North Carolina M. Renkow
The population of most rural counties in North Carolina has grown substantially in recent years. Our research confirms that the bulk of this rural population growth is attributable to ex-urbanization related to a growing integration of rural and urban labor markets. Dissemination of this information has greatly facilitated movement toward more effective land use planning in rural counties.
Utah State University Chris Fawson
Rural communities claim that concentration in their local financial markets restrict access to competitively priced capital market services thus restricting opportunities for economic expansion.
Developed a comprehensive data base of financial institution deposit structure at the branch level to characterize relationships between financial market structure and indicators of economic well-being.
Fosters discussion about development strategies that enhance access to competitive capital market services in rural regions.
University of Georgia - Warren Kriesel
1. The typical U. S. coastal community has doubled its population in the last decade and has experienced massive restructuring.
2. This research effort in 12 states has modeled how property values and the community-wide tax base will be impacted by (a) continued population growth, (b) federal policies, e.g. flood insurance, and (c) natural hazards such as hurricanes.
3. Results indicate that (a) future annual property losses will exceed $2 billion, (b) 9 percent participation in the flood insurance program indicates that continued subsidization will be required.
South Carolina - David Barkley
Entrepreneurs and small businesses in rural areas lack access to venture capital, thus retarding new business formation and survival in non-metro communities.
Researchers from South Carolina, Kentucky, Wisconsin, and Missouri conducted case studies of 22 public and private venture capital programs across the nation to determine the characteristics and impacts of successful and unsuccessful programs.
Research findings were used to assisting public officials in Kansas, Wyoming, Missouri, and Arizona with the design of public venture capital programs, potentially saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars that would be lost as a result of poorly designed programs.
Idaho Steve Cooke
Tax initiatives in the Idaho and the West raised the question of offsetting economic effects. We developed an economic model that divided Idaho economy into traded and non-traded sectors to measure these offsetting effects. This approach allows for policy analysis of offsetting effect based on selective elasticities of demand for traded and non-traded industries that is similar to the effect on rural and urban areas.
Oregon
Oregon legislators have been concerned about the impact of tax policy on the economy and the distribution of the tax burden, but have had no way to estimate this.
An OSU research team, including NE-162 participants from Washington and Ohio, developed an Oregon Tax Incidence Model, a computable general equilibrium model with specific attention to distribution of tax burdens that estimates the impact of a change in tax policy on personal income and output in the state and the distribution of tax burden.
The legislature is using this model to estimate and design tax policy. The Revenue Committee recently proposed reducing property taxes on low-income seniors on a reform proposal that would impose a value-added tax because the Oregon Tax Incidence Model showed high property tax burden on low income people and that this proposal would improve the progressivity of the tax system.
1. The elimination of snowmobiling in Yellowstone Park, local and state administrators are interested in identifying local and state economic importance of that recreational activity in order to forestall or plan for similar land use decisions on public land uses in Utah.
2. We identified characteristics, expenditures and visitation patterns to apply to state and regional impact models (IMPLAN-based).
3. Attempted to highlight the appropriate use (and inappropriate misuse) of these analysis, in addition to estimating local and state impacts of snowmobiling activities.
Rhode Island T. Tyrrell
Population migration from urban centers to suburbs and rural areas in the NE has lead to significant changes in regional patterns of land use, increased costs of regional and municipal services and a negative effect on environmental and social qualities.
Project is applying spatial econometrics to relate the growth in sectoral employment and number households and social economic and environmental characteristics of 527 municipalities from 1980 1999.
Impacts will provide information to government and non-government organizations on courses of migration and job growth in order to guide economic development policies.
University of Delaware Steven E. Hastings
The State of Delaware has a long-term aggressive economic development policy focusing on attracting financial industries.
A study was undertaken that documented the growth of financial and service sectors and the decline of manufacturing and agriculture.
Results provide background for more comprehensive analysis of the role of agriculture in the changing Delaware economy.
University of Nevada, Reno Tom Harris
Numerous rural Nevada communities are concerned about the socio-economic impacts of changes in natural resource management policies on public lands and judicated surface water basins.
Socio-economic models were developed to assess the potential impacts of changes in natural resource management policies on communities of rural Nevada.
Results of these studies have been used by the Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, and rural Nevada communities as input for Environmental Impact Studies on the socio-economic impacts of changes in natural resource management plans.