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Rural prosperity and federal expenditures, 2000–2010
Author(s) -
Wilson Bev,
Rahe Mallory L.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
regional science policy and practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.342
H-Index - 8
ISSN - 1757-7802
DOI - 10.1111/rsp3.12070
Subject(s) - prosperity , per capita , economic growth , rural area , recession , geography , development economics , educational attainment , economics , social capital , demographic economics , socioeconomics , political science , demography , population , sociology , keynesian economics , law
Abstract Rural development policy in the US lacks coordination and coherence, but sustaining prosperous rural communities should be a primary aim. We identify rural non‐core counties that remained prosperous during the recent recession and use regression analysis to model the relationship between rural prosperity and per capita federal expenditures. The number of prosperous rural non‐core counties increased from 2000 to 2010. Social capital and educational attainment are now more important predictors of rural prosperity than economic diversity. Prosperous rural non‐core counties are associated with higher rates of expenditure and the distribution of federal expenditures across these counties exhibits positive spatial dependence.