Multinucleation in Metropolitan Economies

Abstract Metropolitan form has changed significantly over the past few decades; economic activities are increasingly concentrated in suburban nucleations. In this paper I specify models of the multinucleation process on the basis of the investment decisions of business firms in different economic sectors. Regression analysis is used to explain the changing density of business establishments with data for suburban municipalities in the Boston, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis-St. Paul MSA's. Variables reflecting land costs, freeway access, market growth, and the effects of agglomeration and competition are important explanatory factors in many cases. I also specify a model of the number of suburban employment nucleations and test it using cross-sectional data for 31 metropolitan places. The metropolitan income base, suburban employment density, suburban share of MSA land area, and velocity of movement are important explanatory variables. The geographic spacing of nucleations is also explored; the results of time-series analysis indicate that pattern regularity in the late 1940s has increasingly given way to a more random spatial distribution of nucleations in the large, multicentered metropolis of today.