Are Center Cities the Engines of Growth for their Suburbs?

For decades, center cities of metropolitan areas were regarded as the growth engines of their suburbs. However, this paradigm has been shifting in the past twenty years in Virginia, where suburbs have been growing faster than center cities. Consequently, there is a need in economic development communities to re-evaluate the economic relationship between center cities and their suburbs. This paper develops a statistical test to determine the cause-effect ties between these two economies and concludes that Virginia's cities are no longer the growth engines of their suburbs. The opposite is almost true: suburbs are on the verge of becoming the leaders for city economic growth. To further the understanding of what drives the city/suburban economy, the study also tests the cause-effect relationship between population growth and employment growth and finds that population growth still exerts a strong influence on employment growth. This knowledge can be useful in designing policies to promote the economic growth of both cities and suburbs.Business Economics (2005) 40, 22–31; doi:10.2145/20050402