Regional Economics Commons^™

Understanding Housing Market Adjustment: Evidence From Population Shocks, Regulation, And Monetary Policy, Michael Tyler Duncan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation studies how housing markets adjust to demographic shocks, local regulation, and macroeconomic policy through three related essays. Chapter 1 develops a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model and panel VECM evidence to study how population volatility affects housing prices, rents, and construction. It finds that population shocks generate strong price responses across housing markets and more pronounced effects in tight housing markets and declining regions. Chapter 2 examines local rental registry policies using county-level difference-in-differences analysis and finds limited aggregate effects but meaningful heterogeneity across treatment intensity and market segments. Chapter 3 revisits the macro-housing VAR literature on …

Three Essays In Health Economics, Caroline Andressa Welter

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Health outcomes and access to care are shaped by the interaction between public institutions, administrative rules, and responses to health risk. This dissertation investigates how barriers to access, changes in perceived risk, and policy design influence participation in public programs, preventive health behavior, and  treatment continuation. Across three essays in health economics, I examine how individuals respond to disruptions in service delivery, epidemic exposure, and administrative burden, with a focus on vulnerable populations that depend on public systems of care.
The first essay analyzes the impact of Social Security Administration field office closures on participation in federal disability programs during …

Three Essays On Urban Transportation, Daniel Amorim Souza Centuriao

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Urban environments are shaped by dynamic interactions between infrastructure development, policy interventions, and episodic demand shocks, all of which can generate unintended externalities in the form of motor vehicle collisions, injuries, and fatalities. This dissertation investigates the determinants of traffic safety in dense urban settings, with a particular focus on how different sources of urban activity affect collision risk and severity. Using New York City as a case study and leveraging high-resolution spatial and temporal data, I examine three distinct but interconnected mechanisms: construction activity, traffic safety policies, and large-scale events.

The first chapter analyzes the impact of urban development, …

Three Essays On Local Labor Markets, David Henry Nason

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation consists of three essays that employ applied econometric analysis to examine issues related to local labor markets. These analyses explore three distinct sources of structural change or policy interventions and evaluate their implications for regional labor markets. I examine the impact of occupational skill endowments on regional resilience to a recessionary shock, how exposure to increases in employer skill demand affects local labor markets, and whether grants extended by an existing federally chartered regional commission have a positive impact on distressed local labor markets within its service area.

The first chapter of this dissertation studies the impact that …

Economic Behavior And Policy Distortions: Evidence From Firms And Households, Seth Joseph Carter

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In Chapter 1, I reopen the question of whether U.S. firms experience effective tax decreases directly resulting from federal lobbying expenditures by introducing more rigorous causal-inference testing. I first model lobbying as a productive input for the legislator, affecting firm tax outcomes by influencing the share of scarce legislative attention afforded to industry tax priorities. Using multi-industry, firm-level data from 2007 to 2022, I exploit percentage changes in non-industry lobbying as a proxy for political competition facing firms through a novel application of Bartik, shift-share instrumental variable estimation and two-stage residual inclusion. Effects of induced firm lobbying shifts on reported …

Three Essays In Urban And Regional Economics, Bryan Khoo Wyng Wai

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation "Three Essays in Urban and Regional Economics" contains three chapters which explore urban and regional economics. The first chapters focuses on examining the effect of stadiums on congestion; the second chapter on the effect of military base closures on the housing market; and the third chapter is a meta-analysis on historical instrumental variables.

The first chapter examines the effect of National Football League games on traffic congestion in Cincinnati, Ohio; Seattle, Washington; and Santa Clara, California during the 2018 and 2019 seasons. By linking sporting events to traffic congestion, this paper provides the mechanism for stadiums generating additional …

Three Essays In Urban, Health And Public Economics, Dinushka Paranavitana

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation “Three Essays in Urban, Health and Public Economics” contains three chapters which explore urban, health and public economics. The first two chapters focus on examining the unexpected consequences of urban and health related policies, while the third chapter explores the nuanced relationships between health policies and religion. The first chapter examines the impact of NFL and NBA games, beyond the reach of stadium walls and arenas, extending to how it affects driver behavior after games. In this paper I analyze how game outcomes for professional level football and basketball games have an impact on affecting the rate of …

Three Essays On Energy Related To State Policies And Low Carbon Transitions, Pinky Thomas

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation consists of three essays on energy-related state policies and energy transition. Each paragraph below refers to the three abstracts for the three chapters in this dissertation, respectively.

