This research contrasts income inequality in an area with extensive onshore and offshore oil and gas development with a similar, undeveloped area. Despite growing concerns about the social, cultural, and economic effects of oil and gas development, there is relatively little documentation of socioeconomic effects. In view of the paucity of such research, an income distribution analysis is an undertaking of the highest priority. One reason for the lack of socioeconomic research has been the absence of viable data that span both the expansion and contraction of development off the Louisiana coast.
Some coastal parishes are remote, and some are sparsely populated.
Consequently, the only reliable and valid available data for such areas are decennial censuses. The release in 1993 of county-level summary data from the 1990 Census made it possible to develop inequality measures from three consecutive decennial censuses. The comparative analysis contrasts inequality patterns in coastal Louisiana parishes and panhandle counties of north Florida where there has been little onshore or offshore activity. Thus, the Florida counties are treated as a control group contrasted with Louisiana parishes. The comparative analysis design permitted inequality trends in Louisiana parishes to be compared to inequality trends in coastal counties of the Florida panhandle where there has been no significant OCS development.