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Distress and Success in Small Places: Prosperity, Gendered Educational Attainment, and Skilled Occupations in the Nonmetropolitan US

Bounds, Bonnie Elizabeth
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9039-4282
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu156319163880692

Abstract Details

2019, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Geography.
In recent years, the US national media and the general American public have developed a heightened interest in the social, economic, and demographic challenges rural America faces today. These challenges, however, have arisen from economic and social changes that have been transpiring for decades. This dissertation consists of three distinct yet interconnected studies, with each study serving as a lens through which to analyze rural prosperity. The first study concerns itself with challenging the notion that "prosperity" must always equate to population growth, economic growth, or both. This limited conceptualization often excludes rural communities which might otherwise be considered prosperous even though they are not growing. I use principal component analysis to explore regional variation in what constitutes prosperity and to create a prosperity and distress index. I find that despite variation among regions, the primary component in all cases is low prosperity, which means that in all regions and for the country as a whole, counties with low prosperity have the strongest characteristics in common. The index overlaps with growth-oriented definitions of prosperity to an extent in that it ranks rural counties among the least prosperous and urban counties among the most prosperous; however, it does so based on a broad range of indicators beyond simple economic and population growth, providing more nuanced rankings. The index also reveals considerable geographic diversity. In the second study, I employ regression analysis to examine how gender (im)balance in higher educational attainment connects to local economic conditions, in addition to using multiple hypothesis testing to determine how this (im)balance varies in urban, small urban, and rural counties across age cohorts and spatial statistical analysis to reveal how it is distributed spatially. The results of this analysis indicate that counties with college-educated populations that are predominantly female also tend to experience poorer economic conditions. Additionally, I find that while patterns of gender disparities in college attainment remain largely the same across age cohorts, they vary significantly according to degree of rurality. Statistically significant clustering is also present, resulting from distinct spatial patterns. The objective of the third study is to determine the potential role of the healthcare and K-12 education industries (''meds and eds'') in contributing to place prosperity and people prosperity in rural communities. I use regression analysis to investigate whether higher percentages of total employment in meds and eds are associated with higher local levels of human capital (defined as educational attainment), thus contributing to place prosperity. To determine whether meds and eds generally pay above local median wages, I calculate Wage Premium Quotients (WPQs) by dividing median earnings for selected skilled meds and eds occupations by the local median. I find that greater employment in meds and eds is in fact associated with higher levels of human capital, and for the majority of US counties, meds and eds do pay wages above local medians. These findings support the idea that meds and eds can contribute to both place prosperity and people prosperity.
Darla Munroe, PhD (Advisor)
Edward Malecki, PhD (Committee Member)
Linda Lobao, PhD (Committee Member)
154 p.
Geography
rural; rural US; prosperity; human capital; economic development; gendered educational attainment; healthcare and education

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Bounds, B. E. (2019). Distress and Success in Small Places: Prosperity, Gendered Educational Attainment, and Skilled Occupations in the Nonmetropolitan US [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu156319163880692

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Bounds, Bonnie. Distress and Success in Small Places: Prosperity, Gendered Educational Attainment, and Skilled Occupations in the Nonmetropolitan US. 2019. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu156319163880692.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Bounds, Bonnie. "Distress and Success in Small Places: Prosperity, Gendered Educational Attainment, and Skilled Occupations in the Nonmetropolitan US." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu156319163880692

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.