Local Information Links to the National Metropolitan Hierarchy: The Southeastern United States

In: Environment and planning. A, Volume 31, Issue 5, p. 841-854

Abstract

The primary purpose of this paper is to determine the degree to which nonmetropolitan and small metropolitan areas participate in the US information economy. It has long been known that large metropolitan areas have become integrated among themselves into the national economy, but it has been assumed that small centers remain focused on local and regional links. This study uses 1996 data from Federal Express Corporation to measure flows of packages to and from 18 pickup and delivery zones for the area served by Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport to 41 large US metropolitan areas. Although the rural and small pickup and delivery zones do not generate or attract the high magnitude of flows of large metropolitan areas, the data show that, by a variety of measures, the small centers are remarkably strongly tied to the uppermost level of the US metropolitan hierarchy.