The Effect of Fracking on Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, and Hunting in Pennsylvania

This paper uses graphical analysis and a regression using a random effect panel data to study whether fracking has a discernible effect on employment, measured through wages, in Pennsylvania. The regression used focuses on the dependent variable of the log of wages. The results of this regression have significant results for non-gas producing Pennsylvania, meaning it has notably higher wages than gas producing Pennsylvania in the time period of 2001-2011; however, using graphical analysis, I judge that these results could have been skewed by a few non-gas Pennsylvania counties with very high wages. Simultaneously, the regression finds no significant results for the New York border counties, but given the graphical trends of these counties it is likely that there were simply too few New York counties utilized to find significance.