York City Economic Research Articles

Tourism and New York City's Economy

In New York City, tourism has made impressive gains in recent years, particularly in the foreign visitor segment. While not large enough to propel the city's economy, this long-term growth industry is critical to maintaining the local export base and providing jobs to low-skilled workers.

Can New York City Bank on Wall Street?

The securities industry is more important than ever to the New York City economy, and a protracted downturn in the industry's employment could seriously hurt the overall job picture. Increased stability in other New York City industries, however, could help soften the economic effects of such a downturn.

Tax Policy and the Fiscal Cost of Disasters: NY and 9/11

While the terrible attack on the World Trade Centers on September 11,2001 caused a substantial short-run shock to New York City's economy, the city demonstrated substantial economic resilience over the longer run. Prices for office space increased relative to the nation between 2001 and 2003, and demand for housing has been robust. Combined with a short-lived national recession, the 9/11 attack led to severe short-run fiscal pressure on the city. Budget deficits were addressed mainly through roughly equal amounts of additional debt and tax increases, plus modest expenditure cuts. Costs of 9/11 through the public sector, including both tax losses and expenditure increases, are estimated to range from 0.7 percent to 1.35 percent of 2002 personal income, depending on the time period. Total federal compensation, through direct grants and tax expenditures, will ultimately equal about $20.4 billion. Fiscal relief to the government of New York City offsets about a third of the public sector costs. Because of linked tax bases, the state of New York shared heavily in the fiscal shock from 9/11. Rather than direct aid, the main state response has been to allow New York City the fiscal flexibility to borrow and raise taxes. We argue that there is a strong case, both on equity and efficiency grounds, for sharing the costs of disasters between the federal and the local governments, and that general assistance to governments can play an important role in recovery.

Container Shipping and the Decline of New York, 1955–1975

The introduction of container shipping in the late 1950s and early 1960s has received little attention from historians, but it represents a major technological advance with significant economic consequences. By dramatically lowering the cost of freight handling, the container reduced the need for factories to be near suppliers and markets and opened the way for manufacturing to move out of urban centers, first domestically and then abroad. This impact was particularly intense in New York City, where the container revolution began. Containerization had a devastating impact on New York City's economy, and was a major contributor to the collapse of its industrial base between 1967 and 1975.

Declining Crime Rates: Insiders' Views of the New York City Story

Something dramatic happened in New York City in 1994: a lot of people stopped committing crimes, especially violent ones. The reduction in the number of persons committing murders, for example, while not unprecedented,' was extraordinary. Since 1994, a debate has raged about why this happened. Putting our position up front, we believe the police played an important, even central, role in getting people to stop committing crime in New York City. Despite arguments to the contrary,' no evidence exists that the substantial drops in crime in New York City, especially the initial ones when one of the authors of this paper, William Bratton, was commissioner, were the result of economic change, changes in drug use patterns, or demographic changes. Arguably, New York City's economy, drug use patterns, and demography might be different now in 1998. Unemployment was at 10% the month Bratton took over the New York City Police Department (NYPD) (January 1994) and at 8.7% when he resigned (April 1996)-hardly a booming economy.3 And remember as well, the initial reductions in crime were so steep that by August of 1995-three years ago, but only twenty months after Bratton took office-New York maga-

Economic Restructuring and Political Response.

Technology, the New International Division of Labor, and Location - Susan S Fainstein and Norman I Fainstein Continuities and Disjunctures Pittsburgh in Transition - Gordon L Clark Consolidation of Prosperity in an Era of Economic Restructuring New Trends in the Sociospatial Organization of the New York City Economy - Saskia Sassen Industrial Restructuring and Regional Politics - Ann Roell Markusen Local Politics and the Employment Relation - Robert A Beauregard Construction Jobs in Philadelphia Spatial Change and Social Justice - Robert P Giloth and Robert Mier Alternative Economic Development in Chicago Space, Time, and Economic Restructuring - Robert A Beauregard

The demographics and politics of economic decline in New York City.

New York City's economy has been declining since 1969. Although this decline is usually discussed with reference to interregional shifts in population and the migration of industry to the South and West, the root causes can be best understood in terms of the changing demographic, political and economic matrix of the City combined with short-sighted public policies toward business development. After explaining some important aspects of the “political economy” of economic erosion in New York City, the paper suggests several local government policy alternatives that might help to reverse the tide of economic decline.