Growth and Convergence across the US: Evidence from County-Level Data

Matthew Higgins, Daniel Levy (daniel.levy@biu.ac.il) and Andrew Young (a.t.young@ttu.edu)

Macroeconomics from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: We use county data with 3,058 observations to study growth and convergence in the US. We assess the effect of 40 conditioning variables on the counties’ balanced growth paths. Using OLS and 3SLS-IV, the later yielding consistent estimates, we report estimates for the full sample and for metro, non-metro, and five regional samples. We find that (1) OLS yields convergence rates around 2 percent, but 3SLS yields 6–8 percent; (2) convergence rates vary across the U.S. E.g., Southern counties converge 2½ times faster than Northeastern counties; (3) government size at all levels (federal, state and local) is negatively correlated with growth; (4) the relation between educational attainment and growth is nonlinear; and (5) large finance, insurance and real estate industry, and entertainment industry is positively correlated with growth but the population share employed in education is negatively correlated with growth.

Keywords: Economic Growth; Convergence; Conditional Convergence; County- Level Data; 3SLS Instrumental Variables Estimate; Balanced Growth Path; Public Sector; Industry Composition; Educational Attainment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H50 H70 O11 O18 O40 O51 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47 pages
Date: 2005-05-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo
Note: Type of Document - pdf; pages: 47
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Growth and Convergence across the US: Evidence from County-Level Data (2005)
Working Paper: Growth and Convergence across the U.S: Evidence from County-Level Data (2005)
Working Paper: Growth and Convergence across the US: Evidence from County-Level Data (2003)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wpa:wuwpma:0505009

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