PERSISTENT POCKETS OF EXTREME AMERICAN POVERTY: PEOPLE OR PLACE BASED?

Over the past four decades almost 400 U.S. counties have persistently had poverty rates in excess of 20 percent. These counties are generally characterized by weak economies and disadvantaged populations. This raises the hotly debated question of whether poverty-reducing policies should be directed more at helping people or helping the places where they reside. Using a variety of regression approaches, including geographically weighted regression analysis, we consistently find that local job growth especially reduces poverty in persistent-poverty counties. We also find that persistent-poverty counties do not respond more sluggishly to exogenous shocks, nor do they experience more adverse spillover effects from their neighboring counties. Finally, we identify some key geographic differences in the poverty determining mechanism among persistent-poverty clusters. Taken together, these results indicate that place-based economic development has a potential role for reducing poverty in these counties.poverty, persistent poverty, economic development policies, place-based policies, Food Security and Poverty,

Spatial Concentration of American Poverty: Should We Care, and What Are the Options?

Partridge and Rickman explore the wide geographic disparities in poverty across the United States. Their focus on the spatial dimensions of U.S. poverty reveals distinct differences across states, metropolitan areas, and counties and leads them to consider why antipoverty policies have succeeded in some places and failed in others.https://research.upjohn.org/up_press/1012/thumbnail.jp

The Geography of American Poverty: Is There a Need for Place-Based Policies?

Partridge and Rickman explore the wide geographic disparities in poverty across the United States. Their focus on the spatial dimensions of U.S. poverty reveals distinct differences across states, metropolitan areas, and counties and leads them to consider why antipoverty policies have succeeded in some places and failed in others.https://research.upjohn.org/up_press/1012/thumbnail.jp

Assessing Regional Quality of Life: A Call for Action in Regional Science

Intellectual appeal and simplicity of use has led to the widespread application of the spatial hedonic model in assessing regional quality of life. Yet, the traditional spatial hedonic approach contains numerous assumptions, which typically are untested. Violation of the assumptions in practice can lead to significantly biased estimates of regional quality of life. More sophisticated econometric approaches have been developed to reduce the biases. However, each approach typically only addresses one or two of the concerns. More promising, is the use of structural models, which by design have the potential to overcome all the limitations of the spatial hedonic approach

Assessing Regional Quality of Life: A Call for Action in Regional Science

Intellectual appeal and simplicity of use has led to the widespread application of the spatial hedonic model in assessing regional quality of life. Yet, the traditional spatial hedonic approach contains numerous assumptions, which typically are untested. Violation of the assumptions in practice can lead to significantly biased estimates of regional quality of life. More sophisticated econometric approaches have been developed to reduce the biases. However, each approach typically only addresses one or two of the concerns. More promising, is the use of structural models, which by design have the potential to overcome all the limitations of the spatial hedonic approach

Regional Housing Supply Elasticity in China 1999-2013: A Spatial Equilibrium Analysis

In this paper, we apply a spatial equilibrium growth model (Glaeser and Tobio, 2008) to examine relative housing price growth across the provinces and municipalities of mainland China for 1999-2013. The spatial equilibrium growth model is built upon the traditional static Rosen-Roback spatial equilibrium model. A distinguishing feature is the addition of a regionally-varying elasticity of housing supply. A primary finding is the significant geographical differences in housing price growth and the importance of differences in regional housing supply in explaining the differences in housing price growth. Regions in the East had the most inelastic housing supply, while northern regions had the most elastic housing supply

Estimating the Economic Effects of US State and Local Fiscal Policy: A Synthetic Control Method Matched Regression Approach

In this paper, we attempt to address the limitations of previous research to provide further guidance on US state and local fiscal policymaking. We implement the synthetic control method to create pairwise matches for states in subsequent regression analysis. Several economic indicators and principal component analysis are used to construct broader narratives of state economic performance and we provide updated evidence. We compare the results with those obtained from using neighbors as matches and from standard unmatched growth regressions. The matched regressions produce more statistically significant relationships between state and local fiscal variables and economic outcomes than do the standard growth regressions. Although the findings provide additional guidance for state and local fiscal policymakers, a lack of robustness across alternative economic indicators and heterogeneity of results confirm the elusiveness of recommendations on specific policies that are applicable in all circumstances

Two Tales of Two U.S. States: Regional Fiscal Austerity and Economic Performance

The recent fiscal austerity experiments undertaken in the states of Kansas and Wisconsin have generated considerable policy interest. Using a variety of identification approaches within a difference-in-differences framework and examining a wide range of economic indicators, this paper assesses whether the experiments have spurred growth in the states as promised by the governors and legislatures which enacted them into law. The overall conclusion from the paper is that the fiscal experiments did not spur growth, and if anything, harmed state economic performance. Among the identification approaches used, the Synthetic Control Method (Abadie and Gardeazabal 2003; Abadie et al., 2010) is demonstrated to provide the most compelling evidence

Regional Economic Impacts of the Shale Gas and Tight Oil Boom: A Synthetic Control Analysis

The dramatic increase in oil and gas production from shale formations has led to intense interest in its impact on local area economies. Exploration, drilling and extraction are associated with direct increases in employment and income in the energy industry, but little is known about the impacts on other parts of local economies. Increased energy sector employment and income can have positive spillover effects through increased purchases of intermediate goods and induced local spending. Negative spillover effects can occur through rising local factor and goods prices and adverse effects on the local area quality of life. Therefore, this paper examines the net economic impacts of oil and gas production from shale formations for key shale oil and gas producing areas in Arkansas, North Dakota and Pennsylvania. The synthetic control method (Abadie and Gardeazabal 2003; Abadie et al., 2010) is used to establish a baseline projection for the local economies in the absence of increased energy development, allowing for estimation of the net regional economic effects of increased shale oil and gas production

U.S. Regional Population Growth 2000-2010: Natural Amenities or Urban Agglomeration?

Using a spatial hedonic growth model, this paper empirically examines the relative roles of natural amenities and urban agglomeration economies as determinants of U.S. regional growth patterns from 2000 to 2010. Natural amenities and urban agglomeration are measured using the USDA Economic Research Service county classification codes. The general finding is that natural amenities and urban agglomeration both influenced regional growth. However, the natural amenity ranking is estimated to be positively related to increased productivity over the period rather than increased attractiveness to households. Urban agglomeration is positively related to increased amenity attractiveness to households. Within Census regional analysis revealed a stronger role for household natural amenity demand in nonmetropolitan areas