ABSTRACT. Economists and public policy professionals are often tasked with describing the economic impacts and benefits generated by a given industryt, policy, or event. However, impacts and benefits are distinctly different economic concepts. While both are important to quantify, each is appropriate for answering different questions as to the effect that a regional economy and society as a whole. Furthermore, if consumers show a preference for goods that use a specific cost (e.g. local food, union labor, etc)may create a situation where increased economic impacts may actually create economic benefits. These issues are discussed in depth in this paper. Economic and public policy professionals working across a wide array of organizations are tasked with estimating the economic effects of a variety of policy and management alternatives. Two very common frameworks for evaluating economic policies are economic impact assessment and benefit cost analysis. These two frameworks are often required by federal agencies for both policy analysis and for economic development projects. For example, U.S. federal land management agencies including the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service (NPS), and Bureau of Land Management are tasked with managing public resources, taking into account both economic benefits of the resources and the economic impacts of decisions on regional economies \citep{loomis2002integrated}. Additionally, the Water Resource Development Act of 2007 requires that all federal agencies including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation follow the Council on Environmental Policy’s Principles and Standards Guidelines in evaluating the economic benefits and impacts of water management decisions and the Magnuson-Stevens reauthorization Act of 2006 reiterates that federal fishing policy take into account economic benefits and impacts of policy actions. These efforts to quantify impacts and benefits are often obfuscated by misunderstandings and misuses of terminology on the part of the analyst, the client, and the public.

In the case of NPS, data is consistently collected on park visitation and visitor expenditure patterns are obtained annually from a rotating set of parks. Currently, these data are used only to estimate the economic impacts of visitor spending on the region surrounding a park. This data, however, is not used to calculate estimates of the actual benefits that the national parks give to the visitors themselves. Interestingly, as opposed to the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Forest Service, NPS does not have a specific mandate to consider the effects of management actions on the regional economies surrounding the parks. NPS does however have a mandate to provide for public enjoyment and visitor experience of parks, and the economic model that is appropriate to quantify public enjoyment and visitor experience is not a regional economic impact model, but rather an economic valuation model such as a travel cost model.

Beyond reducing confusion in terminology, it is important to have a concrete and formal definition of what constitutes and economic impact and what constitutes an economic benefit guide and inform analysts as they decide what metrics to include in impact or benefit cost analysis models respectively. This is especially important in the context of a general equilibrium, rather than a partial equilibrium where there is confusion and whether to include secondary benefits and costs and, if they are included, how to account for them (Stoevener and Kraynick 1979, Griffin 1998, Elbakidze and McCarl 2007).

Many authors have warned against confusing economic impacts and benefits or highlighted the misuse of economic impact studies (Crompton 1993; Hunter 1988), however, a formal distinction between what constitutes an impact and what constitutes a benefit has not taken off in the literature. The distinction between impacts and benefits has been discussed in the literature (Watson et al. 2006, Griffin 1998), however, there remains a gap in a formal mathematical definition that compares and contrasts both measures in a general equilibrium framework. Economic impacts are a distinctly different metric from economic net benefit and the two are appropriate measurements for answering different questions. Economic net benefits, for example, are a measure of efficiency and welfare. Economic impacts, on the other hand, are a measure of economic activity (i.e. economic output, jobs, GDP) and its distribution across different sectors and households.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines the state economic impact of the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry’s (DOLI) Virginia Occupational Safety and Health (VOSH) compliance programs. Virginia is one of 22 states authorized by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to provide its own Occupational Safety and Health enforcement of private enterprises and state and local government organizations. Workplace injuries and illnesses have significant short-term and long-term economic impacts on businesses and workers, including increased costs, reduced worker productivity and earnings, lower labor force participation, and increased mortality rates. VOSH inspections mitigate some workplace hazards and adverse effects of injuries and illnesses, resulting in cost savings, and labor force, productivity, and quality-of-life improvements. The study uses information from published empirical studies and the Virginia REMI PI+ economic impact model to assess these supply-side VOSH inspection-related economic impacts.

