Regional and technological implications of the recent buildup in American defense spending.

American defense policy emphasizes technological sophistication of weapons and equipment. The current military buildup focusing on modernizatin of military hardware is influencing the character of American regional change. Much of the high-technology manufacturing growth in California, Texas, and New England is related to the distribution of Department of Defense contracts. The particular nature of the current military expansion has aggravated the failure of the industrial heartland to replace its declining mature industries with newer high-technology ones. Decomposing employment change using shift-share analysis suggests that defense spending on high-technology goods has generated a large number of new jobs and is partially responsible for the spatial redistribution of American manufacturing.-Author