Declining Industries and the Persistence of Government Support Programs: The Quiet Decline of Gum Naval Stores Production in the United States
研究了美国松脂产业从全球领先到几乎消失的历程，发现相对价格变化导致林主转向其他林产品，但联邦政府仍持续提供转移支付，说明政府支持项目一旦设立便倾向于持续存在。
Understanding industrial decline is important from both historical and policy perspectives. The United States was the world's leading producer of gum naval stores in the early twentieth centuiy, but by the late 1970s production had all but ceased. Evidence presented here indicates that changing relative prices induced forest owners, the key stakeholders, to shift production towards other forest products. Nevertheless, the federal government continued to provide transfers to this industry even as political support for it vanished. The demise of this once-great American industry lends support to the received notion that once instituted, transfer programs tend to persist.