Natural Resource Curse and Poverty in Appalachian America

The Appalachian mountain region has long been characterized by deep poverty which led to the formation of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) in 1965. The ARC region covers West Virginia and parts of 12 other states, running from New York to Mississippi (Ziliak 2012). The ARC region had an average county poverty rate of over 40 percent in 1960, about double the national average (Deaton and Niman 2012; Ziliak 2012). While the poverty gap between the ARC region and the rest of the nation closed significantly by 1990, it remained nearly twice as large in Central Appalachia. There are many reasons for higher poverty in Appalachia in general and Central Appalachia in particular. Possible causes include a low-paying industry structure, below average education, low household mobility, and remoteness from to cities (Weber et al. 2005; Partridge and Rickman 2005; Lobao 2004). A key distinction between Central Appalachia and the rest of the ARC region is its historic dependence on coal mining. There is long literature arguing that the area’s dependence on coal mining has contributed to its deep poverty through weaker local governance, entrepreneurship, and educational attainment, as well as degrading the environment, poor health outcomes, and limitations on other economic opportunities (Deaton and Niman 2012; James and Aadland 2011). These factors are broadly associated with the natural resources curse in the international development literature. More recently, the process of mountain top mining (MTM) has expanded coal mining’s environmental footprint in the region, possibly increasing health risks and further reducing the chances for long-term amenity-led growth that can alleviate poverty (Deller 2010; Woods and Gordon 2011). This study reinvestigates the causes of county poverty rates in Appalachia with a special focus on coal mining’s role. Using data over the 1990-2010 period we assess whether coal mining continues to have a positive association with poverty rates, even as the industry’s relative size has declined. We also appraise whether MTM is associated with higher poverty. We do this by comparing the ARC region to the rest of the U.S. and by using more disaggregated employment data that allows us to differentiate the effects of coal mining from other mining (versus aggregating all mining together as in past research). The results suggest that any potential adverse effects of coal mining on poverty have declined over time. Below, we first develop an empirical model followed by the empirical results. The final section provides our concluding thoughts

Taking Measure of Ohio's Opioid Crisis

Opioid addiction, abuse, and overdose deaths have become the most pressing public health issue facing Ohio. Ohio leads the country in drug overdose deaths per capita, a rate that continues to rise, overwhelming families, communities, and local governments across the state. In this policy brief, we aim to contribute to the understanding of this unfolding crisis and highlight insights that can inform policymaking

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Country Road Take Me Home: Migration Patterns in the Appalachia America and Place-Based Policy

This research fills a void in the regional development literature by assessing how labor force migration affects regional adjustment in peripheral regions and whether it differs than the rest of the country. We do this by comparing patterns for the lagging Appalachian region to the U.S. as a whole for the 1990s and post-2000 periods. We appraise whether successful job creation helps the original residents seeking employment, or primarily goes to outsiders, rendering place-based development policy ineffective. In a novel addition, we also appraise whether local job creation is associated with attracting relatively wealthier net-migrants. Because different relative migration elasticities imply different responses for other labor market outcomes, we also assess whether employment growth supports original residents in terms of lifting median household incomes and employment/population rates and reducing unemployment rates and poverty rates. We find that migration post-2000 has become less responsive to employment growth differentials, which allows successful economic development to lift the employment prospects of original residents, which also produces a stronger response in reducing local poverty rates

Telerehabilitation Clinical and Vocational Applications for Assistive Technology: Research, Opportunities, and Challenges

Rehabilitation service providers in rural or underserved areas are often challenged in meeting the needs of their complex patients due to limited resources in their geographical area. Recruitment and retention of the rural clinical workforce are beset by the ongoing problems associated with limited continuing education opportunities, professional isolation, and the challenges inherent in coordinating rural community healthcare. People with disabilities who live in rural communities also face challenges accessing healthcare. Traveling long distances to a specialty clinic for necessary expertise may be troublesome due to inadequate or unavailable transportation, disability specific limitations, and financial limitations. Distance and lack of access are just two threats to quality of care that now being addressed by the use of videoconferencing, information exchange, and other telecommunication technologies that facilitate telerehabilitation. This white paper illustrates and summarizes clinical and vocational applications of telerehabilitation. We provide definitions related to the fields of telemedicine, telehealth, and telerehabilitation, and consider the impetus for telerehabilitation. We review the telerehabilitation literature for assistive technology applications; pressure ulcer prevention; virtual reality applications; speech-language pathology applications; seating and wheeled mobility applications; vocational rehabilitation applications; and cost effectiveness. We then discuss external telerehabilitation influencers, such as the positions of professional organizations. Finally, we summarize clinical and policy issues in a limited context appropriate to the scope of this paper. Keywords: Telerehabilitation, Telehealth, Telemedicine, Telepractic

