BY JENNIFER MULLEN
Gilbert R. Yochum and Vinod B. Agarwal, professors of economics, have garnered national media attention for their recently released study which price-adjusts real per capita income to compare the relative standard of living - or buying power - among 212 United States metropolitan areas for 1996. They have also estimated real per capita income for the United States.
The professors' work has been cited in more than 40 newspapers across the country, including the New Haven Register, Palm Beach Post, Augusta Chronicle, Tacoma News Tribune, Boca Raton News, Cincinnati Enquirer, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Abilene Reporter-News and Roanoke Times, among others. Stories were also done by the Dow Jones Newswire and the Associated Press. Locally, The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press printed articles and WVEC-TV interviewed Agarwal.
The study, the first of its kind, took metropolitan area nominal personal income and population figures from the 1996 Regional Economic Information System (REIS) of the U.S. Department of Commerce and weighted them for cost-of-living differences to achieve "real" per capita income figures. The study used 1996 price index data reported by the Department of Commerce which was based on the American Chamber of Commerce Research Association's (ACCRA) third quarter 1996 price index of metropolitan areas.
"Given price differentials among metropolitan areas, the Department of Commerce figures do not allow for a meaningful comparison of relative living standards," said Yochum. "With these new numbers, we can now compare apples to apples."According to the study, the top 10 metropolitan areas by real per capita personal income are:
1. West Palm Beach/Boca Raton, Fla. ($35,358);
2. New Haven/Bridgeport/ Stamford/Danbury/Waterbury, Conn. ($31,676);
3. Sarasota/Bradenton, Fla. ($30,325);
4. Houston, Texas ($28,993);
5. Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn. ($28,894);
6. Dallas, Texas ($28,830);
7. Denver, Colo. ($28,273);
8. Cincinnati, Ohio ($28,052);
9. Nashville, Tenn. ($27,879); and
10. Omaha, Neb. ($27,490).
Surprisingly, the New York metropolitan area, which includes New York City, ranked 210th, one of the bottom 10 areas in the country. Yochum and Agarwal contribute this to large concentrations of immigrants and relatively high concentrations of youths.
The bottom 10 metropolitan areas by real per capita income are:
203. Sumter, S.C. ($17,210);
204. Bakersfield, Calif. ($17,125);
205. Flagstaff, Ariz. ($16,021);
206. Yuma, Ariz. ($15,693);
207. Visalia/Tulare/Porterville, Calif. ($15,566);
208. Provo/Orem, Utah ($15,495);
209. Las Cruces, N.M. ($14,826);
210. New York, N.Y. ($14,148);
211. Brownsville/Harlingen/San Benito, Texas ($14,128); and
212. McAllen/Edinburg/Mission, Texas ($12,146).
Next month Yochum and Agarwal plan to release part two of the study, which will examine why real per capita income varies across metropolitan areas and provide insight as to how cities can increase their real per capita income.
