Research
I study how local governments and community organizations absorb shocks. Extreme weather, financial crises, and the opioid epidemic are the shocks; city and county governments, nonprofits, community banks, and small employers are the organizations. Across the three active lines of work below the questions are the same administrative ones — which organizations fail and which survive, what the survivors cut in order to stay open, and whether the public programs meant to buffer these events actually do. I answer them with applied econometrics on administrative data I build from public records that were never designed to be read at scale. Other and earlier work follows at the end.
Google Scholar · SSRN
See also: Public Scholarship · Awards & Grants · Replication · Coauthors
Currently working on
- How extreme weather moves the balance sheets of city and county governments, using annual financial reports
- What local governments talk about when they talk about data — measured across two million meeting records
- Which nonprofits survive a disaster, and what the survivors give up to do it
“Citation Impact” is each journal’s two-year mean citedness (average citations per recent article), sourced from OpenAlex.
Local Governments Under Fiscal Stress
Revise and Resubmit
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA) grants have been recognized as an effective way to reduce natural disaster losses. However, most mitigation studies assess the cost-effectiveness of such funding based on projected losses. This study empirically assesses the extent to which grant...
Recommended citation: Chaudhry H, Hines R, Langford WS, Grandage AJ, Waddell M. Do Federal Hazard Mitigation Assistance Grants Pay Off? An Empirical Analysis of Cost-Effectiveness. Available Upon Request.
Under Review
The economic costs incurred by extreme weather events are substantial and increasing. In this study, we demonstrate how community banks - a type of financial institution with strong local ties and customer relationships - mitigate these costs at the local level. We use an event...
Recommended citation: Peters V, Langford WS, Sanders M, Feldman MP. Local Finance and Economic Resilience During Extreme Weather Events. SSRN Working Paper #4868821
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Community Organizations and Local Economies
Published in Journal of Regional Science, 2024 · Citation Impact: 2.3
We estimate the effect of opioid use rates on local economic resilience through changes in industrial composition. We find regional opioid use rates adversely affect firm growth in general, with the greatest impact on small firms. Our results are robust to several identification strategies (Difference...
Recommended citation: Langford WS, Feldman MP. We’re Not in Dreamland Anymore: The Consequences of Community Opioid Use on Local Industrial Composition. Journal of Regional Science (2024)
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Under Review
Extreme weather events are becoming more common and have significant health impacts on local residents. Injuries caused by these events may drive demand for pain-relieving medications. In addition, the US remains in the midst of an opioid overdose crisis, with an unprecedented number of Americans...
Recommended citation: Langford WS, Steuart SR. Extreme Weather Events Disrupt the Flow of Opioids and OUD Medications. Available Upon Request.
Work in Progress
This paper examines how extreme weather events affect the survival of nonprofit organizations.
Recommended citation: Langford WS, Chen X. The Effect of Extreme Weather Events on Nonprofit Survival. Available Upon Request.
Work in Progress
Extreme weather events impose uneven costs across the labor market. We estimate how these events affect employment for workers by race and ethnicity across US counties, using an event study design. We find that Black and Hispanic workers experience larger employment losses following extreme weather...
Recommended citation: Langford WS, Peters V, Sanders M. Extreme Weather and Employment: Differential Effects Across Race and Ethnicity. Available Upon Request.
Credit Access and Community Development
Published in Economic Development Quarterly, 2023 · Citation Impact: 0.8
Banks are one of the key drivers of economic development across communities. Banking deserts—defined by inadequate banking access—limit access to capital, inhibit wealth accumulation, and increase exposure to predatory lending. Banking desert formation could be profit-driven, with lower-income and less densely populated regions more likely...
Recommended citation: Langford WS, Thomas HW, Feldman MP. Banking for the Other Half: The Factors That Explain Banking Desert Formation. Economic Development Quarterly. (2023)
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Published in Regional Studies, 2022 · Citation Impact: 5.3
Community banks have a unique capacity to strengthen economic resilience by alleviating local firm credit constraints during economic downturns. We provide evidence that banking access and community bank market share affected both the county-level timing and duration of the Great Recession in the United States....
Recommended citation: Langford WS, Feldman MP. We Miss You George Bailey: The Effect of Local Banking Conditions on the County-Level Timing of the Great Recession. Regional Studies. (2022)
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Resubmitted after Revise and Resubmit
Racial and ethnic minorities disproportionately suffer more severe consequences during economic downturns, having heightened vulnerability in employment and credit. We investigate the role of minority-owned banks in mitigating these challenges, focusing on shared borrower-lender identity, and analyzing how these minority-owned banks affect employment through the...
