Despite substantial funding going to regional economic development programs, little is known about the benefits of some of the smaller, place-based programs. The authors extend the literature on regional commissions by analyzing the economic gains to the Delta Regional Authority (DRA). The DRA was founded in 2000 to provide enhanced development aid to 252 lower Mississippi Valley counties. Using data from 1997 to 2016, the authors assess the DRA’s impact on employment, income, migration, and poverty. One-to-one propensity score matching is used to generate counterfactual counties. Because of the endogenous nature of the treatment, the authors instrument for counties being included in the DRA using a dummy for whether the county is within the lower Mississippi watershed. The ensuing results reflect an estimation of the intent-to-treat benefits of the DRA. The authors find that the DRA is associated with income gains and decreases in unemployment; however, it has no impact on poverty or migration.

尽管有大量资金用于区域经济发展计划，但对于一些较小的地方性计划的好处知之甚少。作者通过分析三角洲地区管理局（DRA）的经济收益来扩展有关区域委员会的文献。DRA成立于2000年，旨在为252个密西西比河谷下游县提供增强的发展援助。作者使用1997年至2016年的数据，评估了DRA对就业，收入，移民和贫困的影响。一对一的倾向得分匹配用于生成反事实县。由于这种处理方法具有内生性，因此，作者使用一个虚拟设备将县纳入DRA中，以判断该县是否位于密西西比河下游分水岭之内。随后的结果反映了对DRA的意向治疗收益的估计。作者发现，DRA与收入增加和失业减少有关。但是，它对贫困或移民没有影响。