North Dakota’s Border Battle

How state policy affects economies at the margin

Preview:

As North Dakota’s Border Battle shows, over the period 2010 to 2021, the North Dakota border counties comfortably outperformed their counterparts in Minnesota. This cannot be attributed to the Bakken oil boom — which turned to a bust in the latter part of this period in any event. Other factors, such as the weather, can also be held constant. What remains — that which explains Minnesota’s relatively poor performance on these observed outcomes — is state economic policy.

A full copy of the report can be viewed here.