Growth rate differential analysis of employment and wage earnings in Virginia's sub-regions, 1960-1970

The overall purpose of this study was to provide information concerning the comparative and competitive abilities of industries and regions within the State and to aid in understanding the changing levels and location of economic activity. Ninety-six counties of Virginia were clustered into eight homogeneous sub-regions by use of clustering analysis and stepwise multiple discriminant analysis. Growth rate differential analysis was performed for each of the eight study sub-regions. Industrial location patterns of the sub-regions of Virginia were examined in terms of location quotients and coefficients of specialization. It was found that the natural resources oriented industries such as agriculture, mining, food production, lumber production, and stone and clay production were highly represented in the rural sub-regions. Manufacturing as a whole was highly represented in the rural industrialized sub-regions; however, the weighted shares of the state total manufacturing employment in these sub-regions were not as great as that of the urban sub-region delineated in the study which showed relatively low representation of manufacturing. There was strong evidence that the manufacturing in the rural sub-regions was in general the rural-oriented manufacturing industries such as food, textile, apparel, stone and clay products, and furniture products. Urban oriented industries such as trade, transportation, contracted construction, services, finance and insurance and government were highly represented in the urbanized subregion. The opposite was true of the rural sub-regions. In the State of Virginia, most of the urban oriented industries were growing faster than the natural resources oriented industries such as agriculture, mining, lumber products, and food products. Unemployment was also declining in terms of percentage change during the 1960-1970 decade. At the sub-regional level, only the urbanized sub-region showed higher than State average growth in both employment and earnings. The other regions showed relative declines in both employment and earnings when compared to the State. Seven of the eight sub-regions of Virginia suffered comparative disadvantages in terms of industrial mixes showing declines in both employment and earnings. The urbanized region benefited from increases in employment and earnings due to both favorable industrial mix and wage structure. Urban oriented industries in general showed comparative abilities in urban areas, while the rural-oriented industries suffered comparative disadvantage in both urban and rural areas. Manufacturing, in general, enjoyed greater comparative abilities in rural areas than in urban areas. Performances of the sub-regions also showed similar trends as the comparative abilities of the regions. All of the sub-regions except the urban sub-region suffered relative declines in their shares of total state employment and earnings. Both rural and urban oriented industries in the urban sub-region showed successful performances, while most of the rural oriented industries suffered competitive disabilities in the rural regions expressed in terms of growth of employment and earnings. The employment projection for the year of 1980 showed that unless the present regional industrial mix for each of the regions is altered, the regional variation in employment growth would be greater during the 1970-1980 decade than in the 1960-1970 decade.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Agricultural Economics

Department dc:contributor.department

Agricultural Economics

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

1975

Author dc:creator

• Choi, Jae Sun Sun

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Long, Burl F.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Batie, Sandra S.
• Jensen, Robert B.
• Kline, Ralph G.
• Shabman, Leonard A.
• Smith, Dennis K.
• King, William E.

• unemployment
• rural growth
• urban growth

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

etd-06122010-020757

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/38609