Is shale development drilling holes in the human capital pipeline?

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit organization supported by Deutsche Post Foundation. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its international network, workshops and conferences, data service, project support, research visits and doctoral program. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I EIZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. Using the Synthetic Control Method (SCM) and a novel method for measuring changes in educational attainment we examine the link between educational attainment and shale oil and gas extraction for the states of Montana, North Dakota, and West Virginia. The three states examined are economically-small, relatively more rural, and have high levels of shale oil and gas reserves. They also are varied in that West Virginia is intensive in shale gas extraction, while the other two are intensive in shale oil extraction. We find significant reductions in high school and college attainment among all three states' initial residents because of the shale booms.JEL Classification: Q4, R1, R2

Energy Boom and Gloom? Local Effects of Oil and Natural Gas Drilling on Subjective Well‐Being

“…There is also evidence that mineral owners are typically not local residents in Texas (Fry, Briggle, and Kincaid ) or other states (Brown, Fitzgerald, and Weber ), limiting the potential regional benefits of royalty payments. Furthermore, there is debate in the literature as to whether being endowed with natural resources creates a regional “resource curse,” perhaps by encouraging corruption, rent‐seeking, and short‐sightedness that discourages long run productive investments by firms and individuals (Betz et al ; Rickman, Wang, and Winters ; Weber ). Volatile swings in energy prices also create a boom‐bust cycle that may leave regions worse off in the bust than they would have been had the boom not occurred (Jacobsen and Parker ).…”

The shale revolution and entrepreneurship: An assessment of the relationship between energy sector expansion and small business entrepreneurship in US counties

“…and ill-functioning institutions (Bhattacharyya & Hodler, 2010;Bjorvatn, Farzanegan, & Schneider, 2012;Sala-i-Martin & Subramanian, 2013); concentration of production and export in the resource sector that hampers diversification (Murshed & Serino, 2011); a lack of incentives for human capital accumulation (Black, McKinnish, & Sanders, 2005;Blanco & Grier, 2012;Gylfason, 2001;Rickman, Wang & Winters, 2017) and crowding out entrepreneurship and innovation (Betz et al, 2015;Gylfason, 2000;Sachs & Warner, 1999) are hypothesized to play a role. Some authors, however, argue that market 1 For an alternative view see Alexeev andConrad (2009) andCavalcanti, Mohaddes, andRaissi (2011).…”

The (Uneven) Spatial Distribution of the Bakken Oil Boom

“…It should be mentioned that, along with signicant economic gains, the shale boom generated a variety of negative outcomes as well. The shale boom increased local crime rates (James and Smith, 2015), depressed the value of nearby ground-water-dependent homes (Gopalakrishnan and Klaiber, 2014;Muehlenbachs, Spiller and Timmins, 2015), and limited high school and college attainment (Rickman, Wang and Winters, 2017).…”