The Economic Impact of the Coal Boom and Bust

In this paper, we examine the impact of the coal boom in the 1970s and the subsequent coal bust in the 1980s on local labour markets in Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. We address two main questions in our analysis. How were non‐mining sectors affected by the shocks to the mining sector? How did these effects differ between sectors producing local goods and those producing traded goods? We find evidence of modest employment spillovers into sectors with locally traded goods but not into sectors with nationally traded goods.