Search

In this paper, we study the impact of the New Market Tax Credit (NMTC) program in the United States on overall jobs and jobs held by minority and rural populations within the 2010–2019 period using a dynamic event‐study analysis. We also investigate if the jobs that can be attributed to the program stayed in program recipient neighborhoods or whether those jobs were occupied by non‐residents. The results show that there is clear evidence that the program increased overall workplace jobs and workplace jobs held by White and minority populations in the program recipient tracts. We also see that a larger share of workplace jobs due to the program went to minorities compared to the job shares held by various racial and ethnic groups at the beginning of the investment period. The results further show that even though the NMTC program increased the number of jobs available in a program recipient tract, the individuals who live outside that tract are holding many of the jobs created. The results also suggest that the program had a negative impact on jobs held by residents in nonmetropolitan tracts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consistent with predictions from the literature, we find that higher levels of in-migration dilute multiple dimensions of a community's level of social capital. The analysis employs a 2SLS methodology to account for potential endogeneity of migration. JEL classification: R23, D71, C36, C38 Key words: social capital, migration, decennial census, social capital community benchmark survey, nonpublic data, simultaneous equations, endogeneity, factor analysis, 1. Introduction and Background The extensive literature on social capital demonstrates that it has many forms and perspectives. (1) This diverse nature of social capital may have prompted Woolcock (2001, [...]

Despite substantial effort to conceptualize wealth as supporting positive community economic development, little research tests the relationship between development outcomes and community wealth. This research assesses the relationship between the value-added food and agriculture business (VAFAB) sector and stocks of community wealth by leveraging a new dataset of stocks of community wealth and National Establishment Time Series data. We find significant relationships between the growth of VAFAB establishments and employment and stocks of community wealth. These results have implications for economic developers and policy makers in prioritizing investments should they want to grow the local VAFAB sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the labour market effects of the Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP), a programme authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to promote broadband deployment, mainly in rural areas. The BIP is one of the largest USDA broadband programmes implemented to date, providing more than $3.4 billion in grants and loans in FY 2010. We investigate the impacts of BIP investments on employment outcomes in BIP‐recipient Census tracts compared to similar tracts outside of BIP project service areas between the inception of the programme in 2010 and 2019. We use a quasi‐experimental research design that combines difference‐in‐difference regression with propensity score matching estimation to identify the causal effect of the BIP investments on employment outcomes. We find that the BIP investments had a positive overall effect on employment growth that increased over time. The subsidized investments had a greater effect on employment in startups than in incumbent businesses, in the goods‐producing sector and the information and communications technology sector than other sectors, and a greater effect in micropolitan census tracts than tracts located in metropolitan areas or in small town and remote rural locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article estimates the employment spillover effect of high-growth businesses on establishment-level employment growth. We assess whether the impact depends on the rurality of the region, and whether nearby establishments are high-growth businesses themselves. We also estimate the within-industry impact of high-growth establishments (HGEs). The findings show no impact of HGEs on net employment growth, due to equal gross job creation and job destruction on average. However, we find that within the same industry, HGEs contribute to positive net employment growth, with large and nearly equal impacts on existing HGEs across both Metropolitan Statistical Areas regions and non-metro counties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper determines how individual, relative to community, social capital affects individual migration decisions. We make use of nonpublic data from the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey to predict multidimensional social capital for observations in the Current Population Survey. We find evidence that individuals are much less likely to have moved to a community with average social capital levels lower than their own and that higher levels of community social capital act as positive pull-factor amenities. The importance of that amenity differs across urban/rural locations. We also confirm that higher individual social capital is a negative predictor of migration. JEL classification: R23, D71, C36, C38 Key words: social capital, migration, Current Population Survey, amenities, nonpublic data, factor analysis, 1. Introduction and background A growing body of research argues that workers make their migration decisions based on noneconomic factors, in addition to economic factors such as wages (Deller et [...]

The statistical analysis of the spatial effects of political factors on infrastructural development and the regional trends of poverty in the United States is presented.

A study on measuring the production of social capital at the level of United States counties is presented. A production function for social capital is also discussed.

In this paper, we find that higher levels of in-migration dilute multiple dimensions of a community's social capital, with some measures of a community's social capital being negatively impacted more than others. Using a spatial model and restricted-access microdata from the US Census Bureau, we employ an instrumental variables strategy to account for the endogeneity of migration. Our results suggest that political activism, overall, is most negatively impacted by in-migration, and that religiosity, trust, and community involvement are impacted more negatively in rural communities compared to non-rural communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many rural localities are interested in strategies for retaining residents and attracting newcomers. Recent research indicates that one promising strategy for rural development is maintaining and improving the quality of an area's public schools. In this research, which is the first national study of the relationship between school quality and migration flows in and out of rural areas, better outcomes for students in a rural county's schools were associated with higher migration into that county. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies in the nonmetropolitan population change literature have largely focused on the role of natural amenities and economic restructuring, but few have focused on the role of public services. This paper addresses the question of whether public services in nonmetropolitan counties, specifically the outcomes of public schools, could attract migrants. We use a Poisson regression technique little‐used in the migration literature to control for push and pull factors driving migration patterns and control for school quality. Results show that better schools can draw migrants to nonmetropolitan areas. Marginal effects are larger for nonmetropolitan counties not adjacent to metropolitan areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business location and relocation decisions tend to favor urban areas over rural areas, mainly due to the benefits derived from agglomeration economies. However, recent data from the USA show that rural counties have attracted some businesses from urban counties. This is the first study to focus on these relocations and to explore what locational factors drive these migration flows. We pay specific attention to measures of agglomeration in the form of urbanization economies, market potential and regional specialization. Using county-to-county relocation data, origin and destination characteristics and differences of those characteristics, we find that while traditional measures of urban agglomeration such as proximity to urban locations and population density as pull factors show statistical significance and the expected positive sign, the role of more specific measures such as regional specialization and market potential has the opposite or no effects on the relocation of businesses from urban to rural areas. A key and strong finding is that relocating establishments seem to prefer destination locations that are similar to their respective origins in most respects, except natural amenities where moving establishments prefer dissimilar locations. In particular, if relocation is to high-amenity rural locations, it takes place even in the absence of significant differences in other location factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the differences in the compositions and levels of development of state economies, the returns on higher education are also different in various states. Governors are seeking to expand the proportion of workers with college degrees so that their economies do not fall behind.

The degree of multicounty collaboration in rural parts of Tennessee Valley is assessed. The assessment uses both a regression model and key informant interviews to establish the factors that stimulate and impede collaboration.