Doctoral Dissertation Research: Market Forces, Government, and Regional Development: A Case Study of the Appalachian Regional Commission

该博士论文研究改进奖提供了阿巴拉契亚地区委员会（ARC）的科学案例研究，该委员会是国会于1965年指定的旨在改善阿巴拉契亚社会经济状况的机构。 虽然ARC的活动提供了一个丰富的资源，了解联邦地区的发展努力，在经济不景气的地区，目前可用的研究提供了有限的洞察ARC的经验，还有很多需要了解。这项研究解决了一些具体的问题，是必不可少的了解ARC，包括：如何联邦支出在阿巴拉契亚地区相比，在美国其他地方的联邦支出在ARC的存在过程中，ARC政策随时间的变化，包括该机构的支出和私营部门与这些支出的相互作用的空间变化;与ARC政策相关的社会经济结果。该分析采用了一系列定量和定性技术，包括描述性统计，计量经济学建模，文件分析和访谈。它还利用了一系列资源，包括ARC支出数据库，其中包含1965年至2002年所有ARC支出的信息;由ARC项目详细说明组成的项目文件;整个美国的联邦政府支出数据;以及社会和经济数据的历史数据库。案例研究是在新古典经济学的广泛理论背景下进行的，因为需要对一个区域发展机构如何在一个社会、政治、虽然ARC在许多方面都是一个时代的遗物，当时美国的联邦地区发展问题和努力更多地是在过去几年里，联邦政府对区域发展倡议重新产生了兴趣，这种兴趣比今天更为突出。 最近成立的两个新的发展机构--三角洲地区管理局和德纳里委员会--以及国会关于在美国其他经济不景气地区建立地区发展机构的讨论都证明了这一点。然而，由于缺乏与ARC相关的实证研究，导致对该机构执行任务的有效性认识不足。这一案例研究将扩大对ARC的理解和该机构工作的有效性。在许多方面，ARC是一个测试案例，测试一个联邦发展机构如何在美国政治和经济体系中取得成功和失败。这种理解对于指导美国和其他地方未来的发展努力非常重要。 作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立的研究生涯。

This Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Award provides a scientific case study of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), an agency designated by Congress in 1965 to improve the socioeconomic conditions of Appalachia. Although the ARC's activities provide a rich resource for understanding federal regional development efforts in economically depressed areas, currently available research provides limited insight into the ARC's experience, and much remains to be understood. This research addresses a number of specific issues that are essential to understanding the ARC, including: how federal expenditures within Appalachia have compared to federal expenditures elsewhere in the U.S. during the course of the ARC's existence; the variation in ARC policy over time, including the spatial variation in the agency's expenditures and private sector interaction with such expenditures; and socioeconomic outcomes associated with ARC policy. This analysis utilizes a range of quantitative and qualitative techniques, including descriptive statistics, econometric modeling, document analysis, and interviews. It also draws upon an array of resources, including an ARC expenditure database, which contains information about all ARC expenditures from 1965 through 2002; project files consisting of detailed descriptions of ARC projects; federal government expenditure data for the entire U.S.; and an historical database of social and economic data. The case study is situated in the broad theoretical context of neoclassical economics, due to the need for empirical and theoretical evaluation of how a regional development agency can operate effectively in a social, political, and economic context that largely privileges the basic tenets of such theory.Although the ARC is in many respects a relic of an era when federal regional development concerns and endeavors in the U.S. were more prominent than they are today, a renewed interest in regional development initiatives has surfaced in the federal government over the past few years. There is evidence for this in the recent creation of two new development agencies - the Delta Regional Authority and the Denali Commission - as well as in discussions in Congress about creating regional development agencies in other economically depressed areas of the U.S. The ARC has in many ways served as a model for these new and proposed agencies. However, a lack of empirically informed research related to the ARC has resulted in insufficient knowledge about the efficacy with which the agency has carried out its mandate. This case study will broaden the understanding of the ARC and of the effectiveness of the agency's efforts. In many ways, the ARC stands as a test case for how a federal development agency can meet with success, and failure, within the American political and economic system. Such understanding can be important to guiding future development efforts in the U.S. and elsewhere. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.