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Over the past several decades, real incomes were stagnant for U.S. households in the bottom of the income distribution, while the fastest household income growth was at the top of the distribution. Broadly speaking over the past three decades the gap between rich and poor has been growing. However, this does not imply that growth and distribution are necessarily at odds. As we will see below, it turns out that metropolitan areas that grow fastest generally have the fastest growth in incomes at the bottom of the income distribution.

Why Do Regions Grow?

Many of the findings regarding the reasons for economic growth and development are hardly surprising. For example, physical capital (machines, real estate, computers and so on) matters, although in the long run it is perhaps human capital that matters the most. Locational advantages, such as a clean environment and strong amenities, make a difference. Regions that have well functioning cities, and strong economic and transport links between cities and nearby rural areas tend to prosper. For example, my home state of Wisconsin is adversely affected by the fact that our largest city, Milwaukee, is smaller and less dynamic than nearby Chicago or even Minneapolis.

Nationwide, there are modest relationships between the structure of a region's economy and its growth patterns. The most careful studies show 'high tech' regions grow only slightly faster on average than 'low tech' regions. But that does not mean high tech development is not critical to regions that have a comparative advantage in such activities. Furthermore, many industries usually thought of as low tech and “Old Economy,” like metal bashing or trucking, have been radically transformed by the application of technology. Certainly technology has been and will continue to be an important driver of development. But we should not turn our legitimate interest in technology into a fetish. We should recognize that many locations will need to focus on quite different comparative advantages, including relatively “low-tech” activities such as tourism.

The role of a region's culture is important, but it also is difficult to measure and analyze. Wisconsin benefits from a strong work ethic and high standards of public probity, the latter partly a consequence of our Progressive tradition. Some would argue, however, that we are less entrepreneurially minded than some other parts of the country.

Who Benefits From Economic Growth, and How?

Despite the common perception that fast growth comes at the expense of a more equitable distribution of income, careful recent studies by the Upjohn Institute’s Timothy Bartik, and by the University of Pennsylvania’s本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。