Transitioning Economic Statuses of Appalachian Counties during COVID-19

In the past decade, the Appalachian economy in the United States was scarcely discussed in the literature. No studies were devoted to local economic development after the outbreak of the Coronavirus Disease in 2019. This paper fills the literature gap by empirically examining how the Appalachian economy transitioned under the influence of the pandemic. Using county-level data from the Appalachian Regional Commission between 2019 and 2022, the study investigates how the Appalachian economy regressed during the pandemic. Transitioning economy indices were calculated for 420 local counties by comparing their composite index values before and after the outbreak of the pandemic. Regressions were run to estimate the influences of the unemployment rate, per capita income, and the poverty rate. During the pandemic, the unemployment rate consistently had the largest impact on the Appalachian counties’ composite index value and the least effect on the poverty rate. The results suggest that the most effective strategy is for the government to reduce the local unemployment rate to improve the economic ranking.