The Southern Economy at the Precipice of the Post-Global Age: Evaluating Pandemic-Era Disruptions to the Export Sector

The southern United States has seen explosive economic growth over the past several decades. One component of this growth has entailed rapid (and often widely varying) increases in goodsrelated exports, with overall growth numbers that have exceeded the US at large in addition to eclipsing overall southern economic output. However, has this growth in internationalization been shared across the region and moreover, do southern states serve similar export markets? Within the contexts of evolutionary economic geography and research on the geographies of exporting, this paper examines the trajectories of goods-related exports across the southern US, particularly in relation to recent shifts in the global economy including during the pandemic. The analyses reveal that export growth and performance are largely uneven in spatial terms, yet many states share leading export markets and also show signs of less dependence on dominant markets. On balance, exports appear to be tied to large, branchplant production or related to extractive industries. The paper concludes with discussions on whether exports have been beneficial to the region and possible futures for exporting across the South in light of evolutionary changes in globalization.