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Growth and Convergence across the U.S.: Evidence from County-Level Data

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Author Info
Matthew J. Higgins
Daniel Levy ()
Andrew T. Young

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Abstract

We use U.S. county data (3,058 observations) and 41 conditioning variables to study growth and convergence. Using OLS and 3SLS-IV we report on the full sample and metro, non-metro, and 5 regional samples: (1) OLS yields convergence rates around 2 percent; 3SLS yields 6–8 percent; (2) convergence rates vary (e.g., the Southern rate is 2.5 times the Northeastern rate); (3) federal, state and local government negatively correlates with growth; (4) the relationship between educational attainment and growth is nonlinear; and (5) finance, insurance & real estate industry and entertainment industry positively correlates with growth while education employment negatively correlates.

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Paper provided by Department of Economics, Emory University (Atlanta) in its series Emory Economics with number 0529.

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Date of creation: Sep 2005
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Handle: RePEc:emo:wp2003:0529

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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Andrew Young & Matthew Higgins & Daniel Levy, 2004. "Heterogeneity in Convergence Rates and Income Determination across U.S. States: Evidence from County-Level Data," Development and Comp Systems 0402003, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Young, Andrew & Higgins, Matthew & Levy, Daniel, 2007. "Black Populations and Economic Growth: An Extreme Bounds Analysis of Mississippi County-Level Data," MPRA Paper 1646, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Matthew J. Higgins & Daniel Levy & Andrew T. Young, 2006. "Heterogeneous Convergence," Emory Economics 0615, Department of Economics, Emory University (Atlanta). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Andrew Young & Matthew Higgins & Daniel Levy, 2005. "Sigma-Convergence Versus Beta-Convergence: Evidence from U.S. County-Level Data," Macroeconomics 0505008, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Matthew Higgins & Daniel Levy & Andrew Young, 2003. "Sigma Convergence Versus Beta Convergence: Evidence from County-Level Data," Emory Economics 0316, Department of Economics, Emory University (Atlanta). [Downloadable!]
  6. Higgins, Matthew & Young, Andrew & Levy, Daniel, 2007. "Robust Correlates of County-Level Growth in the U.S," MPRA Paper 3088, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Yogi Vidyattama, 2007. "The Determinants of Provincial Growth in Indonesia During 1983-2003," DEGIT Conference Papers c012_044, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade. [Downloadable!]
  8. Paul W. Bauer & Mark E. Schweitzer & Scott Shane, 2006. "State growth empirics: the long-run determinants of state income growth," Working Paper 0606, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. [Downloadable!]
  9. Mihai Nica, 2004. "Convergence in Mississippi: A Spatial Approach," Urban/Regional 0408007, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  10. Matthew Higgins & Daniel Levy & Andrew Young, 2004. "Many Types of Human Capital and Many Roles in U.S. Growth: Evidence from County-Level Educational Attainment Data," Emory Economics 0402, Department of Economics, Emory University (Atlanta). [Downloadable!]
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  11. David E. A. Giles & Chad Stroomer, 2003. "Does Trade Openness Affect the Speed of Output Convergence? Some Empirical Evidence," Econometrics Working Papers 0307, Department of Economics, University of Victoria. [Downloadable!]
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  12. Marcel Fafchamps & Klaus Desmet, 2003. "Employment Concentration across US Counties," Economics Series Working Papers 180, University of Oxford, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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