Unresolved Questions about Population Distribution Policy: An Agenda for Further Research.

Peter A. Morrison

Expert InsightsPublished 1971

Current thinking about population distribution confuses the pressure of too many people with the consequences of their maldistribution. To promote the design of a national urban population distribution policy, it is necessary to define the problems, identify preferable alternatives, and develop potential strategies for influencing distribution. Within these areas, six tasks are suggested: (1) project future distribution patterns; (2) identify the economic, social, and environmental consequences of projected distribution patterns; (3) evaluate anticipated consequences of alternatives by studying regional and city-size populations with both low- and high-density patterns; (4) analyze "hidden policies," i.e., secondary effects of existing federal programs on population distribution; (5) analyze individual and aggregate dynamics of the mobility process, distinguishing forces that mobilize and retain population or reinforce selected migration streams; and (6) identify natural growth centers, exploring existent successful processes of change. 3 pp.

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Morrison, Peter A., Unresolved Questions about Population Distribution Policy: An Agenda for Further Research. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1971. https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P4630.html.
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