TY  - JOUR
AU  - Hornbeck,Richard
AU  - Keskin,Pinar
TI  - Does Agriculture Generate Local Economic Spillovers?  Short-run and Long-run Evidence from the Ogallala Aquifer
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 18416
PY  - 2012
Y2  - September 2012
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18416
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18416.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Richard Hornbeck
Department of Economics
Harvard University
232 Littauer Center
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 202/494-0722
E-Mail: hornbeck@fas.harvard.edu

Pinar Keskin
Department of Economics
Wellesley College
106 Central Street
Wellesley, MA 02481
pkeskin@wellesley.edu
E-Mail: pkeskin@wellesley.edu
AB  - Agricultural development may support broader economic development, though agricultural expansion may also crowd-out local non-agricultural activity.  On the United States Plains, areas over the Ogallala aquifer experienced windfall agricultural gains when post-WWII technologies increased farmers' access to groundwater.  Comparing counties over the Ogallala with nearby similar counties, local non-agricultural sectors experienced only short-run benefits.  Despite substantial persistent agricultural gains, there was no long-run expansion of local non-agricultural sectors and there are some indications of crowd-out.  With the benefit of long-run historical perspective, supporting local agricultural production does not appear to generate local economic spillovers that might justify its distortionary impacts.
ER  -