Although the American West has long experienced strong economic growth, variation in natural amenities and mineral resources across the West has produced a diversity of economic outcomes and trends. In this paper, we assess whether there have been recent significant shifts in economic growth across the nonmetropolitan counties of the region. We find significant relative downward growth shifts in areas most abundant in natural amenities. Further analysis suggests the downward growth shifts in high-amenity counties resulted from the capitalization of the amenities into housing costs, not from diminished quality of life in the counties from growth or climate change. Both the shocks and multipliers associated with mineral resource extraction shifted across the periods. The uncertainty surrounding future climate change adjustments and volatility of mineral resource extraction suggests the need for place-based policy to maintain economic vitality in the rural West.

中文翻译：

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还有美国西部经济吗？天然设施，矿产资源和非都市县的增长

尽管美国西部长期以来一直经历强劲的经济增长，但整个西部自然设施和矿产资源的变化产生了多种经济结果和趋势。在本文中，我们评估了该地区非都市县最近的经济增长是否发生了重大变化。我们发现自然设施最丰富的地区出现了相对显着的向下增长变化。进一步的分析表明，高便利度县的增长下降是由于设施的资本化转化为住房成本，而不是由于增长或气候变化而使县的生活质量下降。与矿产资源开采有关的冲击和乘数在各个时期都发生了变化。