Do Universities Improve Local Economic Resilience?

"Workhorses of Opportunity": Regional Universities Increase Local Social Mobility

“…An article from the Kankakee Gazette, written in August 1877 when the city was assigned an asylum, helps illustrate these points, "Our citizens received the news in a spirit of jubilee, and on Friday evening there was a bonfire, band music... and speeches..." The article expresses gratitude for "the great services of Messrs. Bonfeid and Taylor, our representatives in the upper and lower houses of the legislature," highlighting the importance of the political process in determining these locations. We provide more evidence from historical newspapers supporting our identification strategy in Howard, Weinstein and Yang (2022).…”

“…As we show in Howard, Weinstein and Yang (2022), states were often determining locations for normal schools and insane asylums at roughly the same time. 12 The timing and the similar selection criteria, along with individual state histories, support the idea that whether a community received a normal school or an asylum may have been e↵ectively random based on political factors.…”

“…12 The timing and the similar selection criteria, along with individual state histories, support the idea that whether a community received a normal school or an asylum may have been e↵ectively random based on political factors. 13 We showed in Howard, Weinstein and Yang (2022) that in the early 20th century, enrollment at normal schools and the population in asylums were similar relative to county population. This provides further supportive evidence that being selected as the location for these two types of institutions may have required similar political influence, as the institutions may have been expected to confer similar advantages.…”

“…14 For reference, we reproduce the figure from Howard, Weinstein and Yang (2022) showing this fact in Figure A1b.…”

“…As policymak- 13 Humphreys (1923) also provides evidence that location decisions for these two types of institutions were relevant for political negotiations. See Howard, Weinstein and Yang (2022) for further details on these political factors.…”