WORKER DISPLACEMENT AND JOB-SEARCH: A REGIONAL ANALYSIS OF STRUCTURAL IMPEDIMENTS TO REEMPLOYMENT*

ABSTRACT. This study investigates the human, and in turn the regional, consequences of industrial restructuring in the United States. Our methodology presumes that labor market outcomes of displaced workers can provide considerable information on the structural properties of local labor markets, and subsequently upon the capacity of such areas/regions to reemploy additional workers. The examination follows two steps. In the first, a multivariate model of reemployment likelihood is developed and subsequently estimated. Separate equations are obtained for various resons of the country, a disaggregation that permits one to identify how postdisplacement reemployment, and its determinants, vary systematically across space. In the second step, the above estimates are decomposed into two elements, one of which is reflective of regional structural conditions. Based upon this methodology and estimates obtained in the first step, regions of the country are compared as to magnitude of their structural economic problems, and thus as to their capacity to gainfully reemploy additional workers displaced by plant closure or relocation.     

Review

Blackfellas, Whitefellas, and the Hidden Injuries of Race By Gillian Cowlishaw Carlton South, VIC: Blackwell Publishing Asia 2004 Pp:xvi + 272. Price: A$48.95 (PB)     

Unity and Diversity in High-tech Growth and Renewal: Learning from Boston and Silicon Valley

A new model of knowledge-based regional economic development was invented in Boston during the 1930s and subsequently transferred to northern California where it also had independent roots. Drawing upon academic, business and government resources and configuring them in new formats created new firms and new industries. Nevertheless, the two regions often appear dissimilar when they are contrasted synchronically, due to the different stages they may be in at the time. Thus, some observers argue that Boston and Silicon Valley are distinctive watersheds, irrelevant to follow-on regions. However, if the development process of these two prototypical high-tech regions are analysed diachronically, a trajectory with similar phases of development may be identified. We suggest that these two regions exemplify a general model for high-tech regional growth and renewal.