This paper investigates Smith's (1989) thesis that county drop out rates have been self-perpetuating in the rural South, a pattern reinforced by the presence of mining and manufacturing employers with few skill demands. The results show that the associations of mining and manufacturing with high...

We examine the empirical relationship between public investment and per capita income growth in the Spanish regions over 1965-1997. Using a neoclassical growth model with public and human capital, a convergence equation is derived and estimated using panel data techniques. Besides providing...

We compare the returns to human capital in rural areas with those in urban areas, and across the different regions of the US. A key finding is that these returns are considerably lower in rural than in urban areas. Furthermore, failure to correct for spatial dependence bias produces an...

The role of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in increasing the education and economic well-being of rural Blacks is not, perhaps, as clear today as in the past given the abolition of formal segregation in public education. This paper presents evidence that HBCUs still play a...

This research evaluates the effects of higher stocks of human capital (measured by the share of adults with some college) on growth in county per capita income using a Mankiw, Romer, and Weil type model adjusted for spatial dependence and capital stocks. Regressions based on county data from the...

This chapter discusses the large literature and numerous issues regarding education-related differences in income in the U.S. Early analyses of skill-related differences compared the earnings of workers across occupations. The general consensus of these investigations was that skill premiums...

This chapter analyzes the international evidence on the relationship between educational wage premia and the distribution of personal labor earnings. The aim is to review what is known about the contribution of differences in relative wages across schooling levels to the degree of variability,...