ABSTRACT. The South Carolina ‘Offshore Wind Industries’ House Bill 4831 was approved in the 2023-2024 fiscal year. It directed the South Carolina Department of Commerce to conduct an economic development study to support the development of a roadmap for attracting the offshore wind industry to the State. The Department of Commerce designated Clemson University to lead the project, and Clemson University subcontracted Xodus Group to complete the scope of work. Robert Carey acted as principal investigator for Clemson and conducted the economic impact analysis portion of the study.

The report identifies existing activities in South Carolina associated with the offshore wind supply chain as well as identifying potential opportunities for the state. An economic impact analysis of existing activities is included in the report, as well as two scenarios outlining the potential economic impact of potential future development in supply chain related activities in the state.

ABSTRACT. Place-based policy is premised on the idea that productive investments that address endowment deficiencies may release latent comparative advantages, stimulating growth while reducing regional disparities. Extending place-based policy to the domain of innovation is conceptually challenging given conventional wisdom that settlement size is the principal determinant of agglomeration economies that fuels innovation. However, growing concern that more places are being left behind by the innovation economy has prompted greater interest in ways to expand the geography of innovation. Using firm-level data from the 2018 Annual Business Survey, this study examines differences in self-reported innovation activity between firms in rural and urban counties to identify possible endowment deficiencies. We do this by employing the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method to quantify the urban-rural innovation gap to better understand the relative contributions of firm characteristics, owner characteristics, and county-level factors. Infrastructure and human capital comprise the main endowment deficiencies while social capital mitigates the urban-rural innovation gap. The findings are used to inform current place-based innovation policy initiatives incorporated in the CHIPS and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

ABSTRACT. Recent legislation authorizing nearly $80 billion for place-based investments has illustrated a growing interest among U.S. policymakers in strategically targeting specific areas to stimulate economic development. Although the literature on place-based policies is mixed, there is evidence that the benefits of local job creation programs are most significant in the most economically distressed areas. However, most place-based spending in the U.S. comes from state and local business tax incentives that generally do not target these areas, thus limiting research on existing customized business service and job training programs targeting distressed places This paper aims to fill this gap in the literature by using quasi-experimental methods to analyze the impact of job creation policies administered and funded by the Appalachian Regional Commission on employment, wages, and establishment counts in distressed counties. Results from this study will provide policymakers with evidence on how place-based job policies can augment distressed local labor markets.

ABSTRACT. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) created policies to address housing concerns in rural areas, notably the affordability and quality of housing stock. Eligibility to receive benefits relies partly on a geographic criteria: one must live in a rural area designated by USDA Rural Development Branch to be eligible. Boundaries are drawn around urban areas to delimit the eligible areas. Using publicly available data, we attempt answer whether areas near these eligibility boundaries that receive USDA housing funding are more likely to become urban-commuting areas than areas that do not. We measure this commuting change using several different instruments: (i) change in RUCC status between 2013 and 2023; (ii) change in ERS commuting zones between 2010 and 2020; and (3) using county-to-county net migration from the U.S. Census Bureau. Preliminary results suggest that the majority of assistance awards for both multifamily and single family housing programs are awarded in urban counties just outside the eligibility areas, suggesting an urban bias.

