Fellows Address: The biggest issue facing the United States in recent years is the poor economy, most dramatically illustrated by the lack of job creation. The lack of jobs is not a phenomenon that began with the 2007-2009 Great Recession and sluggish recovery, but has been a feature of the...

Over the past four decades almost 400 U.S. counties have persistently experienced poverty rates in excess of 20%. This raises the question of whether poverty-reducing policies should be directed more at helping people or helping the places where they reside. Using a variety of approaches,...

The export base hypothesis is that a region's growth is led by export demand, given perfectly elastic factor supplies. It is a rationale for "sector-based" rural development policies, and it is formalized by input-output models. But it is contested by modern trade, migration, and growth...

Production function studies typically conclude that public capital plays little role in enhancing productivity. However, others have found that infrastructure and employment growth are positively related. These apparently conflicting results can be reconciled if public capital serves as a...

Partridge and Rickman explore the underlying spatial, demographic, and economic contributors to poverty rates and examine the spatial variation of state and county poverty rates and their trends over time. They conclude that a unique combination of place-based and person-based policies is needed...

The record economic expansion of the 1990s has led many to speculate that the United States is experiencing a New Economy. Along with the belief that strong growth could continue without accelerating inflation, there has been speculation that regional disparities in economic performance are...

Numerous models propose an income-distribution/growth linkage, but the empirical evidence is ambiguous and depends on the regression approach. Mixed findings are not unexpected if there are differing short- and long-term responses. Approaches utilizing cross-sectional variation primarily reflect...

The persistence of poverty in the modern American economy, with rates of poverty in some areas approaching those of less advanced economies, remains a central concern among policy makers. Therefore, in this study we use U.S. county-level data to explore potential explanations for the observed...

Impact of Economic Growth on Income Inequality: A Regional Perspective Shibalee Majumdar and Mark Partridge Egalitarianism refers to the doctrine of the equality of mankind and the desirability of political, economic and social equality. In this paper, we are going to refer to the concept of...