper makes a number of suggestions for ways in which this new phase of theory building might proceed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the effects of the change in the US sales tax on economic activity and city size using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. Previous works have been designed to isolate the effects of a sales tax change on the particular parameters, such as city size, non-central retail activity and the value of housing. This research summarises the effects of a change in the sales tax rate on all the relevant variables in the context of one model. The underlined theoretical foundation is tested using data collected for the city of Fort Collins, a jurisdiction of approximately 100 000 people in northern Colorado, USA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals are increasingly opting to live in common interest developments (CIDs) such as condominiums, co-operatives and planned developments. Several commentators have linked this trend to increasing neighbourhood homogeneity and residential segregation. This paper investigates these claims for planned developments in California in 1990. Results indicate that planned developments are, on average, less diverse with respect to race but more diverse with respect to income due to greater representation among higher-income categories. The contribution of planned developments to overall metropolitan segregation, however, is minor. This finding is perhaps unsurprising in light of the relatively small proportion of the population living in planned developments as of 1990. As recent trends continue, it is conceivable that the effects of these communities on residential segregation will become more pronounced. Nevertheless, eliminating planned developments would not necessarily diminish segregation because these communities are but one mechanism for sorting behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyses the link between autarchic land-use policies adopted by local governments in California and the substantial redistribution of its population during the decade of the 1990s. Changes in population growth by racial and ethnic group in California cities are related to measures of the extent to which locally adopted policy favours expansion of the single-family housing stock. Controlling for the initial conditions of housing and labour markets by relying upon census measures for 1990, the paper accounts for the potential endogeneity of contemporaneous land-use policies by relying upon exogenous measures of the 'exclusivity' and 'pro-growth' propensities of the local public sector recorded by a state-wide survey in the early 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper outlines the 20th-century history of American zoning to explain how home-owners came to dominate its content and administration in most jurisdictions. Zoning's original purpose was to protect home-owners in residential areas from devaluation by industrial and apartment uses that had been made footloose by trucks and buses around 1910-20. Completion of the interstate highway system around 1970 made jobs and employees so mobile that suburbs adopted growth controls to stem the tide. If zoning is indeed a substitute for home-value insurance, it seems worthwhile to investigate the possibility of home-equity insurance to reduce the demand for exclusionary zoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses data on over 2800 house sales in Jacksonville, Florida, to estimate the impact of neighbourhood characteristics on house prices. A GIS progamme is used to develop neighbourhood characteristics that are unique to each observation, thereby allowing the evaluation of the impact of neighbourhood attributes in proximity to the dwelling. Except for population density, the effects of neighbourhood characteristics on property values do not decay over a 3-4-mile distance from the dwelling and the results suggest that neighbourhood characteristics over a large geographical area may have a significant effect on property values. Because the study area is a single jurisdiction, the results suggest that the housing market may generate the Tiebout-like exclusion that is usually associated with fiscal fragmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can socioeconomic factors seemingly explain variation in suicide rates at large-unit aggregate levels only due to an ecological fallacy? This is what Kunce and Anderson (2002) suggest based on fixed-effects estimation of US state suicide rates, in which they find little evidence that socioeconomic factors matter. This paper demonstrates that this result does not hold true for other large-unit aggregate levels in an analysis of suicide at the cross-national level. It is found that many socioeconomic factors have a statistically significant impact. It is concluded that sociological and economic theories explaining variation in suicide rates at the large-unit aggregate level with the help of aggregate socioeconomic factors cannot simply be dismissed because of an alleged ecological fallacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an empirical examination of the process of 'super-gentrification' in the Brooklyn Heights neighbourhood of New York City. This intensified regentrification is happening in a few select areas of global cities like London and New York that have become the focus of intense investment and conspicuous consumption by a new generation of super-rich 'financifiers' fed by fortunes from the global finance and corporate service industries. This latest resurgence of gentrification can be distinguished from previous rounds of revitalisation and poses important questions about the historical continuity of current manifestations of gentrification with previous generations of neighbourhood change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A significant portion of the literature on gentrification has implied, if not explicitly described, a racial dynamic associated with the process whereby White households replace Black households as neighbourhood incomes rise. However, this racial dimension to gentrification rules out the possibility that the neighbourhood transitions