Rationalization, Restructuring, and Industrial Reorganization in Older Regions: The Economic Transformation of New England Since World War II

摘要

The paper presents a synthesis and overview of the findings of a three-year research project studying the transformation of the economic base of New England from its pre-World War II orientation toward the manufacture of consumers' nondurable goods such as textiles and shoes to its contemporary structure, based upon high-technology manufacturing and the sale of a wide range of producers' and consumers' services. It begins with a history of the regional economy in the year immediately preceding World War II, emphasizing labor relations and their impact on industrial relocation. The effect of the war itself, and developments in the period immediately following the war, are then reviewed, together with the process by which new sources of labor (women, youth, immigrants) were brought into the work force. The newly emerging industrial structure is then examined in detail, sector by sector. The impact of these structural shifts on employment, earnings, and working conditions for the region's population is the subject of the next--and most important--section of the paper. The paper concludes with a review of the main arguments about regional economic change, and raises a series of questions, the answers to which will determine the future development path of the region.