Suburbs and Satellites: Two Decades of Change

Traditional models of suburban employment patterns emphasize continuity in functional differentiation. This results in perpetuation of a pattern in which employing satellites house the greatest concentrations of poor and minority residents, at the highest population density. More recent studies suggest new patterns that result from the competition among even affluent suburbs for tax base, and from the fiscal considerations in locational behavior of firms. For a national sample of suburbs in the period 1960-1980, we find that previous patterns have persisted among suburbs which developed prior to 1950. However, we find a sharp contrast between the correlates of trade and manufacturing employment, and see evidence of a reversal of some key relationships among newer communities.