Population and Employment Interactions in the Growth of United States Micropolitan Centers

This paper examines population and employment growth in 219 emerging metropolitan (micropolitan) areas in the United States during the 1980s. In the spirit of Carlino and Mills (1987) and Clark and Murphy (1996), a partial adjustment model is used to examine the simultaneity of population and employment change, while controlling for the area-specific effects of amenities, fiscal conditions, and demographic composition, as well as for broad regional differences. The statistical evidence does not provide strong support for the simultaneity of micropolitan-area population and employment change during that decade.