ABSTRACT. Population aging will profoundly change our societies. Official statistics show that this issue is worsening in Portugal. The central projection scenario done by Statistics Portugal predicts that between 2020 and 2050, the population will fall from 10.3 to 9.6 million and the working-age population (15 to 64 years old) from 6.6 to 5.1 million. It also projects an increase in the Aging Index from 167.7 to 297.2 elderly per 100 young people. Significant regional heterogeneity is associated with aging, with some regions observing a more severe increase in the elderly population than others. A central issue concerning the effects of aging is the change in household consumption patterns. Aging will create additional demand for commodities that are relatively more consumed by elderly citizens (e.g., medications and health services). In contrast, the consumption of other products will decrease relatively. These changes will impact the region’s economic structure, GDP and employment. This work proposes an innovative methodology that applies a multi-regional input-output model - to the five Portuguese mainland NUTS II regions - extended to estimate the sectorial consequences of aging. The most innovative feature is that this framework disaggregates household consumption according to different age groups and estimates the economic effects of changes in the region’s age pyramid. The results highlight that regions will observe distinct impacts. Under the same macroeconomic assumptions, an increase in labor share makes certain scenarios unfeasible in some regions of Portugal due to insufficient labor force and working-age population.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines the effects of Colombia’s environmental biodiversity policy following its establishment in 2012 and implementation in 2014. We employ a Regression Discontinuity Design using small-area estimates of forest coverage around protected areas, allowing us to analyze the policy's localized impact. Our unit of analysis focuses on grids of 1 km by 1 km to measure the change in forest coverage. We contrast the results using the Hansen forest coverage data and the Colombian environmental agency data because several papers have shown the difference in estimates due to how the forest is defined in both databases. Our findings reveal heterogeneous effects depending on the type of protected area; certain protected areas have a more significant impact, and some show no substantial variations. Additionally, we investigate variations in impact across conflict-affected municipalities and regions with coca cultivation.

ABSTRACT. In the United States, like in other countries, the agrifood supply chain faces challenges from a growing population and less predictable weather conditions. Climate change has already led some areas of the country to experience more frequent and intense extreme weather events and the trend will intensify in the decades to come. Extreme weather events such as droughts and extreme moisture reduce agricultural outcomes, perturbate the domestic trade of agricultural products and, in turn, the manufacturing of food products since the former are necessary inputs in the production of the latter. A recent example is drought-struck Nebraska who in 2012 had to import 2.65 times as many agricultural commodities from other US states than under regular weather conditions in order to feed its livestock and maintain its food manufacturing activities. For states that do not specialize in agriculture but hope to maintain their purchases of crops and livestock for food manufacturing, such as New Jersey and Pennsylvania, this type of event might lead to more expensive inputs. Central to society’s capacity to address climate adaptation is the ability of trade to guarantee the resiliency of supply chains from producers to the agrifood industry and then to final consumers. Recent contributions at the international and US domestic level indicate that trade is expected to act as an efficient tool to mitigate the adverse effect of climate conditions on agriculture. Yet, there is a paucity of studies focusing on the impact of disruption in the downstream food supply chain. The United States is an obvious choice given that many climate impact studies focus on its agriculture and less than 20% of the US agrifood production is exported. This paper adopts a domestic focus and investigates the extent to which food manufacturing in any single state is dependent on drought events affecting locally sourced livestock and crop inputs and/or imported inputs. To understand the vulnerability and resilience of the US agrifood supply chain to extreme weather events, we estimate a Cobb-Douglas production function of food manufacturing as a function of labor, capital, and agricultural inputs, with the novelty that each individual input follows a constant elasticity of substitution (CES) across the various locations it comes from. This construct leads us to investigate how a weather shock propagates through interregional and intersectoral relationships embedded in the production process of the downstream sector. Ultimately, this approach allows us to visualize the food supply chain, detect the key hubs and spokes in the system and identify the risks of propagation of a shock on yield. It is important because, from this work, we can suggest stakeholders where to focus their mitigation efforts. The results display that, first, drought in the exporting state decreases the exports of staple crops. Inversely, drought in the destination states obliges them to increase imports as they need to carry on with their manufacturing activities. Second, while stage 2 results confirm that the productivity of intermediate crop inputs is positive, states do not treat local and imported inputs as either substitutes or complements. The third, and eventually the most visually explicit of our results, is our detection of the key origin-destination linkages for the largest players in the domestic food supply chain of the country. California and Texas, the two largest agrifood manufacturing states in the country, are very dependent on grains from Midwestern and Central states, much more than on fruits and vegetables grown in other locations. As a result, the national agrifood supply chain is particularly vulnerable to weather shocks in these locations. At the same time, climate change is pushing these locations to experience a slow but certain drift in their agricultural specialization so the challenge of feeding a growing population will certainly be met by agrifood companies shifting to new locations, more northward and closer to the Colorado Rocky Mountains, for their agricultural inputs. Overall, the results of this study provide us with a better understanding of how to maintain the nation’s long-run ability to cope with shifts in the food supply chain from climate shocks while pursuing the challenge of feeding a growing population. Moreover, the findings provide details on the key linkages in the domestic food supply chain and are informative for the design of policies aimed at mitigating the impacts of climate change on the US food and agricultural sector. This work could be extended in various directions, including an analysis by transportation mode as the availability of the rail and water network varies by location and segments. Another extension would consist in disaggregating trade flows to the commodity level and extending it to other events such as early frost and hail.

