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We examine the location and growth of the U.S. population using county-level census data from 1840 and 1990. Counties are described by natural and produced characteristics they possessed in 1840. Natural characteristics include climate, mineral resources and access to natural transportation networks. Produced characteristics include industry mix, educational infrastructure, literacy rates, and access to man-made transportation systems. We investigate how natural characteristics influenced settlement patterns in 1840, and how natural and produced characteristics influenced population growth over the subsequent 150 years. We find that natural characteristics heavily influenced where populations located in 1840. We also that educational infrastructure, literacy rates, industry mix, and access to transportation networks had a significant influence on growth. There is little evidence of population convergence among our full sample of counties; such evidence appears only when the most-heavily-populated counties in 1840 are excluded from the sample. Moreover, when counties located on the western frontier are excluded from the full sample, on the assumption that they were relatively far from their steady state populations, there is evidence of population divergence.We thank Van Beck Hall for help identifying data sources; Carol Kraker and Steve Lehrer for research assistance; and

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We use a rich regional data set to obtain a statistical characterization of the relationship between entrepreneurial activity and economic growth within post-Soviet Russia. Russia is a useful laboratory for evaluating links between entrepreneurial activity and growth because of the striking variation in initial conditions, the adoption of policy reforms, and entrepreneurial activity observed across its large number of regions in the early stages of transition. Russia has also experienced striking regional variation in subsequent growth. Conditional on variations in initial conditions and policy reform measures, regional entrepreneurial activity exhibits a statistically and quantitatively significant relationship with subsequent economic growth.