What do commuting patterns look like for Fifth District counties, and what do they tell us about a county's residents?

Helping one area could mean hurting another area.

How far behind did students get during the pandemic, why did they get behind, and how can they catch up?

Examining commuting behavior helps show how connected counties are in the Fifth Federal Reserve District.

Diffusion indexes can help summarize survey responses, but they have some limitations.

Consumers who would benefit from lower tariffs on a good tend to matter more when setting trade policy than producers who want higher tariffs.

Crime is a complex, multidimensional problem. Different factors explain the large observed variability in crime rates across geographic areas and demographic groups.

Part two of our series examines studies on racial disparities in policing, crime reporting and the effectiveness of training programs.

Part one of our two-part Economic Brief examines the impact of crime on communities, the relationship between crime and policing, and how policing affects deterrence.

As a dominant local employer shrank and then closed, weakened public finances became part of the spiral

Urban revitalization efforts have a mixed record. A combination of “place-based” and “people-based” policies may be most successful.

TELs are part of a larger set of fiscal rules aimed at curbing the budget process with the objective of constraining decisions made by governments. Recent research has examined the effectiveness of TELs in achieving their intended objectives.

Our supply-side explanation for trade policy reveals district and industry-level patterns of winners and losers, central to understanding the political consequences of trade and the backlash against globalization.

Petersburg, Virginia, prospered over two centuries as a center of production and trade. However, the city experienced economic difficulties beginning in the 1980s as a large number of layoffs at production plants in the area coincided with an erosion of retail trade in the city.

Where people work relative to where they live is a good indicator of how connected counties are to one another. This post explores the extent to which urban and rural counties in the Fifth District are connected by exploring commuting patterns.

The COVID-19 pandemic is forecast to negatively affect state and local government revenues. In the absence of sizable federal transfers, this is likely to disrupt spending on critical services — including education — in ways that may have long-lasting effects.

The Richmond Fed conducts monthly surveys of business conditions. The information collected are aggregated and combined into several individual diffusion indices. But what kind of information do diffusion indices reveal?

Why is it important to know more about the size and characteristics of the unauthorized population? And what role should different levels of governments play in enforcing immigration laws?

The qualitative data conveyed through surveys, or gathered at roundtable meetings with business firms or our own Bank directors are very valuable pieces of information. However, summarizing and extracting meaning out of this information are very challenging tasks.