ABSTRACT. Traffic accidents and their consequences are a major problem, particularly in large cities. Comprehensive strategies to improve traffic safety and increase safe, healthy, and equitably mobility have been successful in Europe, and more recently, have been implemented in several cities across the United States. The motivation for these policies is to reduce the number of accidents, injuries, and deaths associated with traffic. This paper examines one of these policies, the Vision Zero program in New York City, which was implemented in 2014, specifically focusing on how measures to monitor and reduce speed limits (e.g., streets with reduced limits, speed humps, slow zones, and automated speed enforcement) affect the number of accidents, injuries, and fatalities between 2012 and 2018. The analysis uses new, detailed, and granular data on accidents in New York City. This contributes to our understanding of the effectiveness of public policies in the urban environment.

ABSTRACT. This study examines the disengagement dynamics of disconnected youth in the U.S. by developing a comprehensive hypothetical model that integrates socioeconomic, psychological, environmental, and geographic factors to enhance understanding of youth disengagement dynamics. This model is then empirically tested using Bayesian Multilevel Ordered Logistic Regression on data collected from 1,000 survey participants aged 16 to 24 via Qualtrics. The study assesses the impact of each variable and identifies potential policy intervention points for re-engaging disconnected youth. The findings provide insights into the youth disengagement process, offering policymakers a foundation to design region-specific initiatives that support this vulnerable population.

ABSTRACT. The city of Cincinnati constructed a streetcar system in the downtown area in 2016. This paper examines the effects of constructing the streetcar, as well as abandoning another proposed route on nearby residential property values and housing flows using a difference in differences approach. The results provide evidence purchasers of single family homes outside of the downtown area may view the streetcar as a disamenity, while buyers of condos value the streetcar in both uptown and downtown neighborhoods.

ABSTRACT. Since Iowa first introduced Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) in 1983, thirty-one states in the United States have adopted RPS as of 2023. The 2022 U.S. Census of Agriculture reports significant changes in farm-based renewable energy adoption, with the share of farms using renewable energy systems increasing by 15% from 2017 to 2022, despite a 6.9% decline in total farm numbers. This study analyzes how state-wide RPS stimulates farm-level renewable energy adoption and farm income. Using two-way fixed effects and a two-stage least squares model, we investigate how RPS affects state-level variations in renewable energy adoption across U.S. farms from 2012 to 2022 and how this farm-based renewable energy adoption affects net cash farm income. We use 5-year gap panel data of 50 US states for 2012, 2017, and 2022. Results indicate that a 10% increase in the RPS target induces a 0.66% increase in the share of farmers who adopt renewable energy on farmland. The observed patterns in overall renewable energy adoption are primarily driven by solar panels, which account for more than 70% of all renewable energy installations on farms. RPS has a greater impact on farm-level renewable energy adoption as farm size decreases. A 10% increase in the RPS target induces additional farm income through farm-based renewable energy adoption: $4.07/acre, which is about 2.12% of the average net cash farm income. This is mainly due to reductions in a farm's total cost by $2.51/acre, which is about 3.76% of the average cost. These findings suggest that the state-wide RPS target causes farm-based renewable energy adoption and helps regional development by improving farm income.