that are a part of gentrification could be sparked by middle- and upper-income Black households. This paper re-examines this view of gentrification by establishing if Black home-owners were a gentrifying influence in US cities from 1970 to 1990. Based on findings from previous case studies, a new scoring technique for identifying gentrifying neighbourhoods is used. Evidence is found that Black home-owners were a gentrifying influence in the 1970s, but not in the 1980s. Changes in housing market racial dynamics during the period are a possible explanation for the divergent results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between land-use patterns and individual mobility from a comparative international perspective. There is a vast literature on US automobile dependence. Major explanatory factors include: transport, housing, land-use and tax policy; per capita incomes; American cultural preferences; national geography; and the spatial structure of US metropolitan areas (itself a result of the first three factors). Emphasising the policy environment, many researchers have cast their analysis in comparative terms, noting the differences in automobile use between European countries and the US. It is argued that US patterns of metropolitan form, with low development densities and dispersed population and employment, reinforce vehicle dependence. In contrast, most European metropolitan areas, with higher densities and more centralised land-use patterns, have lower levels of car use. Stronger controls on land use employed in many European countries are seen as having preserved the compact form of metropolitan areas. These arguments imply significant relationships between land-use patterns and travel behaviour. Using travel diary data from the US and Great Britain, these relationships are compared across the two countries. It is found that differences in daily trips and miles travelled are explained by differences in both the urban form and household income. While the effect of income on daily travel is similar for the US and Great Britain, the effect of density is more pronounced in the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an assessment is made of the extent to which proximity to 38 dispersed public housing sites opening in Denver during 1992-95 affected post-development levels and trends in neighbourhood crime rates. A new econometric specification incorporating pre- and post-controls for selection bias as well as spatial autocorrelation was employed to test for statistical relationships between the development of dispersed public housing sites and subsequent increases in various types of crime. The findings suggest that proximity to dispersed public housing was not associated with any post-development increase in reported crime of any type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the impact of tax increment financing (TIF) on the value of industrial properties in Chicago. Because TIF designation may be self-selected, a two stage procedure is used to estimate the influence of TIF. The authors find that the value of industrial parcels located in mixed-use TIF districts (i.e. those that also contain commercial or residential properties) is higher than that of similar parcels that are not located in a TIF district. However, the value of industrial parcels that are located in homogeneous industrial use TIF districts is no higher and in some specifications is lower than that of similar parcels not located in a TIF district. These divergent results may be best explained by industrial parcel owners' desire to convert their properties to non industrial uses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Day labour and other forms of temporary, casualised and precarious employment lie at the centre of an emergent employment regime that is rewriting labour market rules in major US cities. Flexibilisation of work, processes of regional industrial restructuring and uneven development at the urban scale interact to create the conditions for the spread of low-wage contingent employment. The spread of contingent work has pursued a path of least resistance, destabilising and undermining the already difficult conditions in low-wage labour markets. This has contributed to the reproduction and reinforcement of patterns of labour market segmentation, racial polarisation and social exclusion within urban labour markets. This paper examines the restructuring of urban employment regimes through the lens of low-wage, temporary employment and its attendant social division of labour at the urban scale. The aim is two-fold: first, to examine the ways in which a 'regime of precarious employment' has been embedded within a regional growth model; and, secondly, to describe emerging forms of labour market regulation that are associated with this employment regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides new evidence on the link between airline traffic and employment in US metropolitan areas. The evidence confirms the common view that good airline service is an important factor in urban economic development. Frequent service to a variety of destinations, reflected in a high level of passenger enplanements, facilitates easy face-to-face contact with businesses in other cities, attracting new firms to the metro area and stimulating employment at established enterprises. The empirical results show that a 10 per cent increase in passenger enplanements in a metro area leads approximately to a 1 per cent increase in employment in service-related industries. However, airline traffic has no effect on manufacturing and other goods-related employment, suggesting that air travel is less important for such firms than for service-related businesses. These estimates are generated controlling for reverse causality between employment and traffic. The results imply that expansion of Chicago's O'Hare airport would raise service-related employment in the Chicago metro area by 185 000 jobs (this impact assumes that expansion raises traffic by 50 per cent). Thus, the expansion of O'Hare airport represents a powerful economic development tool, as argued by its proponents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]