Growth and Convergence across the U.S: Evidence from County-Level Data

Matthew J. Higgins (), Daniel Levy () and Andrew Thomas Young ()

Macroeconomics from EconWPA

Abstract: We use U.S. county data (3,058 observations) and 41 conditioning variables to study growth and convergence. Using OLS and 3SLS-IV we report on the full sample and metro, non-metro, and 5 regional samples: (1) OLS yields convergence rates around 2 percent; 3SLS yields 6–8 percent; (2) convergence rates vary (e.g., the Southern rate is 2.5 times the Northeastern rate); (3) federal, state and local government negatively correlates with growth; (4) the relationship between educational attainment and growth is nonlinear; and (5) finance, insurance & real estate industry and entertainment industry positively correlates with growth while education employment negatively correlates.

Keywords: Economic Growth; Conditional Convergence; County-Level Data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O40 O11 O18 O51 R11 H50 H70 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-geo, nep-pbe and nep-ure
Date: 2005-09-22
Note: Type of Document - pdf; pages: 54
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http://129.3.20.41/eps/mac/papers/0509/0509023.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Growth and Convergence across the US: Evidence from County-Level Data (2003)
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)
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wpa:wuwpma:0509023

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