Impact Evaluation of Investments in the Appalachian Region: A Reappraisal

Juan Tomas Sayago-Gomez (), Gianfranco Piras, Donald Lacombe () and Randall Jackson ()
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Juan Tomas Sayago-Gomez: Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University
Donald Lacombe: Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Juan Tomas Sayago Gomez

Working Papers from Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University

Abstract: We evaluate the impact of the Appalachian Regional Commission’s investments on its members counties over almost fifty years. We apply different propensity score methods to find the most appropriate matching and to identify the effect of policy implementation in the most accurate way possible. The general evidence is that counties that received ARC funding had higher per-capita income growth compared to the control counties. Per-capita income growth rate in ARC counties grew an average of 5.5 percent over the entire study time period compared to the control counties. Employment grew significantly faster in ARC counties compared to the control counties for most of the study period. The average difference in growth rates between the counties that obtained ARC investments and those matched counties that did not receive ARC investments was approximately 4.2 percent.

Keywords: Quasi Experimental Methods; Matching Algorithms; Appalachian Regional Commission; Regional Economic Development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C00 C01 O1 O18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2015-08-13
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ger
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rri:wpaper:2015wp06

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