THE IMPACT OF THE 1990S ECONOMIC BOOM ON LESS-EDUCATED WORKERS IN RURAL AMERICA: DID THE RISING TIDE LIFT ALL BOATS?

We use national longitudinal survey data (NLSY79) to investigate the impact of local labor market conditions on the employment and earnings of rural non-college-educated workers. Results suggest that local economic conditions in the late 1990s did have a positive impact on wages, and the effect is larger for workers with no more than a high school degree compared to their college-educated counterparts. We find little evidence of a difference between rural and urban impacts, suggesting that the 1990s boom helped both rural and urban less-educated workers. These results suggest that an expanding economy continues to be a powerful anti-poverty force.