Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Pittsburgh Booming

Stoking the fires of Pittsburgh mythos at Pacific Standard magazine.

Theme: Divergence between Pittsburgh and the Rust Belt.

Subject Article: "In Climbing Income Ladder, Location Matters."

Other Links: 1. "A Tale of Two Rust-Belt Cities."
2. "Bankrupt is as bankrupt files."
3. "Semi-famous actress dumps on the 'Burgh."
4. "U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Pittsburgh Area Employment, Hours, and Earnings."
5. "Universities Are the Key Ingredient to 21st-Century Urban Success"
6. "Check of Portland’s vitals shows signs of life."
7. "Recovery And Outmigration."
8. "Growth and Great Lakes Cities."

Postscript: The demographic group for the study:

To analyze this question, we first compiled statistics from millions of anonymous earnings records to measure intergenerational mobility by area. The core sample of children used to calculate these local intergenerational mobility measures consists of children who were born in 1980 or 1981 and are U.S. citizens as of 2013. We used family measures of (pre-tax) income (summing across married spouses) both for parents and children (when adults). We measure children’s household income in 2010-2011, when they are approximately 30 years old. We measure their parents’ household income between 1996 and 2000.

As noted, Pittsburgh shows well in the results. The years of birth are pre-exodus Pittsburgh. Odds are pretty good that these kids made a long-distance move after the regional economy cratered. After all, upward mobility and geographic mobility are positively correlated.

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