Business Commons^™

Is Growth In Outstate Missouri Tied To Growth In The St. Louis And Kansas City Metro Areas?, Howard J. Wall

Faculty Scholarship

In a 2016 Show-Me Institute essay, Michael Podgursky and Nick Pretnar demonstrated the proportional importance to the state economy of Missouri’s two dominant metro areas.1 As they report, the St. Louis and Kansas City metro areas together account for well over half of Missouri’s economic output (64 percent of gross state product in 2013), indicating that the aggregate performance of the state economy is largely determined by the performance of the two metro areas’ economies. In this essay I take this idea a step further and examine whether there is more than simply a proportional relationship.

Specifically, I look at …

Tech Work In St. Louis: Past, Present, And Future, Howard Wall

Faculty Scholarship

In Summary, the findings in this report confirm the necessity and urgency for improved data collection and advocacy for the St. Louis data economy. In order for the MSA to become a nationally recognized tech hub to attract and retain competitive tech talent, the St. Louis Metro will need to aggressively address the industry disparities in diverse representation, pay gaps, and occupational growth. Additional data collection and ongoing research will allow the region to report more comprehensively on these metrics, as well as expand into more targeted industry analyses like the Big 15 Emerging Technologies identified by TechSTL.

'True' Unemployment In The United States And The St. Louis Metro Area, Howard J. Wall

Center for Applied Economics

Official unemployment rates produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) are intended to capture the extent to which the economy is generating employment for those adults who want to work. It has been known for some time, however, that, because of the discouraged-worker effect, the official unemployment rates understate the true extent of unemployment. The BLS produces alternative measures that are meant to address this problem, but, because these measures exclude anyone who has been discouraged for more than a year, they are inadequate given the prolonged nature of the current recovery.