The geography of non-earned income in the piedmont megapolitan cluster

In this article we identified factors that may have contributed to spatial and temporal trends in non-earned income (NEI) within the 121-county Piedmont Megapolitan Cluster (PMC). We also assessed the impacts of the Great Recession on NEI, focusing on differences in NEI among metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties between 2007 and 2011. NEI exhibited a strong coreperiphery relationship, with core urban counties, and those with research universities, exhibiting a higher proportion of NEI from dividends, interest and rent (DIR), and a lower proportion of NEI from public transfer payments (TP). The percent of the population with a bachelor's degree was the dominant predictor of high ratios of DIR to TP at the county level. The Great Recession resulted in a reduction in DIR and an increase in TP among most PMC counties; however metropolitan counties experienced the most significant gains in TP.