Metropolitan Population Size and Economic Well-Being

A multi-equation recursive model is specified wherein the level and inequality of income in US metropolitan areas are functions of population, labor force characteristics, industrial structure, and occupational structure. Parameters are estimated for a 1980 sample of 120 standard metropolitan statistical areas representative of all population sizes. These parameters suggest that metropolitan areas of 1.9 million population demonstrate on average the greatest inequality, ceteris paribus. Population proved not to be strongly correlated with per capita income, either directly or indirectly.