Abstract

The geographic profile of an economic crisis
Track: Business and Commercial
Authors: Avijit Sarkar, Johannes Moenius, Serene Ong

The great recession has shown how local sector-specific markets can be linked to the entire global economy via financial markets. While much of the discussion has focused on this transmission mechanism through mortgage backed securities, this phenomenon has also increased the interest in local economic geographic analysis, as the former is out of the hands of most non-financial sector businesses. We analyze the spatio-temporal development of the great recession as it has affected different sectors and regions across the United States. We argue that contemporaneous localized information about economic variables is key for risk assessment for decision makers in businesses, politics and non-profits, regardless of whether they are operating locally, nationally, or even globally.