SSTI Digest

From 2006 to 2018, income inequality has risen continuously both nationwide and in all states (but not in the District of Columbia). Annual changes vary widely for state income inequality, with some states experiencing increases year after year, and others displaying more volatile trends consisting of both sharp annual decreases and increases. This edition of SSTI’s Useful Stats examines trends in the Gini index —a measure of household income inequality that increases as the distribution of income becomes more concentrated within a smaller share of the population — at the state level from 2006 to 2018. As shown in the [interactive] map below, the average Gini index for this period was highest in the Deep South, a portion of New England, and in California. Income inequality was lowest in the Mountain West and upper central states. Including Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, income inequality was the greatest in Puerto Rico (0.542), the District of Columbia (0.534), New York (0.506), Connecticut (0.490), Louisiana (0.485), and California (Gini index of 0.480).  Income inequality was the lowest in Alaska (Gini index of 0.416), Utah (0.421),…

Democrats made some gains in Virginia’s Legislature, and in Kentucky, the governor’s seat looks to be turning over to a Democrat, but the current Republican is requesting a recanvass in the close race. If those results hold, Democratic challenger and current Attorney General Andy Beshear will take the seat from incumbent Gov. Matt Bevin, ending the state’s Republican trifecta (where one party holds the governorship and both chambers of the legislature). Mississippi’s gubernatorial seat remained in Republican control, while the gubernatorial election in Louisiana takes place on Nov. 16, and the incumbent Democratic governor there is seeking another term. Following Tuesday’s elections, the divided government in Virginia turned into a Democratic trifecta in Virginia, as Republicans lost their hold in both the House and Senate. Those outcomes and results from several state legislative elections, along with the results of several innovation-related initiatives, are highlighted below.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Google released a new analysis of export activity by U.S. small businesses. Results, based on surveys and Global Trade Analysis Project data, find $541 billion in national economic output, just 2.8 percent of the U.S. total. Survey responses suggest that small businesses are seeing a higher portion of sales occurring as exports (from 19 percent in 2016 to 24 percent in 2018), and that nearly 40 percent of companies with at least five employees export goods or services. SSTI has compiled the report’s per-state data on share of exporting small businesses, exports’ share of the state’s economic output (displayed in the map), and in-state employment related to exporting.

Jennifer Roche prepared the following summary of a recent Enrico Moretti working paper for the November 2019 issue of the NBER Digest. The summary has been edited here for length and clarity; SSTI comments are in brackets. More than half of all inventors in the United States’ three dominant high-tech fields — computer science and information technology; semiconductors; and biology and chemistry — increasingly worked in clusters of 10 cities through 2007, Enrico Moretti reports in The Effect of High-Tech Clusters on the Productivity of Top Inventors (NBER Working Paper 26270). He asks why inventors tended to locate near one another in tech centers such as San Francisco and Seattle despite the high costs of living in these locations. The study uses data from 1971 to 2007 on the patents of 823,359 inventors located in 179 cities to assess where innovation occurs. [Digest note: With the most recent patents in the dataset being more than a decade old, factors such as the rapid rise in housing costs in the leading tech cities since the recession and the growing complexity of technology and life science sectors may have affected the specific…

As voters head to the polls next week, some will be deciding the fate of innovation and development-related initiatives, while voters in Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi will be voting in gubernatorial elections. The initiatives include a possible additional $3 billion in Texas for cancer research. And in Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey and Virginia, legislative chambers are holding regular elections. Those races and initiatives are covered below.

The U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have announced an agreement between them to promote rural energy and the development of technologies “that will support and advance rural and agricultural communities and domestic manufacturing.” The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which was required under the 2018 Farm Bill, is expected to increase the economic development of rural areas through new energy technologies and investments. A release from the DOE detailed the areas covered by the MOU including facilitating energy-related investments in America's rural communities; streamlining, leveraging and optimizing program resources; encouraging innovation; offering technical assistance to rural communities; strengthening energy-related infrastructure; ensuring affordable and reliable power; and, helping rural businesses export energy products and manufactured goods around the world. USDA and DOE have convened interagency working groups that will focus on the following areas: Develop and expand energy- and manufacturing-related businesses, industries and technologies in rural America; Encourage investments in new or…

Rising tuition and worsened racial and class inequality are two of the effects of decreasing state support for higher education, according to a recent report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.  In it the authors detail how overall state funding for public two- and four-year colleges has not fully recovered in most states following the recession, leaving higher costs and reduced services in many cases. Today’s cohort of students are more racially and economically diverse than previous cohorts, and tuition rates, which have risen faster than median income, increase the cost burden of attending college and could deter low-income students and students of color, who have traditionally faced greater barriers to entry, from attending. Lower attendance can in turn threaten the outlook for communities and states, which increasingly rely on an educated workforce to grow and thrive, the report asserts. After adjusting for inflation, the report found that between 2008-2018 41 states spent less per student and on average, states spend 13 percent less per student. Per-student funding fell by more than 30 percent in six states: Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana,…

Research universities and their partnerships with industry, including an institution’s research capacity, are important elements to building a state’s economy as well as the national economy and talent pipeline and workforce. Following on our review of higher education and commercialization programs, as well as our ongoing review of state activities in 2019 (see our stories on free tuition offerings, climate change and clean energy), this week we report on new university-industry partnerships, including research capacity activities, launched in 2019. The following programs represent some of those efforts. Alabama Earlier this month, the University of Alabama (UA) announced the launch of its Tide Research Partnership Program. The program is designed to strengthen UA’s research and development partnerships with industry, as well as encourage businesses and companies to sponsor research opportunities at UA, while also providing opportunities for students to work on real world solutions to current challenges. The program is managed by the UA Office for Research and Economic Development, and sets costs upfront for exclusive rights to possible…

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is exploring a national strategy to promote the U.S. bioeconomy. In response to a request for information, SSTI submitted a letter encouraging OSTP to leverage existing regional assets as part of its approach. To see more innovations converted into new products, services and businesses, the letter encourages a new program to fund commercialization assistance and to strengthen SBIR. To see more workers benefit from the bioeconomy sector, and to see companies in the industry become more efficient, the letter highlights the potential value of high-skill apprenticeship models. Read the full letter.

While rankings and annual indices are catnip for some looking to gain attention for their latest rankings, SSTI has always argued that it’s long-term trends that give the best sense of where a state or region stands. With recent release of income data, SSTI has examined the last 34 years data in median household income for each state. SSTI found that while median household income — adjusted to 2018 dollars — has risen in nearly every state and the U.S. since 1984 with an average annual rate of increase of 0.8 percent, the growth, not surprisingly, varies widely among individual states.

Two recent reports highlight the importance of funding innovation in the U.S., and give a glimpse into the perils of ignoring it. The reports, from The Aspen Institute and Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF), independently corroborate the role of the public sector in ensuring a more prosperous future through innovation. The Aspen report, An Innovation Challenge for the United States, warns that the innovation culture forged in this country following World War II is now at risk, while the ITIF report focuses on the dwindling support for higher education from both the state and federal levels and details how such changes could negatively impact the research and development efforts that help build the innovation economy. The Aspen report notes that many of the conditions that propelled the United States into a global leadership position in innovation following WW II no longer exist (infrastructure is aging, competition for talent is global, nature of innovation has changed, erosion of public trust in government, and reduced spending on foundational research) and that to maintain our global position a “purposeful course” must be charted by…

SSTI and five peer, economic development-focused organizations submitted a letter to assistant secretary for economic development, John Fleming, in response to a request for information about incorporating Opportunity Zones (OZs) into existing EDA practices. The letter encourages the agency to be cautious in its approach, pointing out that OZ’s impacts are not yet understood. In the meantime, EDA can continue to support distressed regions by providing more education about available programs, technical assistance to strengthen competitiveness, and leverage existing research funding and grant reporting to increase the country’s understanding of economic activity within OZs. The other organizations signing the letter are: International Economic Development Council, National Association of Counties, National Association of Regional Councils, National League of Cities, and Rural Community Assistance Partnership. Read the full letter.