Organization of Production and Community Income Distributions

This paper proposes a model to account for the differential effects of employment changes in major industrial sectors on the distribution of family income in nonmetropolitan communities. It is argued that variations in the organization of production lead to differences in the occupational composition of industrial sectors which produces differential impacts on the distribution of income. Empirical analysis shows that changes in Concentrated Sector employment have the greatest equalizing effect on the distribution of income. Changes in Competitive Sector employment contribute more to changes in the proportion of families at the lower end of the distribution, while changes in State Sector employment have more effect on the proportion at the upper end. Some implications of these findings are discussed.