Sectoral Sources of the Massachusetts Miracle and Other Turning Points

Previous analyses of the Massachusetts Miracle and the subsequent evolution of employment in the area have centered in part on sectoral explanations. In this paper these explanations are evaluated with the use of a sectoral-based VAR model of the Boston economy, developed to identify local and national sectoral shocks. The relative importance of these shocks is estimated both for the overall sample and at several turning points in aggregate Boston employment, the latter using historical decompostions.