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Journal Article
The Shifting Expectations for Work from Home
As COVID-19 moves to an endemic state, employers have brought workers back to the office. Many workers prefer to continue working from home a portion of time, resulting in a gap between employee preferences for work from home and employer plans. Knowing who currently works from home a larger share of time and where this gap is narrowest across worker characteristics and locations helps explain where and for whom work from home is most likely to remain a permanent feature in the labor market.Using a relatively new data source, the Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, Jason P. Brown ...
Working Paper
The Effect of the Conservation Reserve Program on Rural Economies: Deriving a Statistical Verdict from a Null Finding
This article suggests two methods for deriving a statistical verdict from a null finding,allowing economists to more confidently conclude when ?not significant" can in fact be interpreted as ?no substantive effect." The proposed methodology can be extended to a variety of empirical contexts where size and power matter. The example used to demonstrate the method is the Economic Research Service's 2004 Report to Congress that was charged with statistically identifying any unintended negative employment consequences of the Conservation Reserve Program (the Program). The report failed to ...
Journal Article
Production of natural gas from shale in local economies: a resource blessing or curse?
Innovations in the energy sector, particularly the extraction of natural gas from shale and tight gas formations using horizontal drilling and "fracking," have helped increase U.S. reserves of natural gas to an estimated 70 years' worth of supply. Some theories suggest such a boom leads to a local resource "blessing" in employment and a positive spillover into the local economy while others suggest a boom leads to a resource "curse" for industries not related to the energy sector. Brown examines county-level labor market conditions in the central United States and finds a modest ...
Journal Article
COVID-19 Stuns U.S. and Tenth District Economies, but Both Show Signs of Stabilization
COVID-19 and attempts to slow its spread have led to a decline in economic activity unprecedented in both severity and speed. Although every part of the United States experienced dramatic decreases in activity, states in the Tenth Federal Reserve District, with lower COVID-19 cases as a percentage of the population, have fared slightly better. More recently, national and regional measures of business and consumer activity have improved but remain well below pre-pandemic levels.
Journal Article
Auto Loan Delinquency Rates Are Rising, but Mostly among Subprime Borrowers
Steady increases in U.S. auto debt over the past seven years have raised concerns over credit quality and delinquency in consumers' repayment. We investigate these concerns and find that the credit quality of auto debt has actually improved throughout the current expansion. Delinquency rates have been rising mostly among subprime borrowers, who represent about a quarter of total outstanding auto debt. However, the potential risks to the financial sector are currently unknown and warrant close monitoring.
Journal Article
Consumer Debt Is High, but Consumers Seem to Have Room to Run
Real consumer debt is now higher than its prior peak during the global financial crisis, driven in part by increases in credit card debt. Although the share of credit card debt transitioning into delinquency has risen, it remains below levels seen during the global financial crisis. Moreover, debt-to-income measures remain historically low, suggesting that consumers in aggregate may have more room to run up debt before experiencing further financial stress.
Journal Article
A Break in the Link Between Gasoline Prices and Inflation Expectations
Gasoline prices and consumers’ inflation expectations often move in similar directions. Indeed, the correlation between the two increased noticeably over the last several decades. In 2025, however, that relationship changed dramatically: Gasoline prices declined, while inflation expectations increased with the prospects of higher prices coming from tariffs. If the historical relationship had persisted, inflation expectations might have been 1.5 percentage points lower throughout 2025.
Journal Article
Catching Up or Falling Behind? The Pace of Income Convergence in Rural and Urban America
Slowing rates of income convergence suggest the relative gap between average rural and urban income could persist.
Journal Article
The response of employment to changes in oil and gas exploration and drilling
Oil prices declined significantly during the summer of 2014, leading to a subsequent decline in energy exploration and drilling. By the end of April 2015, rig counts were down 49 percent. In the past, these declines have disproportionately affected the economies of oil- and gas-producing states, decreasing statewide employment and inducing ?regional recessions.?
Journal Article
Update on the Kansas and Missouri economies