The first essay is entitled: “Impacts of State Tax and Resource Ownership Policies on Extraction: Evidence from U.S. Natural Gas Production”. The innovation of combined use of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies during the 2000s has allowed natural gas producers in the United States to extract natural gas and liquids from deep shale formations in a cost-efficient manner. This essay evaluates whether unconventional gas production responds to tax changes, and …

Three Essays On Health And Environmental Economics: Applications Of Spatial Econometrics And Spatial Analysis, Mohammed Syedul Islam

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Spatial interaction and the locational structure between observations play key roles in the field of econometrics for both cross-sectional and panel data analysis. Compared to a non-spatial econometric model, a spatial model relaxes the assumption of independency in observations. This research applies spatial and non-spatial econometrics in three different fields of applied economics: (1) drinking water and air quality violations impacts on lung and bronchus cancer incidence in the contiguous United States (U.S.); (2) spillover effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) on COVID-19 cases across the contiguous U.S. counties; and (3) urbanization impacts on carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in …

Three Essays In Applied Microeconomics: Philly Style, Alexander Christian Marsella

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

My dissertation analyzes several contemporary policy-based and institutional occurrences in an urban setting to help guide further advancements in reducing violence, drug overdose deaths, and other unhealthy behaviors that city governments look to curb. Several recent developments in Philadelphia offer a promising setting for studying policies that have broad implications.

Chapter 1 examines the effect of the West Philadelphia Promise Zone initiative on violent crime rates in a high-crime area of West Philadelphia, where a series of educational, public-safety, and quality-of-life improvement grants were disbursed from 2014 onward. My difference-in-differences analysis with two-way fixed effects and cluster bootstrapped standard errors …

Essays On The Economics Of Law And Crime, Zachary J. Porreca

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The first chapter examines the connection between gentrification and urban violence. I demonstrate a positive and plausibly causal relationship between urban redevelopment and gun violence in Philadelphia. As the underlying mechanism, I focus on gentrification's displacement effect on local drug markets. Treating the city as a spatial network of city blocks and using two-way fixed effects differences-in-differences estimators, I show the gentrification of one block increases violence across the surrounding neighborhood. I find that some 2,400 (8%) of Philadelphia's shootings between the years 2011 and 2020 can be attributed to spillover effects from the gentrification of drug blocks. This effect …

Economic Impact Of A Proposed Metals Manufacturing Plant, Eric Bowen

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

In this briefing paper, we estimate the potential economic impact of a new metals manufacturing plant in West Virginia. Data for this study were provided by the West Virginia Development Office. We consider the economic impact of the plant construction and operational spending in terms of output, employment, employee compensation, and select state and local tax revenue.

The U.S. Coal Industry: Market Structure & Implications, Sara Elizabeth Guffey

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The U.S. coal mining industry was once a booming industry which created and defined communities, particularly in Appalachia. The industry has, however, transformed significantly in the last couple of decades with the passage of environmental policies, with competition from the Shale Revolution, from changes in company ownership, and from mine safety regulation. Overall, the coal industry during this time has experienced a massive decline in production and employment. This dissertation is composed of three papers that investigate these mechanisms and their role in understanding market structure, coal transactions and prices, and mine safety outcomes. Motivated by the shutdowns of U.S. …

Essays In The Consequences Of Occupational Regulation, Noah J. Trudeau

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Occupational regulation affects many people across many aspects of life. This dissertation research investigates the consequences of occupational regulation across three different areas of study: economic history, urban and regional economics, and health policy.

The first chapter investigates the historic licensing of emigrant agents. In the period following the US Civil War, firms wished to capitalize on the availability of African American labor. To do so they hired emigrant agents, also known as labor agents, to hire and help with the migration of individuals from the South. Faced with out-migration at the hands of the labor force, some southern states …

Essays In Urban And Health Economics, Allyssa Ann Wadsworth

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Chapter 1 analyzes the impact new hospital construction has on neighboring residential real estate prices. In 2017, the Oishei Children’s Hospital was built in downtown Buffalo, New York, representing a new era for women and children’s medical facilities. Individuals working at the old facility now faced the decision of whether to move closer to the new hospital or have a longer commute. Using property sales data, I analyze how Oishei impacts residential property prices with a difference-in-differences hedonic price model while utilizing three unique time treatments and two distance treatments. The opening of Oishei generated a statistically significant percentage increase …

The Economic Impact Of The Longview Power Plant On West Virginia, Eric Bowen, John Deskins

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

In this report, we consider the potential economic impact of the Longview Power Plant’s switch to in-state coal suppliers, and the Longview Power Plant overall. In addition to increased coal purchases, we estimate the PPA would generate an additional $19.4 million in related economic activity in the state, for a total economic impact of more than $58 million annually.