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Country Road Take Me Home: Migration Patterns in the Appalachia America and Place-Based Policy

This research fills a void in the regional development literature by assessing how labor force migration affects regional adjustment in peripheral regions and whether it differs than the rest of the country. We do this by comparing patterns for the lagging Appalachian region to the U.S. as a whole for the 1990s and post-2000 periods. We appraise whether successful job creation helps the original residents seeking employment, or primarily goes to outsiders, rendering place-based development policy ineffective. In a novel addition, we also appraise whether local job creation is associated with attracting relatively wealthier net-migrants. Because different relative migration elasticities imply different responses for other labor market outcomes, we also assess whether employment growth supports original residents in terms of lifting median household incomes and employment/population rates and reducing unemployment rates and poverty rates. We find that migration post-2000 has become less responsive to employment growth differentials, which allows successful economic development to lift the employment prospects of original residents, which also produces a stronger response in reducing local poverty rates

Are the Most Productive Regions Necessarily the Most Successful? Local Effects of Productivity Growth on Employment and Earnings

Economists typically celebrate productivity growth as the chief way to improve living standards. They also advocate that particular cities and regions strive to be as productive as possible to attract business and increase employment. However, while productivity growth may reduce costs, improve quality, or lead to innovation and new products, if demand is insufficiently elastic, labor demand may decrease, reducing employment in that location. In other words, places experiencing the most productivity growth may face some unintended consequences, such as weakening of local labor markets. In this paper, we study county-level effects of productivity growth and productivity levels in the computer and electronic product manufacturing industry (NAICS334), the goods sector (excluding NAICS334) and in the services sector on total employment growth, employment growth in major sectors, income and earnings growth. The results suggest that productivity growth generally suppresses job growth but has boosting effects on earnings and, to a lesser degree, on per-capita income, although there is considerable variation across geographies and specific outcomes

Entrepreneurial and Wage and Salary Employment Response to Economic Conditions Across the Rural-Urban Continuum

In this paper, we explore how national economic trends in a set of industries that compose local economies and growth in nearby metropolitan areas affect local employment growth in different tiers of the urban-rural hierarchy, paying close attention to the effects of urban proximity. The results of our county-level analyses reveal heterogeneous responses. Favorable economic changes due to a fast-growing local industry composition have the largest positive impact on self-employment growth in small metropolitan areas and the smallest positive impact in rural counties. Self-employment in rural counties is fostered by growth in nearby small MSAs and is hampered by growth in nearby large MSAs. In micropolitan counties, there are no significant negative effects, whereas positive (or spread) effects are detected originating only from small and medium MSAs but not from large MSAs. In urban counties, growth in a nearby large MSA is not related to local self-employment growth in the lower tiers of the urban hierarchy

Entrepreneurial and Wage and Salary Employment Response to Economic Conditions Across the Rural-Urban Continuum

In this paper, we explore how national economic trends in a set of industries that compose local economies and growth in nearby metropolitan areas affect local employment growth in different tiers of the urban-rural hierarchy, paying close attention to the effects of urban proximity. The results of our county-level analyses reveal heterogeneous responses. Favorable economic changes due to a fast-growing local industry composition have the largest positive impact on self-employment growth in small metropolitan areas and the smallest positive impact in rural counties. Self-employment in rural counties is fostered by growth in nearby small MSAs and is hampered by growth in nearby large MSAs. In micropolitan counties, there are no significant negative effects, whereas positive (or spread) effects are detected originating only from small and medium MSAs but not from large MSAs. In urban counties, growth in a nearby large MSA is not related to local self-employment growth in the lower tiers of the urban hierarchy