Changes in the Appalachian Wage Gap, 1970 to 2000

Robert Baumann ()

No 502, Working Papers from College of the Holy Cross, Department of Economics

Abstract: Since at least 1960, Appalachians have lower wages, employment rates, and educational attainment than residents elsewhere in the country. Despite educational gains and large federal outlays since 1965, the wage gap has only slightly decreased. Using a sample of full-time workers from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series Census project, I identify factors affecting the wage gap between 1970 and 2000. I find several national trends unfavorable to Appalachians after 1980: increasing returns to both observable and unobservable skill, rising income inequality, and the decline of manufacturing, which offset faster Appalachian education growth. There is also a growing gap in education returns between Appalachia and elsewhere in the country since 1980.

Keywords: Appalachia; wage decomposition; poverty; skill differential (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J10 J31 R10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2005-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo and nep-lab
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Published in Growth and Change, September 2006, Vol. 37:3, pp. 419-443.

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