We analyze the impact of economic development policies and highway infrastructure improvements on growth of per capita income and jobs in Michigan counties. The policies considered for analysis have significant impact on growth outcomes. However, this effect is non-linear. Significant...

This paper examines the role of social capital--the set of supportive interpersonal interactions that exists in the family, community, and school--in promoting educational achievement. Employing data on public school students from the National Education Longitudinal Survey (NELS) and other...

Urban sprawl has been criticized for its disproportionate impact on the environment. Yet urban areas are in fact less land-intensive than recent rural development patterns. Residential first-movers into such virgin areas may spark waves of ensuing development without incorporating the true...

This paper investigates Smith's (1989) thesis that county drop out rates have been self-perpetuating in the rural South, a pattern reinforced by the presence of mining and manufacturing employers with few skill demands. The results show that the associations of mining and manufacturing with high...

This paper seeks to determine how region, demographics, and economic characteristics affected county-level voting patterns in the 2000 U.S. presidential election. The a priori expectation was that the geographic voting patterns that emerged in the election were largely attributable to...

In this paper, we provide evidence based on New Economic Geography Models and estimate the statistical effects of second nature advantages to shed some light on the locational transformation of the manufacturing sector in Mexico. Changes in regional industry shares and regional wages during...

Using the endogenous growth model proposed by Romer (1990) and operationalized by Stern, Porter, and Furman (2000), we seek to identify factors that affect innovative capacity in the U.S. We find strong evidence of endogeneity between employment growth and innovative capacity. In response, we...

Blending regional studies with growth econometrics, we apply the seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) methodology to income, employment, and population growth over 1990-2000 for all 254 Texas counties organized in 24 geographic regions. Several results are discussed, along with the role of wages...

In this paper, I perform a spatial econometric analysis of the determinants of regional specialization patterns across EU regions. Spatial correlation is evident, but this is due mostly to spatial error autocorrelation. Spatial interaction caused by positive economic interdependencies might be...

Spatial statistics, econometric modeling, and other quantitative research methods provide the dominant approach to conducting research in regional science. This paper contends that a deeper understanding of many regional development processes can be gained by employing mixed method research...