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

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Author Info
Matthew Higgins (Georgia Institute of Technology)
Daniel Levy (Bar-Ilan University)
Andrew Young (University of Mississippi)

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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 EconWPA in its series Macroeconomics with number 0509023.

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Length: 54 pages
Date of creation: 22 Sep 2005
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Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwpma:0509023

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Related research
Keywords: Economic Growth Conditional Convergence County-Level Data

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
O40 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General
O11 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
O18 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Regional, Urban, and Rural Analyses
O51 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - U.S.; Canada
R11 - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Analysis of Growth, Development, and Changes
H50 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - General
H70 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - General

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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. 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:
  2. 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!]
  3. 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:
  4. 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!]
  5. Young, Andrew & Higgins, Matthew & Levy, Daniel, 2006. "Heterogeneous Convergence," MPRA Paper 954, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  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. Mihai Nica, 2004. "Convergence in Mississippi: A Spatial Approach," Urban/Regional 0408007, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  8. Matthew Higgins & Daniel Levy & Andrew Young, 2004. "Heterogeneity in Convergence Rates and Income Determination across U.S. States: Evidence from County-Level Data," Emory Economics 0401, Department of Economics, Emory University (Atlanta). [Downloadable!]
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  9. 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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  10. 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!]
  11. 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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  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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