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Article
Change versus decline: The suburbanization of jobs in U.S. shrinking cities
Advances in Transport Policy and Planning
  • Joanna Ganning, Cleveland State University
Document Type
Contribution to Books
Publication Date
10-12-2018
Abstract

Spatial mismatch theory hypothesizes that as jobs suburbanize, minorities and low-income households will disproportionately lose access to economic opportunity. This paper hypothesizes that the context of urban decline also challenges job accessibility. In shrinking cities, growth at the urban fringe not only expands the footprint of the region's urbanized area, but unlike in most strong market settings, it simultaneously hollows out the core, challenging job accessibility for residents. This paper tests this hypothesis by presenting a block-group level model of job accessibility in the Principal Cities of 349 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs). The model finds that the context of urban decline reduces job accessibility for residents by 6.9%, other things equal. Descriptive statistics are employed to analyze spatial changes in job location over time. The results suggest that as development pushes outward in strong market settings, the core shares in the growth, while in shrinking cities, spatial deconcentration disproportionately weakens the core. This process is hypothesized to lead to the decreased job accessibility found in shrinking cities.

DOI
10.1016/bs.atpp.2018.09.006
Citation Information
Joanna Ganning. "Change versus decline: The suburbanization of jobs in U.S. shrinking cities" Advances in Transport Policy and Planning (2018) p. 163 - 184
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/joanna-ganning/29/