Gateway communities are defined as communities in close proximity to public lands, serve as an entry point to public lands, and have an economic influence of public lands. For example, gateway communities include towns within the proximity of national and state forests, monuments, refuges, grasslands, wild and scenic river corridors, lakeshores, and parks. Tourists and visitors use these communities as gateways to such parks. Kurtz (2010) mentioned that gateway communities have characteristically relied on “relatively few or even a single source to drive the local economy”.
Resource extraction industries or service and recreational industries utilizing public lands are the primary source to stimulate the economy for the gateway communities (Bohensky, 2012). Gateway communities have attracted a number of people to visit and live in through their location-specific natural amenities and high quality of life. However, because of their unique natural attributes and plenty of resource, gateway communities face several political and environmental issues regarding preservation and development (Frauman and Banks, 2011).
As an increase in protection of public lands and a decline of resource extraction business, tourism-based recreational industries have begun to obtain much more popularity for the local economy. Also, empirical data analysis show that the growing importance of tourism-based recreational industries in gateway communities has been presented by data analysis (e. g. , BEA 2002, 2006; NPS 2008). Moreover, in recent years, several scholars argued that tourism-based recreational industries have considerably positive effects on economic growth in many ateway communities (Rothman, 1998; Power and Barrett, 2001; Kurtz, 2010).
These industries include restaurant and lodging facilities, specialty retail shops, amusement parks, golf courses, and historical heritage sites (Kurtz, 2006). This phenomenon may indicate that gateway communities have experienced economic transition from economies based on resource extraction and manufacturing industries to recreational tourism-based economics. However, economic growth driven by tourism-based industries may not necessarily contribute to equal income distribution (Kuznets, 1955).
However, the distributional effects have been overlooked for a long time, especially in the gateway communities that have heavily depended on natural resources from public lands and thus undergone economic transition. If it is theoretically and empirically true that the economic restructuring causes uneven income inequality, gateway communities may experience income inequality or will experience, at least, in the near future. And this may result in those communities’ unhealthy and unsustainable economic growth.
Although the distributional aspect is a critical component for the sustainable economic development in local communities, few studies have empirically examined the relationship between gateway communities’ economic restructuring and income distribution. Understanding of the relationship between economic restructuring and income distribution are required to suggest policy implications for distributional aspects as well as economic growth in gateway communities. 2. 2. Why does economic restructuring affect unequal income distribution?
Since World War 2, income has risen and income distributions have been relatively equal in the United State. However, income growth has begun to level off and income inequality has dramatically increased over the last three decades (Moller et al, 2009; McGranahan, 1980). This phenomenon, referred to “Great U-Turn” of inequality, raises a question of why the inequality has increased and what the significant determinants affecting the uneven income distributions are (Nielsen and Alderson, 1997).
For the several decades, several social scientists have begun to investigate the cause of rising income inequality with various perspectives (Mouw and Kallegerg, 2010; Peters, 2013; McLaughlin, 2002; Partridge and Rickman, 2007). Consequently, previous studies identified that U. S. uneven income distribution can be mainly explained by differences in economic structures, household characteristics, geography, history, and natural resources. Among a variety of factors, economic restructuring is one of the most important factors influencing uneven income distribution.
Scholars have argued that employment growth in traditional industries such as manufacturing and resource extracting sectors (e. g. , mining) leads to a decrease in income inequality (Peters, 2012; McLaughlin, 2002). Also, industries that require higher-skills such as professional service, health services, and communication services influence a reduction in income inequality. This is because those industries offer higher wages and better benefits to workers. In contrast, it has been argued that agriculture, retail trade, and personal service sectors bring about an increase in inequality in local communities.
This is because these industries usually offer part-time or temporary jobs, which results in lower wages or limited benefits to employees. Furthermore, inequality began to substantially increase due to the emergence of a service-based and post-industrial economy. However, this argument has been debated among many scholars. Some have insisted that an increase in employment of post-industrial sectors contributes to reducing inequality because it allows to increase middle classes (Bell, 1973; Blair and Carroll, 2009).
Innovation and expansion of technical knowledge in all sectors have led to increase household income, which results in a decrease in inequality. In addition, these forces have enhanced a rapid growth of high-skill jobs, which replaces unskilled jobs with higher-paying jobs that require good skills. Consequently, more workers have entered the middle class in the past decades. This change enables high-skill workers to produce better goods and services through innovation, which results in an increase in job opportunities that contribute to overall economic growth.
However, other social scientists have argued that this type of economic restructuring has resulted in a widespread increase in income inequality (Peters, 2012; Hamnett, 2003). Although substantially increased high-paying jobs have created a variety of jobs, these jobs are relatively lower-skilled and lower-paying jobs supporting professional and high-skilled jobs. This polarized job growth, along with diminished industrial goods-producing sectors, has led to declines in middle class and thus increase inequality. 2. 2. Rising Concerns of Inequality in the Gateway Communities
Although a number of studies have demonstrated that inequality has grown since the 1980s, most studies have focused on metropolitan areas. Relatively, inequality in rural areas has been less understood. Ross (2007) argued that “little is known” about the relationship between natural amenities and inequality, suggesting that an important research agenda regarding income distribution not only in the rural area, but also in communities surrounding public lands.
Particularly, empirical studies are strongly needed to focus on gateway communities ecause economic restructuring has substantially increased in these areas. Although there is no directly relevant studies that explore the relationship between income inequality and economic restructuring in the gateway communities, we may obtain valuable information from relevant previous studies that focus on other regions. McLaughlin (2002) argued that a difference in income inequality between rural and urban areas exists. First, this is because the labor market in rural areas does not consist of a variety of sectors, but is led by one or two primary sectors.
Therefore, major industries’ failure, caused by economic recession or unexpected changes in economic trends, negatively affect entire local economies. Second, it is because recent economic restructuring in nonmetro areas is much different from in metro areas. For example, a movement of large plants to rural areas are likely to create ripple effects throughout the rest of the local economy. For example, growth of personal services and retail trade sector will occur. However, the service-sector jobs created in rural areas may be low-paying jobs.
High-end service jobs or health and business service sectors tends to be located in urban areas. There are a few empirical studies examining the inequality in rural communities. Peters (2011) found that many places experiencing high inequality have risen in the North Central Region during the period 1979-2009. Specifically, he argued that rural areas with more specialized in traditional industries such as agricultural and manufacturing sectors have experienced lower inequality.
In contrast, higher inequality has occurred in areas with more specialized in higher skilled services industries. In another research, Lichter and McLaughlin (1995) analyzed the pattern of changes in spatial inequality between nonmetro and metro areas based on data from the 1980 and 1990 census. Their results suggested that poverty rates in nonmetro counties increased more rapidly during the 1980s, as compared to metro counties. In specific, they found that poverty rates in nonmetro counties are 17 percent higher than metro counties.
Also, Levernier et al (2000) examined whether there are the differences in poverty between non-metro and metro counties using US county data. They found that nonmetro counties have the highest poverty rates, comparing to other counties such as central city counties, metropolitan counties, and fringe counties. Although previous studies have investigated the relationship between economic restructuring and unequal income distribution, most of them have focused on metro areas and them have focused on rural areas.
As discussed above. I expect the effects of economic restructuring on income distribution in gateway communities would be substantial. Again, yet still little is understood about how the change in economic structure affect households’ income inequality in communities surrounding public lands. Therefore, unpacking this linkage through empirical analysis is expected to provide valuable implications for policies of public lands management in the gateway communities.