Recommended citation: Langford WS, Roman R, Berger AN, Feldman MP. “Let Us Put Our Moneys Together:” Minority-Owned Banks and Resilience to Crises. SSRN Working Paper #4231594
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Other Work: The Public Administration Labor Market
Report Series
A recurring analysis of the academic labor market in public administration and public policy, built from a daily census of faculty postings rather than from survey recall. Three editions run off the same database: a monthly Candidate Pulse tracking what is open right now and...
Recommended citation: Langford WS. PA Faculty Job Market Report. Texas State University. Candidate Pulse (monthly), Candidate Annual, and Institutional Annual editions.
Earlier Work: Science and Health Policy
Published in Pediatric Research, 2023 · Citation Impact: 2.4
Despite the significant increase in pediatric funding, an important question is whether recent changes in the burden of disease and conditions (child and adolescent mortality and nonfatal health loss) are reflected in the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) allocation process. As it sets future priorities,...
Recommended citation: Gitterman D, Hay Jr WW, Langford WS. The NIH Childhood Adversity Portfolio: Unmet Needs, Emerging Challenges. Pediatric Research (2023)
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Published in Pediatric Research, 2022 · Citation Impact: 2.4
There is unmistakable evidence of increased NIH funding for pediatric and perinatal research, but there is much work to be done. To further promote NIH-funded pediatric and perinatal research, we advocate for a life-cycle approach in which the return on the investment continues over the...
Recommended citation: Gitterman D, Langford WS, Hay Jr WW. Making the Case for Pediatric Research: A Life-Cycle Approach and The Return on Investment. Pediatric Research. (2022)
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Published in Science and Public Policy, 2021 · Citation Impact: 2.6
Research universities rely heavily on external funding to advance knowledge and generate economic growth. In the USA, tens of billions of dollars are spent each year on research and development with the federal government contributing over half of these funds. Yet a decline in relative...
Recommended citation: Graddy-Reed A, Feldman MP, Bercovitz J, Langford WS. The Distribution of Indirect Cost Recovery in Academic Research. Science and Public Policy. (2021)
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Published in Geography Compass, 2019 · Citation Impact: 2.9
Identifying potential sites for firm relocation or expansion is a negotiated process that involves both firms and localities. Some firms focus on profit enhancement through cost minimization, while others seek qualities that maximize talent attraction and benefit corporate identity. Simultaneously, localities seek to maximize the...
Recommended citation: Nager AB, Lowe Reed AS, Langford WS. Catching the Whale: A Comparison of Place Promotion Strategies Through the Lens of Amazon HQ2. Geography Compass. (2019)
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Published in Pediatric Research, 2018 · Citation Impact: 2.4
Background: The amount of federal dollars allocated to improving the health of our pediatric population can serve as an indicator of the priority placed on child well-being. Although Congress has established novel mechanisms that marginally increase pediatric research funding, the pediatric research portfolio is facing...
Recommended citation: Gitterman DP, Langford WS, Hay Jr WW. The Uncertain Fate of the National Institutes of Health Pediatric Research Portfolio. Pediatric Research. (2018)
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Published in JAMA Pediatrics, 2018 · Citation Impact: 6.2
In this article, we examine the status of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) pediatric research portfolio between start of federal fiscal year (FY) 1992 and end of FY 2015. The NIH experienced the greatest mean annual growth rate during the “doubling era” (FY 1998-2003):...
Recommended citation: Gitterman DP, Langford WS, Hay Jr WW. The Fragile State of the National Institutes of Health Pediatric Research Portfolio, 1992-2015. JAMA Pediatrics. (2018)
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Published in Journal of Undergraduate Chemistry Research, 2018
Analogs for the substrates of aspartate semialdehyde dehydrogenase were prepared. Phosphonomethylcysteine, its sulfoxide, and its sulfone were synthesized starting from phosphonomethyltrifluoromethanesulfonic acid and cysteine. Phosphonomethylhomocysteine, its sulfoxide, and its sulfone were prepared in a similar manner. 2-Amino-5-phosphonopentanoic acid, 2-amino-4-butanoic acid, were synthesized via the Hell-Volhard-Zelinsky...
Recommended citation: Halkides CJ, Langford WS, Kish WS, Johnson NP, Lookadoo DB, Hey B, Jansen D, Hifko N. Synthesis of Proposed Inhibitors of the Enzyme Aspartate-Beta-Semialdehyde Dehydrogenase. Journal of Undergraduate Chemistry Research. (2018)
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