Plant Closings and Worker Displacement: The Regional Issues

Authors

Marie Howland, University of Maryland, College Park

Publication Date

1-1-1988

DOI

10.17848/9780880995887

Abstract

Howland examines the relationship between regional employment shifts and plant closures and describes the implications of that relationship for displaced worker study. Her findings support an argument against industrial policy as a means of slowing the pace of worker dislocation as well as against concession in wages, utility bills, and taxes as strategies for retaining local jobs. Howland also presents several policy options for both national policy makers and local economic development officials, and argues for increased federal support for local takeovers of closing branch plants and subsidiaries and for financial and adjustment assistance for displaced workers.

Files

Contents

1. Plant Closings: The Problem and Current Policy
2. The Dun and Bradstreet Data
3. Spatial Patterns of Plant Closings, Job Dissolution, and Economic Growth
4. Plant Closures and Regional Rates of Profit
5. Local Employment Growth and the Reemployment Success on Displaced Workers
6. Summary, Policy Implications and Directions for Further Research

Sponsorship

Financial support provided by the Upjohn Institute, the Computer Science Center at the University of Maryland, the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the University of Maryland, and the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development

ISBN

9780880990622 (pbk.) ; 9780880995887 (ebook)

Subject Areas

LABOR MARKET ISSUES; Job security and unemployment dynamics; Dislocated workers; ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT; Regional policy and planning