Participation Type
Paper
Presentation #1 Title
Investing in Appalachia's Future: Federally Funded Economic Diversification in Coal Counties
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
This paper studies federal investments in Appalachian counties that have recently lost jobs or closed mines due to contractions in the coal industry. Relying on ten years of data from six federal agencies, this research examines federal investments in job creation and economic development in these counties. The paper overviews the types of investments that have been made, aggregates the dollar figures, and examines their geographic distribution. Then, analyzing four counties distributed across four states as case studies, the research asks how investments from various agencies at various times work together, drawing conclusions about the goals and potential outcomes of such funding. Finally, the paper compares the last decade worth of investments in job creation and development in these counties with the recent $25,000,000, roughly, invested in the same geography through the recent Whitehouse Partnership for Opportunity, Workforce, and Economic Revitalization (POWER) Initiative. The POWER Initiative was developed to assist coal dependent economies diversify in the wake of a contracting coal industry. From these analyses this author draws several conclusions. First, although there are large investments from several agencies, historically federal investments lack integration across agency. Second, these funds, historically and presently, are often administered through institutions in larger rural towns or urban areas within coal counties. Finally, this paper concludes that the POWER Initiative investments mark a distinct break with recent trends in federal investments, funding institutions in the most rural and economically depressed places, while displaying moderate collaboration across federal agencies.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Gabriel Schwartzman is the Life Quality Initiatives Director for Southern Mutual Help Association in New Iberia, Louisiana. He formerly worked with USDA Rural Development in Tennessee and Washington, DC.
Investing in Appalachia's Future: Federally Funded Economic Diversification in Coal Counties
This paper studies federal investments in Appalachian counties that have recently lost jobs or closed mines due to contractions in the coal industry. Relying on ten years of data from six federal agencies, this research examines federal investments in job creation and economic development in these counties. The paper overviews the types of investments that have been made, aggregates the dollar figures, and examines their geographic distribution. Then, analyzing four counties distributed across four states as case studies, the research asks how investments from various agencies at various times work together, drawing conclusions about the goals and potential outcomes of such funding. Finally, the paper compares the last decade worth of investments in job creation and development in these counties with the recent $25,000,000, roughly, invested in the same geography through the recent Whitehouse Partnership for Opportunity, Workforce, and Economic Revitalization (POWER) Initiative. The POWER Initiative was developed to assist coal dependent economies diversify in the wake of a contracting coal industry. From these analyses this author draws several conclusions. First, although there are large investments from several agencies, historically federal investments lack integration across agency. Second, these funds, historically and presently, are often administered through institutions in larger rural towns or urban areas within coal counties. Finally, this paper concludes that the POWER Initiative investments mark a distinct break with recent trends in federal investments, funding institutions in the most rural and economically depressed places, while displaying moderate collaboration across federal agencies.