ABSTRACT. Aggressive automobile emissions reductions are needed to tackle climate change. The US government has subsidized electric vehicles (EV) to promote the transition from the internal combustion engine (ICE). At the same time, the market competitiveness of EVs has improved, and many countries have introduced policies for EV adoption. However, a prior understanding of consumer behavior is required to achieve that goal because those policies try to alter the choices of consumers or firms in the market. Substantial literature focuses on the consumers' substitution pattern of vehicles. The peer effect has been widely used to explain consumer behaviors, especially for products in the early stage of business. Nevertheless, there is little literature on the peer effect on EVs. Consumers may hesitate to purchase an EV at first; however, if they observe more EVs in their neighborhood, on the road, or in parking lots, their reluctance to purchase an EV may be resolved. I use spatial panel regression with EV registration and charging port panel data by ZIP Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA) from 2013 to 2019 in Michigan to address the spatial dependent trend. I adopted the spatial error and autocorrelated models and compared the results with other spatial models. It shows that one increase in cumulative EV adoption at the same ZCTA will increase next year's EV adoption by 0.326 to 0.352 cars. One cumulative EV adoption increases EV adoption in the same ZCTA by the same amount of an income increase of $1125 to $1254. The policy should be set to adopt the EV aggressively to take advantage of the peer effect, which strengthens the aggregate demand for EV adoption.

ABSTRACT. U.S. coal production has fallen sharply since its peak in 2008. Appalachia has disproportionately borne the impacts of this decline, experiencing significant reductions in coal production, mining employment, and mine operations. Previous research has linked these closures to economic downturns, as affected communities have experienced job losses, population decline, and reduced local tax revenues. However, the long-term implications remain uncertain, as some research suggests the presence of a natural resource curse in which regions dependent on resource extraction struggle with weak economic development. In this paper, we use quasi-experimental methods to examine the impact of mine closures on local poverty in Appalachia. Analyzing 65 counties with mine closures between 2005 and 2009, we find that, over a decade, mine closures led to a 2-4 percent reduction in county poverty on average. This result is robust against several measures of local poverty (e.g. total poverty count, child poverty count, poverty rate) and across several control groups.

ABSTRACT. West Virginia, with a population of 1,775,513, faces economic challenges, including declining population growth and one of the lowest growth rates among U.S. states. The state’s Gross State Product (GSP) of $71.7 billion has seen only a 0.1% annualized increase over the past five years, highlighting limited economic progress. While sectors like healthcare, retail trade, and accommodation employ a significant share of the workforce, the manufacturing sector, though employing fewer individuals, makes notable contributions to GDP growth. Over the past two decades, the manufacturing sector has experienced expansion through developments like Procter & Gamble’s campus in Berkeley County and Toyota's growth, but it has also faced setbacks due to global supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, and rising input costs during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explores manufacturing employment trends in West Virginia from 2000 to 2020, employing Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analysis to identify key drivers of employment demand. The results indicate that education levels, state GDP, and other economic variables significantly influence manufacturing employment. Regional disparities further emphasize the need for targeted policies to capitalize on manufacturing development opportunities. By examining these trends, the research provides actionable insights to strengthen the manufacturing sector and promote sustainable economic growth in West Virginia.

ABSTRACT. We examine the effects of the Paycheck Protection Program on employment growth at the local level during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent years. Using geocoded data on PPP recipients and loan originators, we find that areas with shorter distances on average between PPP recipients and banks were likely to receive more PPP funds on both the extensive and intensive margin. Moreover, this relationship appears to be stronger in more rural areas. We find that a one percent increase in the amount of PPP funds received in the county is associated with a 0.2 percentage point increase in employment growth. Relative to counties with the largest urbanized populations, this effect was four times larger in the most rural areas of the country.

