Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Despite substantial funding going to regional economic development programs, little is known about the benefits of some of the smaller, place-based programs. The authors extend the literature on regional commissions by analyzing the economic gains to the Delta Regional Authority (DRA). The DRA was founded in 2000 to provide enhanced development aid to 252 lower Mississippi Valley counties. Using data from 1997 to 2016, the authors assess the DRA’s impact on employment, income, migration, and poverty. One-to-one propensity score matching is used to generate counterfactual counties. Because of the endogenous nature of the treatment, the authors instrument for counties being included in the DRA using a dummy for whether the county is within the lower Mississippi watershed. The ensuing results reflect an estimation of the intent-to-treat benefits of the DRA. The authors find that the DRA is associated with income gains and decreases in unemployment; however, it has no impact on poverty or migration.

Keywords

rural economic development program evaluation place-based policy instrumental variable

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abadie

Diamond

Hainmueller

(2010). Synthetic control methods for comparative case studies: Estimating the effect of California’s tobacco control program. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 105(490), 493-505. https://doi.org/10.1198/jasa.2009.ap08746

Abadie

Gardeazabal

(2003). The economic costs of conflict: A case-control study for the Basque Country. American Economic Review, 93(1), 113-132. https://doi.org/10.1257/000282803321455188

Austin

Glaeser

Summers

(2018). Saving the Heartland: Place-based policies in 21st century America (Working Paper 24548). https://doi.org/10.3386/w24548

Barca

McCann

Rodriguez-Pose

(2012). The case for regional development intervention: Place-based versus place-neutral approaches. Journal of Regional Science, 52(1), 134-152. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9787.2011.00756.x

Barrows

R. L.

Bromley

D. W.

(1975). Employment impacts of the Economic Development Administrations Public Works program. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 57(1), 46-54. https://doi.org/10.2307/1238839

Bartik

T. J.

(1991). Who benefits from state and local economic development policies? W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. https://doi.org/10.17848/9780585223940

Baum-Snow

Ferreira

(2014). Causal inference in urban and regional economics (NBER Working Paper No. 20535). https://doi.org/10.3386/w20535

Behrman

J. R.

Hoddinott

(2005). Program evaluation with unobserved heterogeneity and selective implementation: The Mexican PROGRESA impact on child nutrition. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 67(4), 547-569. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0084.2005.00131.x

Brandow

Weisbrod

Collins

Howard

Bischak

(2000). Evaluation of the Appalachian Regional Commission’s infrastructure and public works program projects. Appalachian Regional Commission. https://www.arc.gov/research/researchreportdetails.asp?REPORT_ID=64

10.

Bun

M. G.

Harrison

T. D.

(2014). OLS and IV estimation of regression models including endogenous interaction terms (UVA Econometrics Discussion Paper, 2014-03). University of Amsterdam.

11.

Burchell

Dolphin

Shad

Zakrewsky

Pignataro

Griffis

Epling

Haughwout

Varady

Looye

(1997). Public works program–Performance evaluation: Final report (EDA Project No. 99-06-07415). Prepared for U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration, Office of Program Research and Evaluation.

12.

Burchell

Haughwout

Robison

Shad

Dolphin

(1998). Public works programs–Multiplier and employment-generating effects (EDA Project No. 99-06-07415). Prepared for U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration Office of Program Research and Evaluation.

13.

Busso

Gregory

Kline

(2013). Assessing the incidence and efficiency of a prominent place based policy. American Economic Review, 103(2), 897-947. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.103.2.897

14.

Ciscel

D. H.

(1999). Creating economic growth in rural Mississippi Delta Counties. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/bridges/fall-1999/creating-economic-growth-in-rural-mississippi-delta-counties

15.

Counties in Appalachia. (n.d.). Appalachian Regional Commission. https://www.arc.gov/appalachian_region/CountiesinAppalachia.asp#:~:text=The%20following%20independent%20cities%20in,Galax%20(Carroll%20County)%2C%20Lexington

16.

Delta Regional Authority Act, S. 1622, 106 Cong. (1999). (Enacted).

17.

Freshwater

Wojan

Goetz

(1997). Testing for the Effects of Federal Economic Development Agencies (TVA Rural Studies Staff Paper No. 97-2). University of Kentucky.

18.

Glaeser

E. L.

Gottlieb

J. D.

(2008). The economics of place-making policies. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 2008(1), 155-253. https://doi.org/10.1353/eca.0.0005

19.

