IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/socsci/v91y2010i1p228-244.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Revisiting the Impact of Prison Building on Job Growth: Education, Incarceration, and County‐Level Employment, 1976–2004

Author

Listed:
  • Gregory Hooks
  • Clayton Mosher
  • Shaun Genter
  • Thomas Rotolo
  • Linda Lobao

Abstract

Objectives. It is widely believed that prison construction offers significant economic benefits to local areas. We review the popular and scholarly literature and provide a quantitative analysis of claims. Methods. We analyze data on all existing and new prisons in the United States since 1960 to assess the impact of these prisons on the pace of public, private, and total employment growth in U.S. counties from 1976 to 2004. Results. Our results suggest that enhanced human capital is associated with employment gains and cast doubt on the assertion that prisons provide economic benefits to local areas. We provide evidence that prison construction impedes economic growth in rural counties, especially in counties that lag behind in educational attainment. Conclusions. Based on empirical results, this research casts further doubt on claims that prisons offer a viable economic development option for struggling rural communities. Possible explanations for the failure of prisons to help local areas are explored, including existing corrections officers moving to fill openings, adverse local impacts of prison labor, and paucity of local multipliers when a prison opens.

Suggested Citation

  • Gregory Hooks & Clayton Mosher & Shaun Genter & Thomas Rotolo & Linda Lobao, 2010. "Revisiting the Impact of Prison Building on Job Growth: Education, Incarceration, and County‐Level Employment, 1976–2004," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 91(1), pages 228-244, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:91:y:2010:i:1:p:228-244
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6237.2010.00690.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2010.00690.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2010.00690.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephan J. Goetz & Hema Swaminathan, 2006. "Wal‐Mart and County‐Wide Poverty," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 87(2), pages 211-226, June.
    2. Timothy J. Bartik, 1991. "Who Benefits from State and Local Economic Development Policies?," Books from Upjohn Press, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, number wbsle.
    3. Harold Wolman & David Spitzley, 1996. "The Politics of Local Economic Development," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 10(2), pages 115-150, May.
    4. Brueckner, Jan K., 2000. "A Tiebout/tax-competition model," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(2), pages 285-306, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chirakijja, Janjala, 2023. "The economic effects of prison closures on local communities," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    2. John M. Eason, 2017. "Prisons as Panacea or Pariah? The Countervailing Consequences of the Prison Boom on the Political Economy of Rural Towns," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-23, January.
    3. Rauscher, Emily & Elliott, William & O'Brien, Megan & Callahan, Jason & Steensma, Joe, 2017. "Examining the relationship between parental educational expectations and a community-based children's savings account program," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 96-107.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Teresa Garcia-Milà & Therese J. McGuire, 2001. "Tax incentives and the city," Economics Working Papers 631, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Dec 2001.
    2. Gebremeskel Gebremariam & Tesfa Gebremedhin & Peter Schaeffer, 2012. "County-level determinants of local public services in Appalachia: a multivariate spatial autoregressive model approach," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 49(1), pages 175-190, August.
    3. Freedman, Emily A. & McConnon Jr., James C. & Hunt, Gary L. & Gabe, Todd M., 2016. "An Analysis of the Economic Impacts of Big-Box Stores on a Community’s Retail Sector: Evidence from Maine," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 46(2), December.
    4. Linda Lobao & David Kraybill, 2009. "Poverty and Local Governments: Economic Development and Community Service Provision in an Era of Decentralization," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(3), pages 418-451, September.
    5. Linda Mccarthy, 2004. "The Keep Jeep In Toledo Campaign: A Lost Opportunity For The Wheels Of Change?," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 95(4), pages 392-404.
    6. Ann Markusen (ed.), 2007. "Reining in the Competition for Capital," Books from Upjohn Press, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, number ricc.
    7. Robert T. Greenbaum & Blair D. Russell & Tricia L. Petras, 2010. "Measuring the Distribution of Economic Development Tax Incentive Intensity," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 24(2), pages 154-168, May.
    8. Michael R. Betz & Mark D. Partridge & David S. Kraybill & Linda Lobao, 2012. "Why Do Localities Provide Economic Development Incentives? Geographic Competition, Political Constituencies, and Government Capacity," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(3), pages 361-391, September.
    9. Leah Platt Boustan & Matthew E. Kahn & Paul W. Rhode, 2012. "Moving to Higher Ground: Migration Response to Natural Disasters in the Early Twentieth Century," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(3), pages 238-244, May.
    10. Crown, Daniel & Faggian, Alessandra & Corcoran, Jonathan, 2020. "Foreign-Born graduates and innovation: Evidence from an Australian skilled visa program✰,✰✰,★,★★," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(9).
    11. Colas, Mark & Saulnier, Emmett, 2023. "Vertical migration externalities," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    12. Matias Busso & Patrick Kline, 2008. "Do Local Economic Development Programs Work? Evidence from the Federal Empowerment Zone Program," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1639, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    13. Fang, Mingyue & Nie, Huihua & Shen, Xinyi, 2023. "Can enterprise digitization improve ESG performance?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    14. Timothy J. Bartik & Nathan Sotherland, 2019. "Local Job Multipliers in the United States: Variation with Local Characteristics and with High-Tech Shocks," Upjohn Working Papers 19-301, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    15. Peydró, José-Luis & Jiménez, Gabriel & Kenan, Huremovic & Moral-Benito, Enrique & Vega-Redondo, Fernando, 2020. "Production and financial networks in interplay: Crisis evidence from supplier-customer and credit registers," CEPR Discussion Papers 15277, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Tidiane Ly, 2018. "Sub-metropolitan tax competition with household and capital mobility," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 25(5), pages 1129-1169, October.
    17. Michael J. Hicks, 2006. "Transportation and infrastructure, retail clustering, and local public finance: evidence from Wal-Mart's expansion," Regional Economic Development, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue Oct, pages 100-114.
    18. Lídia Farré & Francesco Fasani & Hannes Mueller, 2018. "Feeling useless: the effect of unemployment on mental health in the Great Recession," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 7(1), pages 1-34, December.
    19. Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina & Arenas-Arroyo, Esther & Sevilla, Almudena, 2018. "Immigration enforcement and economic resources of children with likely unauthorized parents," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 63-78.
    20. Miquel-Àngel Garcia-López & Ilias Pasidis & Elisabet Viladecans-Marsal, 2022. "Congestion in highways when tolls and railroads matter: evidence from European cities [The congestion relief benefit of public transit: evidence from Rome]," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 22(5), pages 931-960.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:91:y:2010:i:1:p:228-244. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0038-4941 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.