ABSTRACT. Anti-labor and anti-unionization legislation—commonly referred to as “Right to Work” policies—have received considerable attention from scholarship within the fields of econometrics and political science. Recently, these policies have begun to pepper empirical sociological work, where the majority of discussion has been aimed toward their influence on the distribution of economic resources and bargaining power among employees through the perspective of power resources theory. However, little sociological research has examined the theoretical and causal mechanisms that drive the passage of right to work policies. Using historical data from the United States Census Bureau, the present study examines whether key theoretical indicators of Blalock’s (1967) minority threat theory operate as causal mechanisms toward the passage of right to work legislation. Event history analyses demonstrate that the percent of the Black population within a state significantly impacts risk of right to work passage, suggesting that, beyond the scope of power resources, an interest for Whites to maintain their group position may explain the passage of right to work policies.

ABSTRACT. In the coming decades, increasing world population and economic development will lead to further demand for food consumption, hence impacting water demand. Currently, food production depends on inputs from many trade partners around the world, making a detailed measurement of food supply chains and of their water requirement crucial to developing water saving strategies. Yet, while the literature focusing on this question is well-developed, the water requirements are consistently kept constant, as if improvements in irrigation and crops’ needs had not occurred over the last decades. As such, this paper focuses on identifying the factors driving the changes in the water used in global agri-food value chains. In that purpose, we apply a Structural Decomposition Analysis (SDA) to the Multi-Regional Input-Output (MRIO) tables of 189 countries between 1990 and 2021. This approach allows us to assess whether these changes are mostly attributable to structural shifts in value chains, variations in production levels, or technological changes (water use per $1 of production). In addition, we show how the results differ when technological changes are not accounted for, as is commonly the case in the literature. Indeed, our use of dynamic water-use coefficients reflects changes driven by technological innovations and shifts in production structures. Unlike previous studies, which often use static water coefficients such as those developed by Mekonnen and Hoekstra (2011), our dynamic coefficients account for adaptation in each country’s water consumption. Our approach is applied to the agri-food sectors, offering new insights into the drivers of water use across regions and the impact of technological and structural transformations. By incorporating temporal dynamics, we aim to better reflect the current state of water consumption and provide actionable insights for policymakers. This methodology could provide decision-makers with tools to design effective mitigation strategies and promote sustainable development, hence addressing contemporary challenges in global water management.

ABSTRACT. Recent health and environmental concerns have centered on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in soil and water in many parts of the United States. PFAS are a group of chemicals that have been used in firefighting, water and oil repellents, and cookware, often called "forever chemicals" due to their persistence in the environment. Many PFAS chemicals exhibit both bioaccumulative and toxic properties, posing significant concerns for environmental and human health. PFAS enter the environment through industrial discharges, landfill leachates, sewage treatment facilities, and firefighting foams. PFAS exposure has been linked to disruptions in thyroid function, growth and development, liver damage, and reproductive issues. Recent data suggest that over 16 million people in the U.S. may be exposed to PFAS-contaminated water. This contamination is frequently found near military training grounds, industrial facilities, and sewage treatment plants. Communities with predominantly non-white populations and low-income areas are especially impacted by PFAS pollution due to proximity to sources of contamination. Remediation of PFAS necessitates expensive and intricate treatment methods. Our study explores consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for PFAS Remediation in New England’s Municipal Drinking Water Systems. We selected Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine for the study as these states have a historical and persistent issue with PFAS contamination. This data set facilitates concentrated analysis of a geographically and culturally homogenous area; furthermore, these states possess diverse populations and varying levels of urbanization, enabling examination of how community characteristics influence willingness to pay for clean drinking water. We use the contingent valuation method (using payment card as the valuation instrument) to explore how perceived health risks associated with household water contamination affect individuals' willingness to pay for PFAS water filtration systems. Selected contamination sites for the study are Pease International Airport and Saint Gobain (New Hampshire), Brunswick Naval Air Station and Maine Burlington International Airport (Maine), and Houlton International Airport (Vermont). This spatial distribution permits analysis of how proximity to contamination sites impacts WTP for PFAS filtration in municipal water systems, exploring the relationship between environmental risk perception and consumer behavior. We collected 778 observations, using an online survey company. As this study only focuses on community-based water filtration, we selected those consumers who drink tap water supplied by public or municipal water supply systems.

