Judith I. Stallmann

Attracting Retirees as an Economic Development Strategy: Looking into the Future

Attracting retirees has been promoted as an economic development strategy for rural communities. Implicit in efforts to attract retirees is the assumption that retirees will continue to migrate at the same rate, bringing with them relatively high incomes and relatively low demands for services. Using currently available information, this article examines this assumption, and provides a less rosy picture, by analyzing how changes in demographics, income, wealth, and living preferences result in future retirement decisions that differ from the current pattern. This study should provide additional guidance and caution to planners and policy makers contemplating retiree recruitment as a rural development strategy, as well as directions for further research.

Tax and Expenditure Limitations and State Credit Ratings

The impact of state tax and expenditure limitations (TELs) on bond credit ratings is estimated using an incomplete (or unbalanced) panel from the US states from 1973 to 2005. Three indices of the restrictiveness of TELs are used. Both Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s bond credit ratings are used and the outcomes compared. The results are consistent with previous work; more restrictive revenue TELs are associated with lower credit ratings while expenditure TELs are generally associated with higher credit ratings. TELs restricting both revenues and expenditures are negatively associated with Moody’ ratings, but not with those of Standard and Poor’s. Contrary to previous studies, the authors find limited differences in the fiscal and economic variables that influence the ratings of the two agencies.

A Typology of Retirement Places: a Community Analysis

The paper delineates types of retirement communities by the features which attract retirees, the types of retirees attracted, the promotional campaigns used, the economic considerations involved and the potential problems faced by each type of community. Communities wishing to assess their potential to attract retirees may use this typology to assess what they offer and the types of retirees they are likely to attract. Five types of retirement communities are delineated: resource amenity, planned, continuing care, old home town and regional center. While existing literature concentrates on counties, this typology is also useful at the sub-county level. Perhaps because the literature concentrates on counties, several of the community types presented have not been discussed explicitly in the literature.

Comparing the Impacts of Retiree versus Working-Age Families on a Small Rural Region: An Application of the Wisconsin Economic Impact Modeling System

The Wisconsin Economic Impact Modeling System, a conjoined input-output/econometric model of Wisconsin counties, is used to simulate the economic and fiscal impact of two alternative residential development patterns. Under the first scenario, the impact of migrating retirees on a small tri-county region in northern Wisconsin is examined. Under the second scenario, the impact of the migration of younger families with children is examined. A comparison-contrast between the two scenarios demonstrates that the characteristics of the migrating household can have a significant impact on the nature of the impacts.

Impacts of local and state tax and expenditure limits on economic growth

We focus on the impact of statutory and constitutional Tax and Expenditure Limits (TELs) on growth levels and rates of convergence. Using a panel of US state data from 1987 to 2004, we report a family of neoclassical growth models. Using simple dummy variables to identify states with and without strict TELs, we find that local property tax levy limits do not significantly influence income growth and convergence rates. Results for state revenue and expenditure limits suggest that more recent limits may have negatively affected income growth and slowed convergence.

Human capital investment in resources‐dominated economies

The paper relaxes the perfectly competitive market assumptions of human capital theory to derive hypotheses about the impacts of imperfect markets on incentives to invest in human capital, particularly education. The paper then draws on existing studies to test whether the hypotheses are supported or not for resources‐dominated economies. Because of imperfect markets, individuals may make human capital decisions that lead to poverty.

Community Factors in Secondary Educational Achievement in Appalachia

Human capital theory suggests that job opportunities will create incentives for students to invest, or not invest, in education. If the economic structure of the community does not reward education, students might drop out of school. The existing research on this topic, which is based on several disciplinary perspectives, is reviewed. Data from Virginia indicate that a higher percentage of service occupations in the county increases the dropout rate. A higher percentage of managerial/professional occupations decreases the dropout rate and increases the percentage of graduates continuing their education. In addition, the model tested for differences in educational achievement in Appalachian and non-Appalachian counties. Appalachian counties differ from urban, but not from other rural counties. Urban counties have a higher percentage of both dropouts and graduates continuing their education.

Does the Restrictiveness of State Tax and Expenditure Limitations Affect State Revenues and Expenditures

This paper examines the impact of tax and expenditure limitations (TELs) on state governments. We examine how TELs are represented in empirical modeling. We compare and contrast an index of state-level TEL restrictiveness to a simple dummy variable approach. We use a panel of data for the 50 U.S. states to capture changes in state TELs and a generalized method of moments (GMM) dynamic panel estimator. We find that results vary across the two methods of capturing the presence of TELs, suggesting that simple dummy variables are not sufficient to capture the heterogeneity of TELs across states and over time.

Do Tax and Expenditure Limits Hinder the Condition of Public Infrastructure? The Case of the Nation’s System of Bridges

Tax and expenditure limitations (TELs) imposed on state and local governments is a popular policy approach to limit the growth in government. At the same time these limits may hinder the ability of state and local governments to provide services and make investments in public infrastructure. We test the relationship between state-level TEL restrictiveness and the United State’s network of highway bridges. We generally find that more restrictive TELs have a weak negative impact on the percentage of bridges deemed structurally deficient but a positive impact on the percentage of bridges deemed functionally obsolete. The states with the most restrictive TELs, those that restrict both revenues and expenditures, tend to have a smaller share of their bridges that are either structurally deficient of functionally obsolete.

LABOR MARKET INCENTIVES TO STAY IN SCHOOL

Human capital theory suggests that job opportunities will create incentives for human capital investment. If job information does not flow freely, or if they prefer not to move, students will make investment decisions based upon local job markets. Communities with a high percentage of low-skill jobs which do not reward high school and higher education do not create incentives for students to finish high school or continue beyond high school. Data from Virginia support this hypothesis. Targeted job creation, and improved labor market information may create incentives for increased human capital investment in many rural communities.