Black Populations and Economic Growth: An Extreme Bounds Analysis of Mississippi County-Level Data

Young, Andrew; Higgins, Matthew and Levy, Daniel (2007): Black Populations and Economic Growth: An Extreme Bounds Analysis of Mississippi County-Level Data. Unpublished.

Abstract

We use Mississippi county-level data on (per capita) income and the percentages of populations that are Black (henceforth "Black") to examine the relationship between race and economic growth. The analysis is also conditioned on 40 other economic and socio-demographic variables. Given a negative and statistically significant partial correlation between income growth and Black, we ask if it is robust to exhaustive combinations of other conditioning variables (taken 3 at a time). The evidence suggests yes. Since even robust correlation does not imply causation, we then ask if other robust correlates with income growth play a roll in accounting for Black in the data. The answer “yes” is obtained for only one other robust correlate of the "right" sign: the percentage of a population that is below the poverty level.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Institution: University of Mississippi, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Bar-Ilan University
• Language: English
• Keywords: Racial Inequalities; Black Populations; Solow Growth Model; Speed of Convergence; U.S. County-Level Data; Extreme Bounds Analysis
• Subjects: O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth > O4 - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity > O40 - General; O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O18 - Regional, Urban, and Rural Analyses; O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O11 - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development; R - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics > R1 - General Regional Economics > R11 - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, and Changes

References

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