Doctoral Dissertation Research: Plugging Into the Global Economy: A Study of Economic Development in Smaller, Industrial Cities

项目摘要：融入全球经济：小型工业城市的经济发展研究本项目研究1970年至2000年期间美国中西部和东北部的小型工业城市是如何经历全球经济结构调整的。作为去工业化的结果，这些城市面临着在新经济中找到自己位置的严峻经济挑战。该研究将确定这些城市为融入新的全球经济而采取的不同经济轨迹，并解释为什么遵循某些轨迹。在此过程中，本研究将评估几种经济发展理论，并试图提出一种基于社会资本的竞争理论。假设一个城市的地方组织生活与延伸到当地社区之外的组织网络一起影响城市进入全球经济的某些轨迹的能力。这个比较历史的项目采用了多种方法。为了确定城市的经济轨迹，数据将从多个来源收集，包括：HUD的城市数据系统，美国劳工统计局，职业就业调查，美国经济普查，当地商会信息和当地最大雇主的公用事业公司信息。这些数据将用于创建城市层面的经济轨迹——城市的经济概况，突出不同经济部门的就业随时间的变化。接下来，将从多个私人和公共数据来源收集有关可能影响经济发展的城市一级因素的额外数据。我将使用传统的定量方法来分析纵向变化和定性比较分析（QCA）来确定解释城市经济轨迹的因素。最后，将分析三到四个城市作为说明性案例，以构建对城市如何以及为什么采取某些路径的历史和操作理解。本研究的更广泛影响在于，它通过系统地确定城市从去工业化中反弹的机制，并研究社会资本是否以及如何在这一过程中发挥作用，为经济发展的实证和理论文献做出了贡献。虽然大量跨学科文献规定了城市在新的全球经济中取得成功必须采取的步骤，但它在很大程度上未能解决去工业化城市的特殊需求。因此，本研究将评估现有文献如何预测这些城市实现全球经济一体化的能力，并为成功所需的机制提供新的实证和理论见解。重要的是，一个未被充分研究的环节是社会资本与全球经济一体化之间的联系。对至少四个城市的深入分析将有助于缩小这一差距，探讨城市内部和外部的网络联系是否以及如何产生有益的经济成果。最后，本研究将回答政策制定者、城市规划者和政治家们一直在问的关于如何实现地方经济发展的问题。通过提供成功和不成功的城市级经济轨迹的系统数据，包括对某些路径运行良好的原因的分析，本研究将为决策者提供实际意义，他们希望避免考虑不周全和财政浪费的增长计划，支持为遍布美国中西部和东北部的较小的、去工业化城市制定更健全的经济计划。

Project Abstract: Plugging Into the Global Economy: A Study of Economic Development in Smaller, Industrial CitiesThis project investigates how smaller, industrial cities in the Midwest and Northeast United States have experienced the period of global economic restructuring from 1970 to 2000. As a consequence of deindustrialization these cities face serious economic challenges to finding their niche in the new economy. The research will identify the different economic trajectories these cities have taken to achieve integration into the new global economy and explain why certain trajectories are followed. In doing so, this research will evaluate several theories of economic development and attempt to advance a competing theory based on social capital. It is hypothesized that a city's local organizational life in conjunction with organizational networks extending beyond the local community affect the ability of cities to take certain trajectories into the global economy.This comparative historical project incorporates multiple methods. To identify the economic trajectories of the cities, data will be gathered from multiple sources including: HUD's State of the Cities Data System, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Occupational Employment Survey, the U.S. Economic Census, local chamber of commerce information and local utility company information on largest employers. These data will be used to create city-level economic trajectories-economic profiles of the cities that highlight changes in employment across different economic sectors over time. Next, additional data on city-level factors that potentially influence economic development will be gathered from multiple private and public data sources. I will utilize conventional quantitative methods to analyze longitudinal change and Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to determine the factors that explain cities' economic trajectories. Finally, three to four cities will be analyzed as illustrative cases to construct an historical and operational understanding of how and why cities took certain paths. Broader impacsts of this research are that it contributes to the empirical and theoretical literature on economic development by systematically identifying the mechanisms by which cites rebound from deindustrialization and by examining whether and how social capital plays a role in the process. While a substantial interdisciplinary literature prescribes steps cites must take to be successful in the new global economy, it largely fails to address the particular needs of deindustrialized cities. Thus, this research will assess how the extant literature predicts the ability of such cities to achieve global economic integration and offer new empirical and theoretical insights into the mechanisms necessary for success. Importantly, one understudied link is the connection between social capital and global economic integration. In-depth analysis of at least four cities will contribute to this gap by asking whether and how network ties, both internal and external to a city, produce beneficial economic outcomes. Finally, this research will speak to questions policy-makers, city planners, and politicians continue to ask about how to achieve local economic development. By providing systematic data on both successful and non-successful city-level economic trajectories, including an analysis of why certain paths work well, this research will offer practical significance for policy-makers who want to avoid ill-conceived and financially wasteful growth plans in favor of sounder economic plans for smaller, deindustrialized cities that pervade the Midwest and Northeastern United States.