Advancement to Candidacy Presentation: “The Local Fiscal Conditions and Economic Dynamics: Evidence from the U.S. Coal Decline”, Minwoo Hyun

Minwoo Hyun will be presenting his Advancement to Candidacy paper, “The Local Fiscal Conditions and Economic
Dynamics: Evidence from the U.S. Coal Decline”. To access the Advancement paper, you must have an active UCSB
NetID and password.

Exploiting exogenous variations that affect domestic coal production based on a geological feature of coal mining
and the timing of the shale boom, this paper examines the impact of coal decline on the local government finance
in the U.S. I find that coal decline caused a decrease in total revenue led by a pronounced impact on local rents and
royalties but a reduction in intergovernmental transfers to coal-reliant communities. In response, the local
governments cut back on spending on public services such as education and housing development and had more
long-term debt. School district revenue dropped due to a contraction in state-appropriated funds and local
property tax, resulting in per-pupil spending cuts in school operations related to education quality. Given different
land ownerships and local tax collection structures across coal-rich parts, Appalachian localities experienced worse
local fiscal conditions than non-Appalachian ones despite analogous coal decline impacts on the local labor market.
I also demonstrate there exist cross-border spillover effects of coal decline on local government finance. The
findings highlight the need for economic diversification and equitable intergovernmental transfers to revitalize
affected resource-dependent communities.

Minwoo is a Ph.D. student in Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research interests
include the economics of labor, public, environment, and policy issues relevant to health and inequality. His
current works explore the local fiscal conditions and labor reallocation costs of coal decline, crime and health
impacts in coal-rich communities, and the welfare consequences of pollution alerts.