#2006-039B "Neighborhood Income Inequality"
by Christopher H. Wheeler, and Elizabeth A. La Jeunesse
June 2006
Revised February 2007

This paper offers a descriptive empirical analysis of the geographic pattern of income inequality within a sample of 359 US metropolitan areas between 1980 and 2000. More...

FORTHCOMING: Journal of Regional Science

#2006-037B "Urban Decentralization and Income Inequality: Is Sprawl Associated with Rising Income Segregation Across Neighborhoods?"
by Christopher H. Wheeler
May 2006
Revised November 2006

Existing research has found an inverse relationship between urban density and the degree of income inequality within metropolitan areas, suggesting that, as cities spread out, they become increasingly segregated by income. More...

PUBLISHED: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Regional Economic Development, October 2008, 4(1), pp. 41-57

#2006-026C "Spatial Hedonic Models of Airport Noise, Proximity, and Housing Prices"
by Jeffrey P. Cohen, and Cletus C. Coughlin
April 2006
Revised September 2007

Despite the refrain that housing prices are determined by “location, location, and location,” few studies of airport noise and housing prices have incorporated spatial econometric techniques. More...

PUBLISHED: Journal of Regional Science, December 2008, 48(5), pp. 859-78

#2006-018C "War and Pestilence as Labor Market Shocks: U.S. Manufacturing Wage Growth 1914-1919"
by Thomas A. Garrett
March 2006
Revised October 2007

This paper explores the effect of mortalities from the 1918 influenza pandemic and World War I on wage growth in the manufacturing sectors of U.S. states and cities from 1914 to 1919. More...

PUBLISHED: Economic Inquiry, October 2009, 47(4), pp. 711-25

#2006-009A "The Impact of Local Predatory Lending Laws on the Flow of Subprime Credit"
by Giang Ho, and Anthony Pennington-Cross
February 2006

Local authorities in North Carolina, and subsequently in at least 23 other states, have enacted laws intending to reduce predatory and abusive lending. While there is substantial variation in the laws, they typically extend the coverage of the Federal Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act (HOEPA) by including home purchase and open end mortgage credit, by lowering annual percentage rate (APR) and fees and points triggers, and by prohibiting or restricting the use of balloon payments and prepayment penalties. More...

FORTHCOMING: Journal of Urban Economics

#2006-002A "Regional VARs and the Channels of Monetary Policy"
by Michael T. Owyang, and Howard J. Wall
January 2006

We find that the magnitudes of the regional effects of monetary policy were considerably dampened during the Volcker-Greenspan era. Further, regional differences in the depths of monetary-policy-induced recessions are related to the concentration of the banking sector, whereas differences in the total cost of these recessions are related to industry mix. More...

PUBLISHED: Applied Economics Letters, 16(12), pp. 1191-94

#2006-001B "Spatial Dependence in Models of State Fiscal Policy Convergence"
by Cletus C. Coughlin, Thomas A. Garrett, and Rubén Hernández-Murillo
January 2006
Revised June 2006

We apply spatial econometric techniques to models of state and local fiscal policy convergence. Total tax revenue and expenditures, as well as broad tax and expenditure categories, of state and local governments in each of the 48 contiguous U.S. states are examined. More...

PUBLISHED: Public Finance Review, May 2007, 35(3), pp. 361-84

#2005-069E "Ethnic Networks and U.S. Exports"
by Subhayu Bandyopadhyay, Cletus C. Coughlin, and Howard J. Wall
October 2005
Revised January 2006

This paper provides new estimates of the effects of ethnic networks on U.S. exports. More...

PUBLISHED: Review of International Economics, February 2008, 16(1), pp. 199-213

#2005-065A "Human Capital Growth in a Cross Section of US Metropolitan Areas"
by Christopher H. Wheeler
September 2005

Human capital is typically viewed as generating a number of desirable outcomes, including economic growth. Yet, in spite of its importance, few empirical studies have explored why some economies accumulate more human capital than others. This paper attempts to do so using a sample of more than 200 metropolitan areas in the United States over the years 1980, 1990, and 2000. More...

PUBLISHED: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review, March/April 2006, 88(2), pp. 113-32

#2005-064B "Creating a Policy Environment for Entrepreneurs"
by Thomas A. Garrett, and Howard J. Wall
September 2005
Revised March 2006

This paper demonstrates that levels of entrepreneurship can be greatly affected by the general policy environment. Using a state-level panel, we estimate the effects of several policy variables on rates of entrepreneurship and find that bankruptcy exemptions, corporate tax rates, and the level of the minimum wage all affect a state's rate of entrepreneurship. More...

PUBLISHED: Cato Journal, Fall 2006, 26(3), pp. 525-52