This paper examines the effects of local taxes and government spending on new business startups in 8,576 Maine city-industries between 1993 and 1994. Empirical findings indicate that local property tax rates have a negative effect on the number of startups, whereas spending on education and...

This paper examines the relationship between human capital and economic activity in U.S. metropolitan areas, extending the existing literature in two important ways. First, we utilize new data on metropolitan-area GDP to measure economic activity. Using educational attainment as an indicator of...

This paper examines the effects of local workforce creativity on county-level earnings. Descriptive analysis of the data shows that most of the high-creativity counties in the United States are part of metropolitan areas, and that employee earnings are high in these places. Regression results...

This paper analyzes expansion, relocation, and new business projects in Ohio between 1993 and 1995 to determine the characteristics that influence a project's probability of receiving a tax incentive from the state. Empirical results indicate that establishment size and age, high local wages,...

Books Reviewed include: Management of Shared Groundwater Resources: The Israeli-Palestinian Case with an International Perspective by Eran Peitelson and Marwan Haddad; Rural planning and management by Joe Morris, Alison Bailey, R. Kerry Turner and Ian J. Bateman; Rural Financial Markets in Asia:...

This piece examines the local tourism-related expenditures made by attendees at large, outdoor popular music concerts held from 2010 to 2012 in Bangor, Maine. A regression analysis of the relationship between monthly taxable retail sales—e.g., restaurant and lodging sales—and the number of...

This paper examines differences in the skill content of work throughout the United States, ranging from densely populated city centers to isolated and sparsely populated rural areas. To do so, we classify detailed geographic areas into categories along the entire urban-rural hierarchy. An...

With the publication of The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida in 2002, the ‘creative city’ became the new hot topic among urban policymakers, planners and economists. Florida has developed one of three path-breaking theories about the relationship between creative individuals and...