The determinants of poverty in Georgia's Plantation Belt: Explaining the differences in measured poverty rates

This paper analyzes the effect of various economic, demographic, human capital, and locational characteristics on the family poverty rate in Georgia's 159 counties. The primary focus of the paper is on whether being located within Georgia's "Plantation Belt," a region that was primarily a plantation economy until after the Civil War, affects a county's family poverty rate today. Although family poverty rates in the 79 Plantation Belt counties are, on average, substantially higher than in the 80 counties outside the Plantation Belt, the Plantation Belt counties tend to have a lower poverty rate after economic, demographic, human capital, and metropolitan location characteristics are controlled for. In addition, separate regressions on the two groups of counties indicate that there are substantial differences in the effect that these factors have on the family poverty rate.