Consumers worried about water-related hazards are willing to pay an additional $4.17 per month for filtration. Higher-income households were willing to pay approximately 68 cents more per month for each unit increase in income. Individuals who allocate more funds to purchase drinking water are similarly inclined to increase spending on filtration. Regarding proximity to contamination, being within 30 miles of a PFAS site increases WTP by $3.36. Average monthly WTP for PFAS filtration varies slightly as residents of Vermont are willing to pay $12.73, those in Maine $13.07, and residents of New Hampshire $14.10. Overall, residents on average were willing to allocate 0.34% of their monthly income to prevent their drinking water from PFAS contamination.

ABSTRACT. We analyze water pollution in the Ganges river caused by tanneries in Kanpur, India. Specifically, we examine the merits of a claim made recently in the literature that unitizing or merging the polluting tanneries can improve water quality in the Ganges. We first describe the n≥2 polluting tanneries in Kanpur as a Cournot oligopoly and derive the equilibrium output of leather, profits, and social welfare. Second, we permit m<n tanneries to merge and determine when the m-tannery unitization is profitable to the unitized entity. Third, we show that the (n-m) non-unitized tanneries are better off with unitization. Finally, we demonstrate that the m-tannery unitization increases the industry price of leather, lowers social welfare, and we discuss the implications of our findings for improved water quality in the Ganges.

ABSTRACT. This paper investigates the evolution of credit card consumption across U.S. counties during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on demographic, economic, and pandemic-specific factors such as vaccination rates, federal interest rates, government stimulus payments, and unemployment.In this study, we leverage a distinctive county-level dataset covering the period from March 2020 to December 2022 to investigate weekly credit card spending patterns. To analyze these patterns, we apply a Bayesian hierarchical model using Gibbs sampling. Additionally, we enhance the dynamic factor loading model by incorporating spatial dependence, which helps uncover inter- county spillover effects in consumer behavior. As part of our analysis, we also compare the performance of the Kalman filter with that of the Gibbs sampler, assessing their effectiveness in capturing the underlying dynamics of the data. . This novel approach captures the spatially correlated nature of economic activities, revealing significant regional variations in consumption responses. Our findings highlight the critical role of fiscal stimulus, public health measures, and economic policies in mitigating economic shocks and restoring consumer confidence. This study contributes to the literature by offering a granular, real-time perspective on the interplay between public health measures, economic policy, and consumer spending during a global crisis.

ABSTRACT. This study examines heterogeneous patterns of self-employment and income determinants using restricted-use data sets within the Federal Statistical Research Data Center. We analyze the distribution of self-employment across diverse demographic intersections, focusing on historically underrepresented groups in business ownership. Additionally, we investigate how individual characteristics (e.g., marital status, foreign-born) and local economic factors (e.g., broadband access, labor force participation, unemployment rates, natural amenities, and social capital) influence self-employment income outcomes. Our analysis focuses on nonmetro areas, while retaining some metro areas' results for comparison. The primary data sets include the Integrated Longitudinal Business Database in which self-employed business owners are linked with individuals in the Decennial Censuses by the Protected Identification Key. This dataset allows a comprehensive analysis of entrepreneurial activity while controlling for both individual and regional characteristics. Our findings reveal significant heterogeneity in self-employment rates and success factors across different population segments, with implications for targeted policy interventions supporting entrepreneurship among underrepresented groups.