Back to the Future: Re-Incorporation of `Metropolitan Character' in U.S. Core-Based Statistical Area Delineations

Craig Carpenter and J. Matthew Fannin

Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, 2021, vol. 51, issue 2

Abstract: The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has maintained the urban core population cutoff of a central county of a Metropolitan Statistical Area from 1950 through 2010 at 50,000 despite the U.S. population more than doubling over that time. This article uses a simple application of demand threshold techniques to measure evolution in the distribution of business establishments between 1980 and 2016 across core-based statistical areas. Extrapolating to 1950 and 2020, these techniques suggest a new population cutoff of 100,000, which is exactly consistent with a 2021 proposed rule change by the OMB. Given changing functional relationships between urban cores and rural peripheries, OMB's simple cutoff delineations may need to be re-evaluated; but in the absence of such a change {and with the goal of maintaining the original goal of these metropolitan cutoffs {this simple application of demand thresholds indicates OMB's proposal is sensible.

Keywords: Political; Economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:jrapmc:339952

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.339952

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