Natural resource development, both extractive (oil, gas, mining, and timber) and non-extractive (tourism, real estate, outdoor recreation), has been found to negatively impact economic prosperity in rural America. One mechanism recently proposed for why this occurs is high levels of labor market concentration, or oligopsony. Oligopsony occurs when there are few employers within a labor market and can lead to suppressed wages and a power imbalance between employers and workers. In this paper, we test the moderating effect of labor market concentration on the relationship between natural resource development and per capita income and poverty in rural America from 2010 to 2016. By comparing results between extractive and non-extractive development, as well as manufacturing, we show that labor market concentration attenuates the beneficial relationship observed at low levels of specialization in natural resources—particularly for extractive forms of development. Further, by finding no significant relationship between manufacturing specialization and economic prosperity, nor any moderating effect of labor market concentration in the case of manufacturing, we demonstrate that natural resource development and labor market concentration have a unique relationship with rural American economic prosperity.

中文翻译：

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美国农村的市场集中度和自然资源开发

自然资源开发，无论是采掘业（石油、天然气、采矿和木材）还是非采掘业（旅游、房地产、户外休闲），都被发现会对美国农村的经济繁荣产生负面影响。最近提出的导致这种情况发生的一种机制是劳动力市场高度集中，或寡头垄断。寡头垄断发生在劳动力市场中雇主很少的情况下，可能导致工资被压制以及雇主和工人之间的权力不平衡。在本文中，我们检验了 2010 年至 2016 年劳动力市场集中度对美国农村自然资源开发与人均收入和贫困之间关系的调节作用。通过比较采掘业和非采掘业发展以及制造业的结果，我们表明，劳动力市场的集中削弱了在自然资源专业化程度较低时观察到的有益关系——特别是对于采掘形式的发展。此外，通过发现制造业专业化与经济繁荣之间没有显着关系，劳动力市场集中度在制造业方面也没有任何调节作用，我们证明了自然资源开发和劳动力市场集中度与美国农村经济繁荣有着独特的关系。