Economic advancement or social exclusion? : less-educated workers, cost-of-living and migration in high-tech regions

Several high-tech regions today show signs of displacement and exclusion of low-skill workers from the employment and wage benefits of a booming economy. Whether high-tech activities are responsible for these trends or if the ex ante characteristics of the region could predispose its residents to exclusion, in the absence of high-tech growth, are issues that regional scientists have left largely unexplored. Understanding what low-skill and high-skill workers undergo in the presence of this activity, and how that compares to the reality of those who reside in regions whose economy is not dependent on knowledge-intensive sectors, provides a backdrop for policy makers to evaluate industry-choice decisions in the interest of economic growth and social equity in regional development. To provide that backdrop, I empirically answer: How are the benefits of high-tech development distributed between less- and more-educated workers? How does this distribution compare to that of regions that do not follow an education-intensive development path? Are social equity and sustained growth possible under these conditions? Through regression analysis across 50 regions in the United States during the 1990s, I show that shifts in regional economic-base composition towards a greater concentration of high-tech activity cannot be held on its own responsible for exclusionary patterns in these regions.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Navarro Díaz, Criseida

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Frank Levy.

• Urban Studies and Planning.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/34684
• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Identifier URI

http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/34684

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/34684