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Rural water infrastructure development research demonstrates ethnically, racially uneven economic outcomes

Summary

The Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences at the University of Oklahoma led a study that examined local government spending on water infrastructure to see if it was associated with higher levels of economic development. After around eight years, increased levels of investment in water infrastructure were related with declines in poverty, increases in per capita income, and decreases in unemployment throughout the United States. But when demographic data was included, the researchers discovered that towns with a higher proportion of Latino or Indigenous population did not have the same favorable association between rural local water infrastructure investment and economic performance. This finding implies that communities composed primarily of white residents have a greater capacity to attract other types of capital investment, such as human capital through a highly educated workforce or political capital to advocate for appropriations or other political investments, than more diverse communities.

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