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Between 1957 and 1990, nearly 100 nuclear reactors were constructed throughout the U.S., and nuclear power currently accounts for 20 percent of electricity production nationwide. Nuclear plants are often constructed in small communities for which they constitute a large source of employment and income. To date, 24 nuclear reactors have undergone decommissioning, and more are expected in the future, particularly as nuclear reactors age and face increasingly strict regulations. This paper examines the effects of nuclear decommissioning over time at the county-level on measures of employment, income, and population using difference-in-differences regression and propensity score matching. Panel data are obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau, and cover the years 1975-2014. The analysis finds that nuclear decommissioning is associated with positive and statistically significant increases in employment and per capita income over time. Results suggest that nuclear decommissioning may actually be a positive force in regional economic development, and concludes with limitations of the approach and implications for future research. As an emerging area of research, this paper is meant to build on previous work, as well as to provide a basis for further discussion and debate on the economic future of nuclear host communities and regional economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigration policy is one of the most hotly contested political issues in the United States. In this paper, we evaluate the role of immigration in the U.S. economy. We pose the counterfactual question, “what would happen if net migration to the U.S. were to cease?” Using the REMI PI+ macroeconomic policy analysis model, we set to zero international immigration from 2018 to 2060, and estimate the national- and state-level economic and demographic implications of this change. Our estimates show that, in the absence of immigration, total U.S. employment would peak in 2019, and the U.S. GDP and labor force would decline by 20% through 2060. Per capita income and GDP effects, however, are relatively minor and sensitive to assumptions in labor and capital markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most conventional statements in economics, with regard to the services sector, suggests that, as a whole, this sector has a lower productivity level and growth rates than the other productive sectors. From this approach, we can derive the relative lower productivity in some advanced economies (such as the European countries versus the USA and some particular emergent economies) as an explanation of the growth of the tertiary sector. This paper will look in greater depth at issues related to services productivity, from conceptual aspects regarding the definition and meaning of productivity to methodological and measurement of services productivity. This work is essentially a necessary revision of the literature on economic growth, productivity and the services sector, reviewing not only the conventional literature but also those new waves of thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An optimal pace of business dynamics-encompassing the processes of entry, exit, expansion, and contraction-would balance the benefits of productivity and economic growth against the costs to firms and workers associated with reallocation of productive resources. It is difficult to prescribe what the optimal pace should be, but evidence accumulating from multiple datasets and methodologies suggests that the rate of business startups and the pace of employment dynamism in the US economy has fallen over recent decades and that this downward trend accelerated after 2000. A critical factor in accounting for the decline in business dynamics is a lower rate of business startups and the related decreasing role of dynamic young businesses in the economy. For example, the share of US employment accounted for by young firms has declined by almost 30 percent over the last 30 years. These trends suggest that incentives for entrepreneurs to start new firms in the United States have diminished over time. We do not identify all the factors underlying these trends in this paper but offer some clues based on the empirical patterns for specific sectors and geographic regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new economic growth in nonmetropolitan areas of the U.S. has been the result of numerous economic, social, and political forces. One of these forces has been the location and expansion of export-oriented businesses. This is characterized by the relatively faster growth of manufacturing and some nonmanufacturing employment opportunities compared to the metropolitan changes (Haren and Holling 1979; Petrulis 1979). The export base expansion will have the well-known multiplier effect on total employment. While the central logic of the economic base multiplier is generally accepted, questions continue to abound regarding its apparent instability. Richardson (1978) commented on the wide variability of multiplier estimates. Many reports of economic impact warn the reader that actual results may vary from anticipated results because of type of stimulus, location of spending, timing, etc. However, a search of the literature has yielded few reports that have systematically examined community factors which influence the size of the local multiplier or the impacts from the multiplier. The purpose of this paper then is to present the results of a systematic examination of community characteristics which condition the magnitude of local multiplier impacts. The central hypothesis to be tested here is that community economic growth or decline is a function of the type of exogenous employment change and a vector of community characteristics, including location and population. It is the contention of this study that community characteristics affect consumption, production, and investment decisions and account for much of the variation in the estimated size of economic multipliers among communities, The remainder of this paper presents an argument for consideration of forces that influence the expression of the local multiplier, and the results of a regression model using