The Economic Impact Of The Fort Martin Power Station On The Monongalia County And West Virginia Economies, Eric Bowen

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

In this report, we estimate the economic impact of the Fort Martin Power Station on both the West Virginia economy and the Monongalia County economy. We begin with an overview of the effects of the COVID pandemic on Monongalia County’s economy, followed by the economic impact of the power station.

Economic Structure In Appalachia’S Urban Regions: Clustering And Diversification Strategies Supplement 3, Regions 61-90, Randall W. Jackson, Peter Jarosi, Gi-Eu Lee, Sara Farhangdoost

Cluster Analyses

In support of economic development practitioners’ efforts to devise strategies that can align with both industrial clustering and industrial diversification, this report provides a wide range of relevant measures and metrics. In addition to standard regional analysis tools like coefficients of specialization, location quotients, and growth rates, we introduce two fundamentally new measures for understanding the nature of regional clusters. These measures focus on the industries that anchor the clusters and characterize their strength and regional dominance. The former measures the share of the anchor industry’s direct and indirect requirements that could be satisfied by regional industries, and the latter …

Economic Structure In Appalachia’S Urban Regions: Clustering And Diversification Strategies Supplement 1, Regions 1-30, Randall W. Jackson, Peter Jarosi, Gi-Eu Lee, Sara Farhangdoost

Cluster Analyses

In support of economic development practitioners’ efforts to devise strategies that can align with both industrial clustering and industrial diversification, this report provides a wide range of relevant measures and metrics. In addition to standard regional analysis tools like coefficients of specialization, location quotients, and growth rates, we introduce two fundamentally new measures for understanding the nature of regional clusters. These measures focus on the industries that anchor the clusters and characterize their strength and regional dominance. The former measures the share of the anchor industry’s direct and indirect requirements that could be satisfied by regional industries, and the latter …

Economic Structure In Appalachia’S Urban Regions: Clustering And Diversification Strategies Supplement 4, Regions 91-120, Randall W. Jackson, Peter Jarosi, Gi-Eu Lee, Sara Farhangdoost

Cluster Analyses

In support of economic development practitioners’ efforts to devise strategies that can align with both industrial clustering and industrial diversification, this report provides a wide range of relevant measures and metrics. In addition to standard regional analysis tools like coefficients of specialization, location quotients, and growth rates, we introduce two fundamentally new measures for understanding the nature of regional clusters. These measures focus on the industries that anchor the clusters and characterize their strength and regional dominance. The former measures the share of the anchor industry’s direct and indirect requirements that could be satisfied by regional industries, and the latter …

Economic Structure In Appalachia’S Urban Regions: Clustering And Diversification Strategies Supplement 2, Regions 31-60, Randall W. Jackson, Peter Jarosi, Gi-Eu Lee, Sara Farhangdoost

Cluster Analyses

In support of economic development practitioners’ efforts to devise strategies that can align with both industrial clustering and industrial diversification, this report provides a wide range of relevant measures and metrics. In addition to standard regional analysis tools like coefficients of specialization, location quotients, and growth rates, we introduce two fundamentally new measures for understanding the nature of regional clusters. These measures focus on the industries that anchor the clusters and characterize their strength and regional dominance. The former measures the share of the anchor industry’s direct and indirect requirements that could be satisfied by regional industries, and the latter …

An Evaluation Of Databases Drawn From The National Survey Of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-Ssats), Brian Cushing, Elham Erfanian

Other

Appalachia has been at the center of the drug crisis that has now exploded across the United States, wreaking havoc on communities and destroying lives. Other than a brief, hopeful leveling off in 2018, drug use and overdose deaths have continued to accelerate. One key focus of policies aimed at dealing with the crisis has been treatment and recovery resources, which provide critical support for those struggling with addiction. The Appalachian Regional Commission wishes to document the distribution of treatment and recovery resources within Appalachia, which is critical to assessing unmet needs. The following report describes, reviews, and evaluates the …

An Economic Analysis Of Appalachian Power Industry Ecosystems County-Level Pie Supply Chain Analysis, Randall Jackson, Péter Járosi

Power Industry Ecosystem

This report describes an effort to provide for the Appalachian Region a clearer picture of the implications for the Power Industry Ecosystem (PIE) of power generating technology transitions and the geographical variations in PIE impacts. We develop and implement three measures that reveal meaningful characteristics of the PIE at the county level in terms of industry and place-based PIE dependence, changes in PIE-dependent employment, and susceptibility to impacts from a continued energy sector transition. We then use these three measures—Dependence, Impact, and Risk—to form a typology that we apply to identify and focus on counties in three identifiable categories: Hardship …