Ham

J. C.

Swenson

İmrohoroğlu

Song

(2011). Government programs can improve local labor markets: Evidence from State Enterprise Zones, Federal Empowerment Zones and Federal Enterprise Community. Journal of Public Economics, 95(7), 779-797. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2010.11.027

20.

Hirano

Imbens

Ridder

(2003). Efficient estimation of average treatment effects using the estimated propensity score. Econometrica, 71(4), 1161-1189. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0262.00442

21.

Ierardi

M. C.

(2016). Science in your watershed. United States Geological Society.

22.

Isserman

Rephann

T. J.

(1995). The economic effects of the Appalachian Regional Commission: An empirical assessment of 26 years of regional development planning. Journal of the American Planning Association, 61(3), 345-364. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944369508975647

23.

Kline

(2010). Place based policies, heterogeneity, and agglomeration. American Economic Review, 100(2), 383-387. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.100.2.383

24.

Kline

Moretti

(2014). Local economic development, agglomeration economies, and the big push: 100 years of evidence from the Tennessee Valley Authority. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 129(1), 275-331. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjt034

25.

Langbein

W. B.

Iseri

K. T.

(1995). General introduction and hydrologic definitions. United States Geological Society. https://doi.org/10.3133/wsp1541A

26.

Leuven

Sianesi

(2001). Mahalanobis and propensity score matching. http://repec.org/bocode/p/psmatch2.html

27.

Liebschutz

(1995). Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities: Reinventing federalism for distressed communities. Journal of Federalism, 25(3), 117-132. https://doi.org/10.2307/3330690

28.

Lower Mississippi Delta Development Act, S. 2246, 100 Cong. (1988).

29.

Martin

R. C.

Graham

R. E.

Jr. (1980). The impact of Economic Development Administration Programs: Some empirical evidence. Review of Economics and Statistics, 62(1), 52-62. https://doi.org/10.2307/1924272

30.

Masingill

C. A.

(2016a). Fiscal Year 2017 Budget Justification and 2015 Annual Report. Delta Regional Authority.

31.

Masingill

C. A.

(2016b). Moving the Delta forward: Delta Regional Development Plan III. Delta Regional Authority.

32.

Partridge

M. D.

(2013). America’s job crisis and the role of regional economic development policy. Review of Regional Studies, 43(2/3), 93-110.

33.

Partridge

M. D.

Rickman

D. S.

(2006). The geography of American poverty: Is there a role for place-based policies? W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.

34.

Partridge

M. D.

Rickman

D. S.

Olfert

M. R.

Tang

(2015a). U.S. regional poverty post-2000: The lost decade. Economic Development Quarterly, 29(1), 38-48. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891242414560814

35.

Partridge

M. D.

Rickman

D. S.

Olfert

M. R.

Tang

(2015b). When spatial equilibrium fails: Is place-based policy second best? Regional Studies, 49(8), 1303-1325. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2013.837999

36.

Pender

Reeder

(2011). Impacts of regional approaches to rural development: Initial evidence on the Delta Regional Authority (Report No. 119). https://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details/?pubid=44857

37.

Reynolds

Rohlin

(2015, July). The effects of location-based tax policies on the distribution of household income: Evidence from the federal Empowerment Zone program. Journal of Urban Economics, 88, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2015.04.003

38.

Rosenbaum

P. R.

Rubin

D. B.

(1983). The central role of the propensity score in observational studies for causal effects. Biometrika, 70(1), 41-55. https://doi.org/10.1093/biomet/70.1.41

39.

Rosenbaum

P. R.

Rubin

D. B.

(1984). Reducing bias in observational studies using subclassification on the propensity score. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 79(387), 516-524. https://doi.org/10.2307/2288398

40.

Rupasingha

Goetz

. (2013). Self-employment and local economic performance: Evidence from U.S. counties. Papers in Regional Science, 92(1), 141-161. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1435-5957.2011.00396.x

41.

Schultz

T. P.

(2004). School subsidies for the poor: Evaluating the Mexican Progresa poverty program. Journal of Development Economics, 74(1), 199-250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2003.12.009

42.

Stephens

Partridge

M. D.

(2011). Do entrepreneurs enhance economic growth in lagging regions? Growth and Change, 42(1), 431-465. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2257.2011.00563.x

43.

Stephens

Partridge

M. D.

Faggian

(2013). Innovation, entrepreneurship and economic growth in lagging regions. Journal of Regional Science, 53(5), 778-812. https://doi.org/10.1111/jors.12019

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.62 MB

The Impact of Small Regional Economic Development Commissions: Is There Any Bang After Just a Few Bucks?

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References

Supplementary Material