The Causes of Regional Variations in U.S. Poverty: A Cross‐County Analysis

Abstract

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 regional variation in the rates of poverty. The use of counties allows examination of both nonmetropolitan area and metropolitan area poverty. Factors considered include those that relate to both area economic performance and area demographic composition. Specific county economic factors examined include economic growth, industry restructuring, and labor market skills mismatches. Copyright 2000 Blackwell Publishers

Educational Attainment and Regional Economic Performance in Mexico

“…Similar to other regional studies [Sloboda, 1999;Levernier et al, 2000;Fullerton, 2001], multicollinearity affects a subset of the slope coefficient t-statistics. Both of the t-statistics for the incomplete primary school and the completed elementary school regressors fail to meet the 5 percent significance criterion.…”

“…Accordingly, much of the recent research on this topic has been conducted for regional and metropolitan economies [Sloboda, 1999;Levernier et al, 2000;Fullerton, 2001;Gottlieb and Fogarty, 2003]. Studies in this category often focus their efforts on lower income regions and use model simulations to illustrate the potential gains from policies designed to encourage higher enrollment and graduation rates.…”

Natural Resource Curse and Poverty in Appalachian America

“…We use a disequilibrium partial-adjustment poverty model similar to Levernier, Partridge, and Rickman (2000) and Partridge and Rickman (2005;2008a). The model assumes a county's current equilibrium poverty rate is a function of its characteristics, such as job growth and demographics.…”

Poverty in the Texas borderland and lower Mississippi Delta: A comparative analysis of differences by family type

“…In addition, a strong FIRE sector helps to underwrite other forms of economic activity. Research has shown that the percentage of total employment in agriculture tends to be positively related to poverty (Albrecht, Albrecht, and Albrecht 2000;Levernier, Partridge, and Rickman 2000). This is due in part to the fact that agriculture tends to predominate in rural areas with less diversified economies, and is also characterized by particularly high rates of underemployment compared to other industries (Slack and Jensen 2004).…”