JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Clark University is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Economic Geography.Long distance commuting to all levels of the urban hierarchy is a mechanism by which income growth is spread to nonmetropolitan peripheries. Attendant income growth multipliers are variable with distance from metropolitan employment centers, but because of off-setting forces of insulation and threshold, the maximum multipliers are found at intermediate distances from a metropolitan center. The increasing potency of multipliers from the 1960s to the 1970s and extension of income growth to greater distances are influenced by in-migration, job substitution, and increased female participation rates.'The authors gratefully acknowledge the Economic Development Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce for funding for the research reported here. The authors also wish to note that the statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Economic Development Administration. This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Mon, 8 Dec 2014 16:16:34 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions LONG DISTANCE COMMUTING 49 urban hierarchy [6; 18; 19].Commuting to metropolitan employment centers is an important mechanism by which population and income growth are spread to nonmetropolitan peripheries [11]. These income transfers are realized through expenditures on land, housing, retail and service activities, and tax payments [21]. Commuting, therefore, may be viewed as a basic or export industry attracting capital and people to nonmetropolitan areas and in turn generating multiplier effects [15]. Commuting may be the single most important spatial equilibrating mechanism at this scale [12]. Regional equilibrium in wages and income is sought through commuting rather than migration.Berry attempted to verify the hypothesized relationship between metropolitan commuting and nonmetropolitan growth [1; 2]. He observed a strong spatial association between patterns of commuting, employment, income, poverty, and population. The lowest levels of economic welfare were found at the peripheries of metropolitan labor markets and their interstices. Berry's thesis is:. . . the degree of metropolitan labor market participation is the key variable in the 'regional welfare syndrome,' indexing the gradient of urban influence on surrounding areas [1, 3].Morrill later supported this position in stating:
