Understanding Falling Poverty in the Poorest Places: An Examination of the Experience of the Texas Borderland and Lower Mississippi Delta, 1990–2000

Abstract

This study examines the structural changes that occurred between 1990 and 2000 in the two poorest regions in the United States—the Texas Borderland and the Lower Mississippi Delta—and analyzes the associations between these changes and the substantial reduction of poverty witnessed in these areas over the decade. Results show that both regions experienced noteworthy changes during the 1990s in the aggregate characteristics commonly associated with poverty. Further, results from multivariate models indicate that counties with high initial poverty rates saw poverty decline the most, with job growth and net in-migration contributing to this decline. Conversely, smaller declines in the population younger than age 15 and greater increases in the share of families headed by females were associated with lesser reductions in poverty over the decade. The results also reveal that the underlying mechanisms influencing the reduction of poverty differed between these regions in important respects. Increases in finance, insurance, and real estate employment and educational attainment were significantly less beneficial for the Borderland, whereas the growth of the minority population was linked to significantly better outcomes for that region in comparison to the Delta.