The U.S. West has gone through many periods of economic boom and bust, most of which were associated with rapid rises and declines in commodity markets. The recent structural shift toward a primarily service-based economy begs the question of whether the driving forces behind the cycles of boom and bust also may be shifting away from commodities toward people and their resources. This paper explores several factors that contributed to growth in the 1990s and 2000s: asking whether these factors created any advantages or disadvantages during the most recent recession and whether the shift away from commodity production to a knowledge- and human capital-intensive economy has implications for how local areas experience the boom-bust cycle.
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