| This study examines how participation in global flows of goods, services, people, and capital affects economic growth and prosperity in U.S. metropolitan areas. Like many large urbanized nations, the United States is not a monolith; the national economy is perhaps better understood as a differentiated network of city and metropolitan economies that concentrate and cluster market activity. My hypothesis, which I will test through multivariate regression analysis, is that U.S. metropolitan areas that are more engaged in global flows of goods, services, people, and capital will exhibit higher levels of growth and prosperity. I find that the share of foreign-born population and the share of jobs in foreign-owned enterprises are positively associated with GDP per capita at the metropolitan scale, while the share of metropolitan GDP generated by exports has no significant impact on GDP per capita growth. Measures of other determinants of economic growth---education, technological innovation (as measured by advanced industries share), and capital investment---are also positively associated with GDP per capita. However, the share of the regional economy generated by exports does not have a statistically significant association with GDP per capita. Metropolitan leaders should note that participation in global flows---specifically flows of investment and people---can achieve small increases in GDP per capita, but not lose sight of the fact that investments in public goods like education yield the largest gains in average incomes. |
