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...

Despite the surging interest in entrepreneurship as an economic development strategy, studies of the independent relationship between proprietorship formations and job growth are virtually non-existent. We find that self-employment or proprietorship rates are associated with faster job growth in...

Understanding the factors that account for differences in food stamp expenditure dynamics over space is important not only for potentially improving public policy but also for clarifying the relative roles of factors that are and are not under the control of welfare recipients in determining...

This study considers social capital and religious adherence as determinants of child poverty in the United States and finds that both social capital and religious adherence play a role in U.S. child poverty at the county level. The study also disaggregates the total religious adherence variable...

Even as self-employment continues to increase, policymakers remain largely unaware of this trend and fail to see it as an opportunity for addressing enduring joblessness. In part, this is explained by limited data on the self-employed and by widespread perceptions that returns to self-employment...