a 10% stratified random sample of nonmetropolitan counties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the potential role that airfreight transport in the US can play in stimulating local and regional economic development. The analysis examines trends in employment and income for metropolitan statistical areas that make use of airfreight services. The focus is on causality, and not on simple correlation, and uses econometric analysis rather than simpler economic multiplier approaches. Granger causality testing based on panel data covering 35 airport and 32 metropolitan statistical areas in the US from 1990 to 2009 indicates that airfreight transport was a positive driver for local economic development. The conclusions focus on the strengths but also the weaknesses of the methodology for assessing causality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Regional Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper is an attempt to contribute to the integration of business-cycle analysis with long-term growth. a real-business-cycle model with endogenous growth is developed and estimated with U.S. data. In the present framework, wage movements do not have to be transitory to generate fluctuations in labor effort. The reduced form is a constrained bivariate output/hours (or real-wage/hours) VAR process. The bivariate setup provides a useful framework for analyzing the persistence of output fluctuations, given that the theory implies that hours of work contain information about future output movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic development strategies aimed at attracting highly skilled workers through investment in urban amenities are gaining momentum throughout the United States. However, most of the foundational research for the approach was tested in very large cities, both in the United States and abroad. Based on quality of place (QOP) variables suggested from previous research, confirmatory factor analysis was used to generate a set of factors for a selection of small and midsized U.S. cities, and linear regression was used to relate these factors to the presence of college-educated populations, younger college-educated populations, and adult population growth. The results indicated that some of the QOP factors associated with better human capital outcomes in prior literature focusing on larger cities were also significant predictors of better human capital outcomes in midsized cities. The relationship between these factors and development outcomes for small cities was much weaker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonfarm employment continued to expand in 2015. Private service-providing industries accounted for the vast majority of job gains. Despite a slowdown in the overall rate of job growth in 2015, the gains were a continuation of an expansion that started in May 2014, when employment recovered to its previous peak level of January 2008. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traffic congestion alleviation has long been a common core transport policy objective, but it remains unclear under which conditions this universal byproduct of urban life also impedes the economy. Using panel data for 88 US metropolitan statistical areas, this study estimates congestion’s drag on employment growth (1993 to 2008) and productivity growth per worker (2001 to 2007). Using instrumental variables, results suggest that congestion slows job growth above thresholds of approximately 4.5 minutes of delay per one-way auto commute and 11,000 average daily traffic (ADT) per lane on average across the regional freeway network. While higher ADT per freeway lane appears to slow productivity growth, there is no evidence of congestion-induced travel delay impeding productivity growth. Results suggest that the strict policy focus on travel time savings may be misplaced and, instead, better outlooks for managing congestion’s economic drag lie in prioritising the economically most important trips (perhaps through road pricing) or in providing alternative travel capacity to enable access despite congestion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Çalışma ve Toplum is the property of Calisma ve Toplum and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Problem, research strategy, and findings:Little research examines the effect of diversity on regional economic resilience to natural disasters. We examine whether economic diversity benefits regional economies in typical circumstances and in recovery after a natural disaster, using the case of the 1993 U.S. Midwest flood. By matching counties in the nine states affected by the flood to control counties, we isolate the influence of diversity on employment and income in normal circumstances and after a substantial shock. We found economic diversity to have mixed associations with employment and income in typical circumstances. On average, economically diverse counties tended to experience faster employment gains but slower growth in per capita income than less diverse areas. The effect of economic diversity upon resilience following a natural disaster was unambiguous. Economic diversity aided counties in weathering the downturn following the flood and sped their return to long-term patterns of employment and income growth. Takeaway for practice: In promoting policies to enhance economic diversity, planners in communities located in areas prone to natural disasters should consider both the goal of disaster resilience and the potential tradeoffs between different aspects of economic performance. Research support: None. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using data from U.S. states, we find a positive relationship between trust and growth. According to our results, a 10 percentage point increase in trust increases the growth rate of GDP by 0.5 percentage points and the growth rate of manufacturing employment by 1.3 percentage points over a five-year period. Our results are robust to the endogeneity between trust and growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts on city planning-related topics, including visions of waterfront development in postindustrial Philadelphia, the construction of a town planning perception of Colombo, and city planning and the U.S. census.

