The evolution of regional manufacturing employment: gross job flows within and between firms and industries

The shift of manufacturing activity from the Northeast to the Sunbelt is familiar and well documented. Less well documented is the question of what factors caused this shift. Anecdotes from the early twentieth century indicate that New England mill owners moved jobs to souther states in order to red...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:New England economic review 2002-01, p.35
Main Authors: Schuh, Scott, Triest, Robert K
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
20th century
Economic theory
Employment
History
Income distribution
Job creation
Manufacturing
Population
Productivity
Regions
Trends
Value added
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Summary:The shift of manufacturing activity from the Northeast to the Sunbelt is familiar and well documented. Less well documented is the question of what factors caused this shift. Anecdotes from the early twentieth century indicate that New England mill owners moved jobs to souther states in order to reduce labor costs, but there has been little research quantifying the importance of this type of phenomenon in the general geographic redistribution of manufacturing activity. The mechanisms underlying the regional shift of manufacturing employment toward the Sunbelt are examined. Results suggest that interregional job flows within companies are an important contributor to the shifting geographic distribution of manufacturing employment. Most of the differences in employment growth between regions appear to be caused by employment shifts within industries, not by differences in industry mix.
ISSN:0028-4726
2163-5986