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Who gets left behind by left behind places?

Author

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  • Dylan S Connor
  • Aleksander K BergArizona
  • Tom Kemeny
  • Peter J Kedron

Abstract

We document that children growing up in places left behind by today’s economy experience lower levels of social mobility as adults. Using a longitudinal database that tracks over 20,000 places in the USA from 1980 to 2018, we identify two kinds of left behind places: the ‘long-term left behind’ that have struggled over long periods of history; and ‘recently left-behind’ places where conditions have deteriorated. Compared to children of similar baseline household income levels, we find that exposure to left behind places is associated with a 4-percentile reduction in adult income rank. Children fare considerably better when exposed to places where conditions are improving. These outcomes vary across prominent social and spatial categories and are compounded when nearby places are also experiencing hardship. Based on these findings, we argue that left behind places are having ‘scarring effects’ on children that could manifest long into the future, exacerbating the intergenerational challenges faced by low-income households and communities. Improvements in local economic conditions and outmigration to more prosperous places are, therefore, unlikely to be full remedies for the problems created by left behind places.

Suggested Citation

  • Dylan S Connor & Aleksander K BergArizona & Tom Kemeny & Peter J Kedron, 2024. "Who gets left behind by left behind places?," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 17(1), pages 37-58.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:cjrecs:v:17:y:2024:i:1:p:37-58.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/cjres/rsad031
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    Cited by:

    1. Dylan Shane Connor & Tom Kemeny & Michael Storper, 2024. "Frontier workers and the seedbeds of inequality and prosperity," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 24(3), pages 393-414.
    2. Connor, Dylan S. & Sheehan, Connor & Jang, Jiwon & Kemeny, Tom & Suss, Joel & Molina, Mercedes & Xie, Siqiao & Gu, Zhining & Saenz, Joseph L., 2025. "Community wealth protects cognitive health for older adults," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 130328, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. repec:osf:socarx:d93sj_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Kemeny, Tom & Connor, Dylan Shane & Suss, Joel & Xie, Siqiao & Jang, Jiwon & Gu, Zhining, 2026. "Spatial Wealth Inequality in the United States: Theory and Evidence," SocArXiv r4sg9_v1, Center for Open Science.
    5. Karim Bekhtiar, 2025. "Robotization, internal migration and rural decline," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 38(3), pages 1-31, September.
    6. Le Petit-Guerin Mehdi & Velthuis Sanne & Royer Jeroen & Cauchi-Duval Nicolas & Franklin Rachel & Leibert Tim & MacKinnon Danny & Pike Andy, 2025. "Identifying trajectories of regional ‘left-behindness’ in the EU15 from 1982 to 2017," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 69(4), pages 177-190.

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