Information Flows among Major Metropolitan Areas in the United States

James O. Wheeler · Ronald L. Mitchelson

81 citations0/0 files storedAnnals of the Association of American Geographers

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Global Urban Networks and Dynamics Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis Regional Economic and Spatial Analysis

Abstract

This study uses Federal Express Corporation data to examine information flows among 48 large metropolitan areas in the United States. Set within the context of emerging quaternary location theory, three hypotheses are introduced to explain the bases for information flows among metropolitan areas: information genesis, hierarchy of control, and spatial independence. Essential support is found for all three hypotheses. Supply considerations, rather than demand, are fundamental in information genesis; flows are strongly asymmetrical, reflecting a marked hierarchy of control; and distance plays a minor role in the spatial configuration of flows, especially at the highest level of the metropolitan hierarchy. New York, in particular, dominates the national structure of information flows, and only ten metropolitan areas act as command and control centers, creating a highly asymmetric flow in which these ten centers originate a high proportion of total flows. Principal components analysis identified five dominant centers of information genesis: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, and Dallas-Ft. Worth. This research extends our understanding of quaternary location in that the largest metropolitan areas, containing the most specialized and scarce information, are most strongly interlocked with one another. In addition, the spatial extent of information flows and control by a metropolitan area decreases somewhat as the level of control of the center decreases. As the U.S. metropolitan economy continues to become more service and, therefore, more information-oriented, the future economic vitality of metropolitan areas is expected to depend on their position within the hierarchy of information control.

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