Short-Term Spillover Effects: Examining the Industry Spillover Effects of the 2008-2009 Coal Boom and Bust in Kentucky and West Virginia

A fixed-effects model is employed to quantify the industry spillover effects of the 2008-2009 short-term shock in the coal industry. Two equations are used in this paper, one to show the changes in employment data in the coal industry and another to measure the difference in employment data for the service, retail-trade, construction and manufacturing industries between coal and non-coal producing counties. The dependent variables in both models are the number of employed people, average weekly wages and total wages in each respective industry. My results prove a significant change in coal employment during the boom and bust. However, only the employment in the service industry shows spillover effects from this change in the coal labor market.