Charles S. Gascon

Income Convergence in the United States: A Tale of Migration and Urbanization

We use nonparametric distribution dynamics techniques to reassess the convergence of per capita personal income (PCPI) across U.S. states and across metropolitan (metro) and nonmetropolitan (nonmetro) portions of states for the period 1969–2005. The long-run distribution of PCPI is bimodal for both states and metro/nonmetro portions. Furthermore, the high-income mode of the distribution across metro and nonmetro portions corresponds to the single mode of the long-run distribution across metro portions only. These results (polarization or club-convergence) are reversed when weighting by population. The long-run distributions across people are consistent with convergence. Migration and urbanization are the forces behind convergence.

The Perils of Globalization: Offshoring and Economic Insecurity of the American Worker

According to polls from the 2006 congressional elections, globalization and economic insecurity were the primary concerns of many voters. These Americans apparently believe that they have fallen victim to liberal trade polices and that inexorable trends in globalization are destroying the American Dream. In this analysis, we use time series cross-section data from the General Social Survey (GSS) to examine the links among offshoring, labor market volatility, and the demand for social insurance. Unique among the GSS literature, our analysis includes a pseudo-panel model which permits including auxiliary state and regional macroeconomic information.

Warning: Don't Infer Regional Inflation Differences from House Price Changes

If house prices in one metropolitan statistical area (MSA) are increasing much faster than in another MSA, should one infer that overall inflation is also much faster in the former?

The Evolution of St. Louis’s Wage Distribution

There is less wage inequality in the St. Louis MSA than in the nation.

Living Standards in St. Louis and the Eighth Federal Reserve District: Let’s Get Real

Recently, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) has developed the Regional Price Parities (RPPs), spatial price indexes that allow for comparison of cost of living differences across various geographic areas. By construction, RPPs compare the average price level for a region with the national average. Accordingly, unlike traditional, temporal price indexes, RPPs can be used to adjust nominal incomes for cost of living differences, thereby allowing for more accurate comparison of living standards across geographic areas. When adjusting incomes in this manner, the authors find that, despite slow economic growth recently, living standards are relatively high in the St. Louis metropolitan statistical area (MSA). For example, the St. Louis MSA ranks in the top 6 percent of MSAs based on real per capita personal income and in the top 16 percent based on real median household income.