Acs Z. J. and Armington C. (2004) Employment growth and entrepreneurial activity in cities, Regional Studies 38 , 911-927. Recent theories of economic growth have stressed the role of externalities in generating growth. Using data from the Census Bureau that tracks all employers in the whole US private-sector economy, the impact of these externalities, as measured by entrepreneurial activity, on employment growth in Local Market Areas are examined. Differences in levels of entrepreneurial activity, diversity among geographically proximate industries and the extent of human capital are positively associated with variation in growth rates, but the manufacturing sector appears to be an exception. Acs Z. J. et Armington C. (2004) La croissance de l'emploi et l'esprit d'entreprise dans les grandes villes, Regional Studies 38 , 911-927. Des théories récentes de la croissance économique ont souligné l'importance des effets externes. A partir des données provenant du Census Bureau, institut national de la statistique qui fait le suivi de tous les employeurs dans toute l'économie privée aux Etats-Unis, cet article cherche à examiner les retombées de ces effets externes-là, mesurés en termes de l'esprit d'entreprise, sur la croissance de l'emploi dans les bassins d'emplois locaux. Il s'avère que les écarts des les niveaux de l'esprit d'entreprise, la diversité des industries à proximité, et l'importance du capital humain sont en corrélation étroite avec la variation des taux de croissance, à une exception près, le secteur industriel. Acs Z. J. und Armington C. (2004) Zunahme der Arbeitsstellen und Unternehmertätigkeit in Städten, Regional Studies 38 , 911-927. Kürzlich aufgekommene Theorien wirtschaftlichen Wachstums haben die Rolle externer Effekte bei der Wachstumsentwicklung betont. Mit Hilfe von Daten des Census Bureaus, das sämtliche Arbeitgeber des Privatsektors der Wirtschaft der USA erfaßt, wird die Auswirkung dieser externen Effekte auf die Zunahme von Erwerbsstellen in 'Local Market Areas' durch Messung an Hand unternehmerischer Aktivität untersucht. Es wird festgestellt, daß Unterschiede der Stufen unternehmerischer Aktivität, Vielfalt in geographisch benachbarten Industrien und der Umfang des Menschenkapitals in positiver Verbindung mit Abweichungen bei Zuwachsraten auftreten, obschon der herstellende Sektor hierbei eine Ausnahme darstellt. Acs Z. J. y Armington C. (2004) Crecimiento en el empleo y actividad emprendedora en las ciudades, Regional Studies 38 , 911-927. Las teorías recientes sobre el crecimiento económico han enfatizado el rol de las externalidades en la generación de crecimiento. Utilizando datos de la Oficina del Censo que siguen la trayectoria de todos los empresarios en la totalidad de la economía del sector privado en los Estados Unidos, examinamos el impacto de estas externalidades, medido por medio del grado de actividad emprendedora, en el crecimiento del empleo en Áreas de Mercado Local. Encontramos que las diferencias en los niveles de actividad empresarial, la diversidad entre industrias que están geográficamente próximas, y el grado de capital humano están positivamente asociados a una variación en los índices de crecimiento, pero el sector manufacturero parece presentar una excepción. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three key features of the employment process in the U.S. economy are that job creation is procyclical, job destruction is countercyclical, and job creation is less volatile than job destruction. These features are also found at the sectoral (goods and services) level. The paper develops, calibrates and simulates a two-sector general equilibrium model that includes both aggregate and sectoral shocks. The behavior of the model economy mimics the job creation and destruction facts. A non-negligible amount of unemployment arises due to the presence of aggregate and sectoral shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses that franchising methods that emerged in the late years as significant strategy for business growth, job creation, and economic development both in the U.S. and the world markets. The franchisers are sorted as product-trademarked or as business format franchisers. The business format of franchising is anticipated to be dominant form of franchising internationally in the twenty-first century . However, the business format of franchising has been experiencing rapid growth in the U.S., the period of rapid international expansion of some U.S. franchisers increased their overseas units.

This article proposes that defense spending during the Vietnam War helped raise America's economic growth during that period. Today, U.S. macroeconomic policy is primarily concerned with eliminating the federal deficit and permanently contracting the size of government. To the extent that active interventionist policies are pursued, the principal sconce is to prevent another Vietnam-like buildup of inflationary momentum rather than achieving full employment and widespread prosperity. There is considerable irony in the way the economic legacy of Vietnam has been molded into a cautionary tale on the failures of large scale interventionist policies and the overriding dangers of inflation. A few basic indicators will initially make clear the extent to which the 1960's were a period of unequaled prosperity, especially in terms of the egalitarian spread of well-being. The unemployment rate averaged 4.6 percent in the 1960's, then rose to 6.1 percent in the 1970's and 7.2 percent in the 1980's. The average real wage for nonsupervisory workers increased in the 1960's at an annual rate of 1.4 percent but has been falling since, declining by 0.3 percent in the 1970's and 1 percent in the 1980.

This article discusses the economic consequences of the expansion of mutual funds in the U.S. The U.S. mutual fund industry began during the 1920s and grew steadily during the decades after World War II. There was little growth of equity assets during the 1970s because of the severe bear market that resulted from high inflation during the middle years of the decade. The U.S. mutual fund industry as of 1994 has about 2 trillion dollars of assets, compared to barely 10 percent during the early 1980s. Money market fund assets also now account for only about one-third of assets. Ironically, the factor that produced such a dramatic expansion of the mutual fund industry during the 1990s was a monetary policy designed to rescue U.S. banks from a sharp rise in non-performing real estate loans. The growth of the mutual fund industry has had benign consequences for the economy. First, it has provided a new channel for monetary policy to buoy the economy by broadening the number of households able to benefit from rising bond and equity prices. The improved access to equity and debt finance small and medium-sized companies is important to job creation because practically all of employment growth in the U.S. since 1980 has been concentrated in that sector.

The article discusses Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP), a national level program launched by the United States President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and its second phase AMP2.0 which aims to improve and sustain manufacturing innovation. Topics include emerging technologies, creation of high-quality domestic manufacturing jobs, and public-private partnerships. Also explained are the three pillars of the AMP program as outlined in the 2012 program report.