This dissertation examines the turnaround of labor force migration patterns in the states of California, Oregon, and Washington in the 1970s. The focus of the dissertation is the simultaneous phenomena of economic deconcentration and employment migration in nonmetropolitan counties during the turnaround period. The theoretical approach of the research draws from the disciplines of economics, geography, and sociology to develop a model that addresses what attributes of areas attract labor migration flows. The study specifies that labor migration is a function of economic activities, the environment, and accessibility. The research focus is the role that economic and noneconomic factors play in attracting labor migration flows. The spatial focus is the counties in the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. The temporal focus of study is the period between 1965 and 1975. The results of the research affirm the complexity of migration modelling. A test of equality of coefficients of the different periods investigated show significant differences between the turnaround and preturnaround models. The data results show just a few of the noneconomic factors are a major determinant of the nonmetropolitan turnaround. The model results show several unexpected results. Several of the coefficients in the models have the opposite sign of what originally was expected. Another unexpected outcome of the research is the apparent symmetry of labor in-migration and labor out-migration coefficients. A formal test for symmetry, however, shows the models are significantly different. This study finds that the economic deconcentration process in the Pacific states is not one in which metropolitan growth spilled over into the nonmetropolitan counties. Rather both the metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties simultaneously experienced deindustrializing (a decline of manufacturing employment and growth of service employment). The service related employment activity has a major influence on employment growth in the Pacific states. Although employment change does not show a significant influence on labor migration flows, labor migration does show a significant influence on employment growth in several of the model results.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:pdx.edu/oai:pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu:open_access_etds-2286 |
| Date | 01 January 1992 |
| Creators | McLean, Beverly Marie |
| Publisher | PDXScholar |
| Source Sets | Portland State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Dissertations and Theses |
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