Long Distance Commuting and Income Change in the Towns of Upstate New York

Abstract

Long distance commuting to all levels of the urban hierarchy is a mechanism by which income growth is spread to nonmetropolitan peripheries. Attendant income growth multipliers are variable with distance from metropolitan employment centers, but because of off-setting forces of insulation and threshold, the maximum multipliers are found at intermediate distances from a metropolitan center. The increasing potency of multipliers from the 1960s to the 1970s and extension of income growth to greater distances are influenced by in-migration, job substitution, and increased female participation rates.