Paper Presentations 1: Southern Regional Issues
Location
Lewis 301
Start Date
18-7-2019 10:55 AM
End Date
18-7-2019 12:10 PM
Description
Moderator: Ryan Parsons, Princeton University
Heirs' Property: Exploring a Southern Region Approach
Russ Garner, Mississippi State University and Southern Rural Development Center
The Southern Rural Development Center (SRDC) has begun a project that explores the issue of heirs’ property, a problem deeply impacting the Southern region. This presentation will offer an overview of the journey that SRDC and its partners embarked on in 2017, where the project is currently, and future developments. Heirs’ property, land passed on without a will, plagues much of the South, particularly in high poverty regions (i.e. Black Belt, Delta, Appalachia, Colonias). Often tied to small/medium-sized farmlands, these informal ownerships prevent using land as collateral (home or equipment loans) and prevent participation in federal/state programs for farmers. Impacts on farms, families, and communities call for multi-disciplined approaches to help chart positive change. The SRDC and its partners seek to explore avenues in meeting this challenge for the region.
Housing Insecurity in the Rural South
Patricia DeFelice, University of Mississippi
Annie Cafer, University of Mississippi
This research explores a variety of community stakeholder perspectives on housing insecurity. Drawing on literature surrounding the history of housing policy in the United States, I will address gaps in the literature pertaining to policies created in regards to public perception. My research utilizes a community resilience framework to inform my research design and framing of perceptions and attitudes towards housing in Oxford and Marks, Mississippi. I define housing insecurity as having little to no access to stable, consistent housing, while inadequacy refers to access to only low-quality housing, often resulting in health-related issues for residents. I argue that the reasons policy is or is not created or implemented is a result of embedded attitudes that are deeper than our day to day actions. To answer my research questions, this study utilizes interviews with both residents who are housing insecure and decision makers responsible for local housing ordinances and policies.
Depopulation as a Means of Re-segregation: Racial Patterns in Rural School Closure, 1987-2015
Ryan Parsons, Princeton University
More than 20,000 public schools were permanently closed between 1987 and 2015, many in rural communities. Given the rate of urbanization in the US, the closure of rural schools is not necessarily a cause for alarm; under most models of public education, schools can only operate effectively with enough students to sustain them. However, an analysis of the racialized patterns of school closure in rural America suggest that student numbers and efficiency are not sufficient to explain patterns of school closure. Our study finds that schools with larger non-white populations in 1987 were at increased risk of closure. In the South, schools that were relatively integrated faced higher risk of closure relative to predominantly white or predominantly black schools. Because integration rates in the US peaked in the late 1980s, these trends suggest that rural depopulation, and resulting disinvestment of public resources, created unique disadvantages for rural communities of color.
The Economic Impact of Small Regional Commissions: Is There Any Bang After Just a Few Bucks?
Tyler Morin, The Ohio State University
Mark Partridge, The Ohio State University
Despite substantial funding going to regional economic development programs, little is known about the benefits of some of the smaller place-based programs. We extend the literature on regional commissions by analyzing the economic gains to the Delta Regional Authority (DRA). The DRA was founded in 2000 to provide enhanced development aid to 252 Lower Mississippi Valley counties. Using data over the 1997 to 2016 period, we assess the DRA's impact on employment, income, migration, and poverty. One-to-one propensity score matching is used to generate counterfactual counties. Due to the endogenous nature of the treatment, we instrument for counties being included in the DRA using a dummy for whether the county is within the Lower Mississippi Watershed. The ensuing results reflect an estimation of the intent-to-treat benefits of the DRA. We find that the DRA is associated with income gains and decreases in unemployment; however, no impact on poverty or migration.
Relational Format
Conference Proceeding
Recommended Citation
Garner, Russ; DeFelice, Patricia; Cafer, Annie; Parsons, Ryan; Morin, Tyler; and Partridge, Mark, "Paper Presentations 1: Southern Regional Issues" (2019). Delta Regional Forum. 6.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/dr_forum/2019/Schedule/6
Paper Presentations 1: Southern Regional Issues
Lewis 301
Moderator: Ryan Parsons, Princeton University
Heirs' Property: Exploring a Southern Region Approach
Russ Garner, Mississippi State University and Southern Rural Development Center
The Southern Rural Development Center (SRDC) has begun a project that explores the issue of heirs’ property, a problem deeply impacting the Southern region. This presentation will offer an overview of the journey that SRDC and its partners embarked on in 2017, where the project is currently, and future developments. Heirs’ property, land passed on without a will, plagues much of the South, particularly in high poverty regions (i.e. Black Belt, Delta, Appalachia, Colonias). Often tied to small/medium-sized farmlands, these informal ownerships prevent using land as collateral (home or equipment loans) and prevent participation in federal/state programs for farmers. Impacts on farms, families, and communities call for multi-disciplined approaches to help chart positive change. The SRDC and its partners seek to explore avenues in meeting this challenge for the region.
Housing Insecurity in the Rural South
Patricia DeFelice, University of Mississippi
Annie Cafer, University of Mississippi
This research explores a variety of community stakeholder perspectives on housing insecurity. Drawing on literature surrounding the history of housing policy in the United States, I will address gaps in the literature pertaining to policies created in regards to public perception. My research utilizes a community resilience framework to inform my research design and framing of perceptions and attitudes towards housing in Oxford and Marks, Mississippi. I define housing insecurity as having little to no access to stable, consistent housing, while inadequacy refers to access to only low-quality housing, often resulting in health-related issues for residents. I argue that the reasons policy is or is not created or implemented is a result of embedded attitudes that are deeper than our day to day actions. To answer my research questions, this study utilizes interviews with both residents who are housing insecure and decision makers responsible for local housing ordinances and policies.
Depopulation as a Means of Re-segregation: Racial Patterns in Rural School Closure, 1987-2015
Ryan Parsons, Princeton University
More than 20,000 public schools were permanently closed between 1987 and 2015, many in rural communities. Given the rate of urbanization in the US, the closure of rural schools is not necessarily a cause for alarm; under most models of public education, schools can only operate effectively with enough students to sustain them. However, an analysis of the racialized patterns of school closure in rural America suggest that student numbers and efficiency are not sufficient to explain patterns of school closure. Our study finds that schools with larger non-white populations in 1987 were at increased risk of closure. In the South, schools that were relatively integrated faced higher risk of closure relative to predominantly white or predominantly black schools. Because integration rates in the US peaked in the late 1980s, these trends suggest that rural depopulation, and resulting disinvestment of public resources, created unique disadvantages for rural communities of color.
The Economic Impact of Small Regional Commissions: Is There Any Bang After Just a Few Bucks?
Tyler Morin, The Ohio State University
Mark Partridge, The Ohio State University
Despite substantial funding going to regional economic development programs, little is known about the benefits of some of the smaller place-based programs. We extend the literature on regional commissions by analyzing the economic gains to the Delta Regional Authority (DRA). The DRA was founded in 2000 to provide enhanced development aid to 252 Lower Mississippi Valley counties. Using data over the 1997 to 2016 period, we assess the DRA's impact on employment, income, migration, and poverty. One-to-one propensity score matching is used to generate counterfactual counties. Due to the endogenous nature of the treatment, we instrument for counties being included in the DRA using a dummy for whether the county is within the Lower Mississippi Watershed. The ensuing results reflect an estimation of the intent-to-treat benefits of the DRA. We find that the DRA is associated with income gains and decreases in unemployment; however, no impact on poverty or migration.