Economic Structure In Appalachia’S Urban Regions: Clustering And Diversification Strategies, Randall W. Jackson, Peter Jarosi, Gi-Eu Lee, Sara Farhangdoost

Cluster Analyses

In support of economic development practitioners’ efforts to devise strategies that can align with both industrial clustering and industrial diversification, this report provides a wide range of relevant measures and metrics. In addition to standard regional analysis tools like coefficients of specialization, location quotients, and growth rates, we introduce two fundamentally new measures for understanding the nature of regional clusters. These measures focus on the industries that anchor the clusters and characterize their strength and regional dominance. The former measures the share of the anchor industry’s direct and indirect requirements that could be satisfied by regional industries, and the latter …

The Road Less Traveled: Economic Analysis Of Roads And Highways, Margaret C. Bock

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Roads are an integral component of civilization, connecting people, markets, and ideas. In different settings and geographies, roads can take on many different purposes. In rural, more isolated areas, roads can serve as a cost-saving benefit and can be used as tools to increase accessibility. In urban, more congested areas, roads can be seen as an externality-producing hindrance. Naturally, given this view, the overall analysis of roads should reflect these different settings. To date, however, the study of roads in the economics literature has surprisingly large pitfalls, notably in terms of topics of study and methodologies used.

Spending on roads …

Three Essays In Applied Econometrics: Agricultural And Energy Economics, Kuan-Ming Huang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation examines three empirical issues in energy and agricultural economics using econometrics models whose titles are: 1) Do Natural Hazards in the Gulf Coast Still Matter for State-Level Natural Gas Prices in the US? Evidence After the Shale Gas Boom; 2) Do Exploitations of Marcellus and Utica Shale Formations Improve Regional Economy in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia? A Synthetic Control Analysis; and 3) How Did Covid-19 Impact US Household Food Spending? An Analysis Six Months In.

The first essay assesses the impact of natural hazards on state-level natural gas prices and evaluates the effects of the shale gas …

Extending The Macroeconomic Impacts Forecasting Capabilities Of The National Energy Modeling System, Christa D. Court, Randall W. Jackson, Justin Adder, Gavin Pickenpaugh, Charles Zelek, Amanda J. Harker Steele

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

To comprehensively model the macroeconomic impacts that result from changes in long-term energy-economy forecasts, the United States Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) partnered with West Virginia University’s (WVU) Regional Research Institute to develop the NETL/WVU econometric input-output (ECIO) model. The NETL/WVU ECIO model is an impacts forecasting model that functions as an extension of the U.S. energy-economic models available from the United States (U.S.) Energy Information Administration’s National Energy Modeling System (NEMS) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Market Allocation (MARKAL) model. The ECIO model integrates a macroeconomic econometric forecasting model and an input-output accounting framework along …

Consistent Regional Commodity-By-Industry Input-Output Accounts, Randall Jackson, Péter Járosi

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

A long-standing regional science problem domain focuses on the identification of structural economic change. One of several approaches relies on the use of historical final demand series and a comparison of observed industry output to an estimate of what output would have been were economic structure static. However, these methods were first developed before the introduction of today’s commonly used commodity-by-industry (CxI)input-output (IO) accounting frameworks, and before the application of these methods to regional economies. Correctly formulating the supporting accounting structures for these analyses is essential, but can be challenging even for experienced an- alysts. Related textbook and journal articles …

Enhancing Our Understanding Of A Regional Economy: The Complementarity Of Cge And Eio Models, Andrew Crawley, Geoffrey J.D. Hewings

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

Economic impact models are powerful tools for the assessment of policy changes in regional economies. Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models have grown in popularity, becoming the dominant choice of practitioners and academics in this field. This popularity has been at the expense of an older class of model, the Econometric Input Output (EIO). The present paper demonstrates how both models, using the same input data, may yield different outcomes. However, the paper suggests that EIO has been underutilized even though it provides a strong complementary tool accompany that enhance analyses using a CGE approach. This paper urges regional economists to …

Interstate Protectionism: The Case Of Solar Renewable Energy Credits, Jed J. Cohen, Levan Elbakidze, Randall Jackson

The Nature Conservancy

Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs) are financial instruments created by state policies to offer incentives for generating solar energy. In an effort to support in-state solar energy sectors and boost local employment opportunities, some states have closed off their SREC markets to out-of-state solar facilities. We examine the merits of such protectionist policy from the protectionist states perspective. We find that SREC market closure leads to higher in-state SREC prices, greater solar installation, and lower electricity prices. The study illustrates the economic incentives for protecting in-state SREC markets from out-of-state solar energy producers.