| This study assesses the initial economic outcomes of the Delta Regional Authority (DRA), which began funding rural development projects in the Mississippi Delta region in 2002. The study focuses on non-metropolitan DRA counties and similar counties elsewhere in the Mississippi Delta region and the southeast, using a quasi-experimental approach that combines matching methods, double and triple difference and switching regression estimation. We find that per capita income and transfer payments grew more rapidly in DRA counties than similar non-DRA counties, and that these impacts are larger in counties in which DRA spending was larger. Each additional dollar of DRA spending per capita is associated with an increase of $15 in personal income per capita... |
