Federal highway spending and economic growth in Appalachia

Appalachia has always struggled economically due to three main factors: absentee ownership, isolation, and stereotyping. In 1965, Congress created the Appalachian Regional Commission with the mission of providing economic development programs to increase development in the region. Federal highway spending was seen as a key to improving the Appalachian infrastructure.;Today, the debate continues on the effectiveness of federal highway spending in Appalachia. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of federal highway spending on socioeconomic status in Appalachia by analyzing the effects of spending during an economic recovery from 1983--89 and recession 1989--92. Three constructs determine increases in socioeconomic status: per capita income growth, civilian employment growth, and non-farm employment growth.;The data indicates that federal highway spending in Appalachia has little to no effect on increasing socioeconomic status in the region. The most important factor indicating current growth in Appalachia is growth during the previous economic cycle.

Name thesis:degree_name

MA

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Sociology and Anthropology

Year dc:date.available

1999

Author dc:creator

• Noonan, James Herbert

Contributors dc:contributor

• F. Carson Mencken.
• Ronald Althouse
• Joshua Kim

• Social structure
• Economics
• American history
• Public administration

Identifier

https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/778

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchrepository.wvu.edu:etd-1781