U.S. State and Local Fiscal Policies and Nonmetropolitan Area Economic Performance: A Spatial Equilibrium Analysis

Yu, Yihua and Rickman, Dan S. (2013): U.S. State and Local Fiscal Policies and Nonmetropolitan Area Economic Performance: A Spatial Equilibrium Analysis. Forthcoming in: Papers in Regional Science

Abstract

Faced with declining economic bases, many nonmetropolitan areas increasingly have become concerned about their future economic viability. A crucial dimension of this concern is the balancing of the need to be cost-competitive in terms of lower taxes against the need for provision of valued government services. Using a spatial equilibrium framework, this study econometrically examines the nexus between U.S. state and local fiscal policies and nonmetropolitan county growth in earnings and housing rents during the 1990s. The results suggest that state and local fiscal characteristics were important location determinants. Some characteristics could be clearly identified as having dominant firm profit effects while numerous others were identified as having household amenity effects. In addition, fiscal policies appeared to be more important for economic growth of nonmetropolitan counties which were remote from metropolitan areas than they were for counties adjacent to metropolitan areas.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Regional Fiscal Policies; Rural Development; Spatial Equilibrium
• Subjects: H - Public Economics > H3 - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents > H30 - General; R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics > R5 - Regional Government Analysis > R51 - Finance in Urban and Rural Economies; R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics > R5 - Regional Government Analysis > R58 - Regional Development Planning and Policy

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