The role of major infrastructure in subregional economic development: an empirical study of airports and cities
基于美国经济普查数据，研究发现机场带来的专业和行政就业增长并不一定能弥补当地的经济和生活质量成本，且机场城市或航空城现象在美国被夸大。
The link between airports, air service, and regional economic development has been well-established and used to justify airport expansion at the expense of local communities because of subsequent region-wide benefits. However, local-level spatial analyses based on US Economic Census data indicate that economic benefits in terms of professional and administrative employment do not necessarily offset local economic and quality of life costs. Furthermore, arguments for an airport city or aerotropolis phenomenon in the US context ignore the individual histories and morphologies of metropolitan areas and overstate the influence an airport has on the economic development of its region.