Broadly Shared Local Economic Success since 2000: New Measures and New Lessons for Communities

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Timothy J. Bartik, W.E. Upjohn for Employment Research; Brad Hershbein, W.E. Upjohn for Employment Research; Kathleen Bolter, W.E. Upjohn for Employment Research; Kyle Huisman, W.E. Upjohn for Employment Research

Version: View help for Version V2

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
CBSA_databank.csv	text/csv	357.1 MB	03/22/2024 08:52:AM
CBSA_databank.dta	application/x-stata-dta	149.8 MB	03/22/2024 07:51:AM
CBSA_databank.rdata	application/x-rlang-transport	34.6 MB	03/21/2024 05:06:PM
CBSA_databank.sas7bdat	application/x-sas-data	234.3 MB	03/22/2024 07:55:AM
CBSA_nearest_neighbors.zip	application/zip	200.8 KB	09/15/2023 09:51:AM
CZ_databank.csv	text/csv	245.8 MB	03/22/2024 08:34:AM
CZ_databank.dta	application/x-stata-dta	115.8 MB	03/22/2024 08:31:AM
CZ_databank.rdata	application/x-rlang-transport	24.1 MB	03/22/2024 08:29:AM
CZ_databank.sas7bdat	application/x-sas-data	180.3 MB	03/22/2024 08:26:AM
CZ_nearest_neighbors.zip	application/zip	213.3 KB	09/15/2023 09:38:AM

Project Citation:

Bartik, Timothy J., Hershbein, Brad, Bolter, Kathleen, and Huisman, Kyle. Broadly Shared Local Economic Success since 2000: New Measures and New Lessons for Communities. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2024-03-22. https://doi.org/10.3886/E193804V2

Project Description

Summary: In recent decades, many local labor markets—especially those in former industrial areas—have experienced lagging employment rates, hourly wages, and annual earnings. Even in places that have thrived, disadvantaged racial and ethnic groups and those with less education have often fared poorly, and long-term growth has bypassed many Americans at the middle and bottom of the income distribution. This report examines the relative economic success over the past two decades (prior to the COVID pandemic) of different local labor markets throughout the United States, both for residents overall and for those of different demographic groups. We construct a new, publicly available database for economic indicators for these labor markets—both commuting zones and core-based statistical areas—for each of 160 demographic cells and three time periods. Our economic indicators account for demographic and cost-of-living differences across areas, facilitating comparisons of economic trends across geographies for different groups of interest. We show that locations that have performed well in terms of employment growth have not always performed well in terms of earnings growth; moreover, areas that have seen broad growth overall for their residents have often seen growth lag for vulnerable groups. To more systematically understand factors associated with economic success for different groups, we examine the relationship with baseline correlates and supplement these descriptive regressions with narrative case studies. Although initial industry mix plays an important role, other factors, including government investment and local leadership, may matter even more.

The data files included here provide the economic indictors we use for multiple geographies, time periods, and demographic groups, allowing replication and additional analyses.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: earnings growth; local labor markets; geographic inequality; demographics; cost of living; commuting zones; metropolitan areas

Time Period(s): 2000 – 2019 (2000 Census, 2005-2007 ACS, 2015-2019 ACS)

Universe: Commuting Zones and Core-based Statistical Areas in the United States from the 2000 Census, 2005-2007 ACS, and 2015-2019 ACS. Individual microdata from these sources are used to calculate population-level statistics for residents aged 25-64.

Data Type(s): aggregate data; survey data

Methodology

Data Source: Authors' calculations from 5% 2000 U.S. population census, 2005-2007 American Community Survey, and 2015-2019 American Community Survey, as available from IPUMS USA:

Ruggles, Steven, Sarah Flood, Matthew Sobek, Danika Brockman, Grace Cooper, Stephanie Richards, and Megan Schouweiler. 2023. IPUMS USA: Version 13.0 [dataset]. Minneapolis, MN: IPUMS. https://doi.org/10.18128/D010.V13.0

Unit(s) of Observation: Geography by demographic cell by time period

Geographic Unit: Commuting zone, Core-Based Statistical Area

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Published Versions

V2 [2024-03-22]

V1 [2023-09-15]

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