The Location and Growth of Business and Professional Services in American Metropolitan Areas, 1976–1986

Abstract The economic base of American metropolitan areas relies increasingly on business and professional services. We explore the causes for fast growth of these sectors in metropolitan areas for 1976–86. Business and professional services produce new types of inputs to a large number of sectors. They encompass far more than externalization of activities once produced internally by manufacturers. We emphasize localization of business and professional services in selected metropolitan areas driven by the demand for skilled labor and information. Using employment data for SMSAs, we present empirical evidence verifying the concentration of business and professional services in the largest metropolitan areas and a temporal lag in their market penetration of smaller metropolitan areas. We introduce a new measure called a growth quotient to show that these services are growing rapidly in selected regional metropolitan areas. SMSAs in the industrial belt, especially in their central counties, rely on business ...

[1]  A. Marshall.  Principles of Economics , .

[2]  Survivors Insurance,et al.  County business patterns , 1948 .

[3]  G. Stigler,et al.  Trends in Employment in the Service Industries. , 1957 .

[4]  G. D. N. Worswick,et al.  The Service Economy. , 1969 .

[5]  Harry I. Greenfield,et al.  Manpower and the growth of producer services , 1970 .

[6]  R. Semple.  Recent trends in the spatial concentration of corporate headquarters , 1973 .

[7]  N. Rosenberg.  Science, Invention and Economic Growth , 1974 .

[8]  J. Goddard,et al.  Office location in urban and regional development , 1975 .

[9]  Gunnar Tornqvist.  THE GEOGRAPHY OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES: SOME CRITICAL VIEWPOINTS ON THEORY AND APPLICATION , 1977 .

[10]  J. Rees.  Manufacturing Headquarters in a Post-Industrial Urban Context , 1978 .

[11]  T. Stanback.  Services, the new economy , 1981 .

[12]  R. Nelson.  The Role of Knowledge in R&D Efficiency , 1982 .

[13]  J. Gershuny.  The new service economy , 1983 .

[14]  John M. Clapp.  A Model of Public Policy toward Office Relocation , 1983 .

[15]  Victor R. Fuchs,et al.  How we live , 1984 .

[16]  M. Urquhart.  The Employment Shift to Services: Where Did It Come From?. , 1984 .

[17]  Anthony H. Pascal,et al.  The Economic Transformation of American Cities , 1984 .

[18]  M. Spence.  Cost Reduction, Competition and Industry Performance , 1984 .

[19]  Pascal Petit,et al.  Slow growth and the service economy , 1985 .

[20]  P. Daniels.  Service Industries: A Geographical Appraisal , 1985 .

[21]  J. Bernstein,et al.  Research and Development and Intraindustry Spillovers: an Empirical Application of Dynamic Duality , 1986 .

[22]  M. Hepworth,et al.  The geography of technological change in the information economy , 1986 .

[23]  K. Nelson.  Labor demand, labor supply and the suburbanization of low-wage office work. , 1986 .

[24]  Mark E. Hepworth.  Information Technology as Spatial Systems , 1987 .

[25]  Robert M. Tomasko.  Downsizing: Reshaping the Corporation for the Future , 1987 .

[26]  Wolfgang Ochel,et al.  Service Economies in Europe: Opportunities for Growth , 1987 .

[27]  B. Ó. hUallacháin.  Regional and Technological Implications of the Recent Buildup in American Defense Spending , 1987 .

[28]  John Tschetter.  Producer Services Industries: Why Are They Growing So Rapidly?. , 1987 .

[29]  W. Coffey,et al.  Trade and Location of Producer Services: A Canadian Perspective , 1987 .

[30]  P. Wood,et al.  Understanding the Location and Role of Producer Services in the United Kingdom , 1987 .

[31]  James Brian Quinn,et al.  Technology in services , 1987 .

[32]  J H J van Dinteren.  The Role of Business-Service Offices in the Economy of Medium-Sized Cities , 1987 .

[33]  E. Howe,et al.  SERVICE EXPORTS AND REGIONAL GROWTH IN THE POSTINDUSTRIAL ERA , 1988 .

[34]  J. Henderson.  Urban Development: Theory, Fact, and Illusion , 1988 .

[35]  W. Wilson.  The truly disadvantaged : the inner city, the underclass, and public policy , 1988 .

[36]  Breandán Ó Huallcháin,et al.  Agglomeration of Services in American Metropolitan Areas , 1989 .

[37]  B. Harrison,et al.  Reassessing the ‘Massachusetts Miracle’: Reindustrialization and Balanced Growth, or Convergence to ‘Manhattanization’? , 1989 .

[38]  Edward J. Malecki,et al.  What About People in High Technology? Some Research and Policy Considerations , 1989 .

[39]  Ronald L. Mitchelson,et al.  Information Flows among Major Metropolitan Areas in the United States , 1989 .

[40]  D. Price,et al.  The changing geography of the service sector , 1989 .

[41]  Exchange rates and structural change in U.S. manufacturing employment , 1989 .

[42]  John Langdale.  The Geography of International Business Telecommunications: The Role of Leased Networks , 1989 .

[43]  W. Coffey,et al.  PRODUCER SERVICES AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT: A POLICY-ORIENTED PERSPECTIVE , 1989 .

[44]  J. Kodras,et al.  Restructured Regions and Families: The Feminization of Poverty in the U.S. , 1990 .