THE ECONOMIC-EFFECTS OF THE APPALACHIAN-REGIONAL-COMMISSION - AN EMPIRICAL-ASSESSMENT OF 26 YEARS OF REGIONAL-DEVELOPMENT PLANNING

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) was formed in 1965 to promote the region's economic development and ''to develop comprehensive and coordinated plans and establish planning priorities for the region.'' For more than a quarter century, it has been a unique federal-state-local planning effort. Although it occupies a secure place in American regional planning history, its continued existence has been far less secure; from the beginning, its strategies and priorities were widely criticized on numerous, diverse grounds. Every year from 1981 through 1988, the Reagan administration attempted to eliminate it. With the recent silver anniversary of the ARC came new books and articles that record its history and achievements. Missing during this time, however, has been a careful empirical analysis of the extent to which the ARC has succeeded in stimulating the Appalachian economy. This paper presents such a study. Using new quasi-experimental control group methods developed by the authors, the paper measures the effects of ARC programs on 391 counties within the region. The major finding is that Appalachia grew significantly faster than did its control group in income, earnings, population, and per capita income. This result also holds for General Appalachia, the poorest subregion.