Assessment of Alternative Measures for Determining Economically Distressed Counties and Areas in the Appalachian Region

摘要

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) has played a vital role since 1965 in advancing the well being of people, communities, and institutions in the region. Due to sustained investments undertaken by ARC and other public and private sector entities, substantial inroads have been made against the economic instability, poverty, weak human capital, poor transportation corridors, and limited physical infrastructure that characterized the region at the time of ARCs inception. This report responds to a proactive effort by the ARC to explore new avenues for assessing wellbeing. Despite well-recognized advances, chronic socioeconomic distress persists in various pockets in the region while other areas face increasing instability stemming from population shifts and global economic changes. The ARC has sought to develop meaningful indicators to document distress, with the goal of improving the ability of the federal office of the ARC and its state partners to target resources effectively to counties facing a diversity of barriers to achieving economic progress. The purpose of this report is to offer additional insights on the set of distress indicators and their respective measures that can prove comprehensive, practical, and valuable in guiding the future work of the ARC. Our report takes a fresh look at the current indicators employed by the ARC to classify counties as economically distressed. We outline the strengths and limitations associated with such indicators and evaluate a series of new indices and data sources that may promote greater accuracy in terms of monitoring the long-term socioeconomic complexion of counties in the region.