The Suburban Dependency Hypothesis, Reconsidered

Abstract

There has been substantial debate on the relevance of the central city to the metropolitan area. This article examines one aspect of the debate, the thread of research that surrounds the suburban dependence hypothesis. Since its proposal, the suburban dependence hypothesis has been criticized for its lack of a theoretical framework and for model misspecification. Variant hypotheses have been developed that acknowledge the limitations of the suburban dependence hypothesis but also recognize its conceptual appeal. These include the tight labor market, elasticity, downtown dependence, and interdependence hypotheses. A review of the literature indicates that the suburban dependence, downtown dependence, and elasticity hypotheses are wedded to a narrow interpretation of the traditional monocentric model. This narrow interpretation, in turn, does not specify the relationship between cities and suburbs given a multinucleated or polycentric urban structure.