Responsive local governments most attractive to young adults

September 15, 2008

Young adults staying in or coming to Pennsylvania are attracted to regions that have more units of government and they are not deterred by the large number of local governments in the state, according to a new study.

"Voters like to be close to their local government officials and give input directly to them," says study co-author Stephen Goetz, professor of agricultural and regional economics and director of the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development at Penn State.

"Employers choose communities with local governments that supply an educated workforce, transportation infrastructure, police and fire protection, and other goods and services that allow firms to maximize their profits. Families follow the employers there and seek places with desired government services such as roads, libraries, parks and schools," he adds.

A team of researchers used a new economic measure of state and county government fragmentation to test if fragmentation drove away young residents from the state.

Georg Grassmueck, assistant professor of Business, Lycoming College; Goetz; and Martin Shields, associate professor of economics, Colorado State University, published their findings in the paper, "Youth Out-Migration from Pennsylvania: The Roles of Government Fragmentation vs. the Beaten Path Effect," in a recent issue of the Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy.

Pennsylvania has 2,567 municipalities including nine classes of counties, four classes of cities and two classes of townships. Boroughs are not classified. Generally, each class of municipality operates under its own code of laws, which determines its structure and powers.

The researchers studied the movement of young adults between Pennsylvania counties between 1995 and 2000 and considered a variety of factors such as housing prices, employment and unemployment figures, school student and teacher numbers, and a list of social gathering places. A primary component of the model is the use of government expenditure data to measure fragmentation, as opposed to the old formula using the number of government units per capita.

Governments with greater expenditures are likely to have more population and economic as well as political power affecting economic growth, according to the study.

Young adults who move are relocating to counties with a relatively higher percentage of young adults and with services needed by that age group. The model also shows that a destination county with higher employment growth relative to a person's original county attracted the young adults.

"These results suggest that young adults find the availability of employment opportunities a more important economic indicator in the moving decision than the level of earnings, which were not important statistically," the researchers said.

Also, entertainment venues seem to play an important role in attracting young adults, but not necessarily artistic venues such as museums and galleries. Health-related facilities also appeared as a key factor in the study, perhaps confirming a trend toward healthier living.

"Our findings contradict a 2003 Brookings Institution study that attributed the state's brain drain of young adults to a large number of small and inefficient local governments in Pennsylvania that was hindering economic development," say the authors.

The study suggests the opposite -- that destination counties with greater fragmentation in local governments attracted even more young adults while those counties with consolidated governments attracted fewer individuals.

"The study serves as a starting point in future discussions on governmental organizational form and economic growth," says Goetz. "Amenities, natural and artificial, matter in the moving decision but any public policy seeking to increase amenities is costly and may be difficult to accomplish.

"Local governments in Pennsylvania need to focus on providing and producing the best and most responsive public goods and services possible to attract and retain households, especially those headed by relatively young adults," he adds.

Source: Penn State

Filter


Move the slider to adjust rank threshold, so that you can hide some of the comments.


Display comments: newest first

lengould100
Sep 15, 2008

Rank: not rated yet
Still, saying that there exist winner towns also implies looser towns, regardless of complexity. Could Penn state fix all its economic problems simply by implementing "more complex" systems of government in every village / town / city? Obviously not, as there will always be something to attract ideal migrants to certain locations, meaning other locations will loose out. Likely wiser to simply implement the most efficient and least costly-per-unit-service government accross the board.
Rank not rated yet
Relevant PhysicsForums posts

More news stories

Employers feel no love for unscrupulous practice of 'service sweethearting'

A new study led by two Florida State University marketing professors finds that some frontline service employees who are rewarded for hikes in customer loyalty and satisfaction also may engage in "service ...

Other Sciences / Economics & Business

created 7 hours ago | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 4

A frank discussion of the power law and linking correlation to causation

(PhysOrg.com) -- Michael Stumpf a mathematics professor at Imperial College in London, and Mason Porter a lecturer at Oxford have teamed together to write and publish a perspective piece in Science regarding the in ...

Other Sciences / Mathematics

created 13 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 2 | with audio podcast report

The question of life in the ancient world

There’s a general feeling that we don’t get the Greeks – ancient or modern. Many, including heads of state like Angela Merkel, visibly shake their head in exasperation, rightly or wrongly, at ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created 13 hours ago | popularity 1.3 / 5 (3) | comments 4

Sonic Cradle lands spot in TED exhibition

A Simon Fraser University graduate student project that melds music, meditation and modern technology has landed a rare spot as an exhibit at TEDActive 2012 in Palm Springs, California this month.

Other Sciences / Other

created 9 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Chilean miners' rescue capsule on show in London

The capsule used to rescue Chilean miners trapped underground for two months goes on display Saturday at the Science Museum in London -- the first time it has been seen in Europe.

Other Sciences / Other

created 12 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0


Google users warned of threat to smartphone wallets

Users of Google smartphone wallets were being warned on Friday that there is a way to crack pass codes intended to thwart thieves from going on illicit shopping sprees.

Anonymous knocks CIA website offline (Update)

The website of the Central Intelligence Agency was inaccessible on Friday after the hacker group Anonymous claimed to have knocked it offline.

Complex wiring of the nervous system may rely on a just a handful of genes and proteins

Researchers at the Salk Institute have discovered a startling feature of early brain development that helps to explain how complex neuron wiring patterns are programmed using just a handful of critical genes. ...

New error-correcting codes guarantee the fastest possible rate of data transmission

Error-correcting codes are one of the triumphs of the digital age. They’re a way of encoding information so that it can be transmitted across a communication channel — such as an optical fiber o ...

The power of estrogen -- male snakes attract other males

A new study has shown that boosting the estrogen levels of male garter snakes causes them to secrete the same pheromones that females use to attract suitors, and turned the males into just about the sexiest ...

Putting the squeeze on planets outside our solar system

(PhysOrg.com) -- Using high-powered lasers, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and collaborators discovered that molten magnesium silicate undergoes a phase change in the liquid state, abruptly ...