Patterns of Economic Restructuring in Industrial-based Metropolitan Areas

The restructuring of the US economy has involved the divergence of employment growth in the manufacturing sector from that in the aggregate economy. It is hypothesised that the negative consequences of restructuring in the manufacturing sector have been concentrated disproportionately in the metropolitan economies of the Midwest (East North Central) region of the US. It is also hypothesised that industrial-based metropolitan economies with higher levels of manufacturing employment have a strong potential for industrial decline, regardless of regional location. This paper develops an analytical framework for examining patterns of economic restructuring across metropolitan areas. Through this framework, evidence of deindustrialisation and other economic restructuring outcomes can be inferred on the basis of aggregate measures of employment change. The framework is employed to test these hypotheses empirically by delimiting patterns of economic restructuring across industrial-based metropolitan areas of the US during the 1970-85 period and examining the distribution of these patterns across US regions.