november 6, 2003prof. andrew isserman university of illinois enhancing economic opportunities in...

November 6, 2003 Prof. Andrew IssermanUniversity of Illinois

Enhancing Economic Opportunities in Rural Areas

Education, Research, and Extension


My Home Away from Home

• Community Economic Analysis: A How-To Manual

• Community Economics: Economic Structure and Change in Smaller Communities 60%


A Parallel Universe

• Agricultural Economics

• Regional Science / Regional Economics

“Strong potential exists for a growing relationship between agricultural economics and regional science.

Regional scientists, particularly regional economists, might have no closer kin than agricultural economists, and the marriage of regional, resource, environmental, and rural development economics could be a very fruitful one.”


Journal Structure

Current Journal Name Citations Cit%

AM J AGR ECON 35,283 60%

J AGR ECON 4,242 7%

AUST J AGR RESOUR EC 3,165 5%

J AGR RESOUR ECON 2,956 5%

CAN J AGR ECON 2,730 5%

J AGR APPL EC 1,893 3%

EUR REV AGRIC ECON 1,780 3%


Journal Structure


INDIAN J AGR ECON 1,348 2%

REV AGR EC 1,306 2%

J AGR EC RES 1,231 2%

AGR ECON 1,121 2%

AGR RESOURCE EC REV 1,001 2%

IRISH J AGR EC RURAL 108 .2%


Journal Structure—RS


Journal of Regional Science 11,589 38%

Papers in Regional Science 6,937 22%

Regional Science and Urban Economics

6,066 20%

International Regional Science Review

2,668 9%

Annals of Regional Science 1,837 6%

Review of Regional Studies 706 3%


Journal Structure—RS


Revue d'Economie Rég et Urb 330 1%

J of Regional Analysis and Policy 233 .8%

Canadian J of Regional Science 162 .5%

Rev of Urb and Reg Dev Studies 139 .5%

Studies in Regional Science 131 .4%

(NE) Regional Science Review 47 .2%

Indian J of Regional Science 21 .1%


Most Cited Papers in Ag Econ

AUTHOR TITLE CitsYear

HANEMANN, WM WELFARE EVALUATIONS IN CONTINGENT VALUATION EXPERIMENTS WITH DISCRETE RESPONSES

2971984

HANEMANN, M; LOOMIS, J; KANNINEN, B

STATISTICAL EFFICIENCY OF DOUBLE-BOUNDED DICHOTOMOUS CHOICE CONTINGENT VALUATION

1271991

GARDNER, B EFFICIENT REDISTRIBUTION THROUGH COMMODITY-MARKETS

911983




MCCONNELL, KE AN ECONOMIC-MODEL OF SOIL CONSERVATION

771983

SHUMWAY, CR SUPPLY, DEMAND, AND TECHNOLOGY IN A MULTIPRODUCT INDUSTRY - TEXAS FIELD CROPS

721983

EALES, JS; UNNEVEHR, LJ

DEMAND FOR BEEF AND CHICKEN PRODUCTS - SEPARABILITY AND STRUCTURAL-CHANGE

701988




MCFADDEN, D CONTINGENT VALUATION AND SOCIAL CHOICE

701994

BALL, VE OUTPUT, INPUT, AND PRODUCTIVITY-MEASUREMENT IN UNITED-STATES AGRICULTURE, 1948-79

661985

BOWKER, JM; STOLL, JR

USE OF DICHOTOMOUS CHOICE NONMARKET METHODS TO VALUE THE WHOOPING CRANE RESOURCE

641988




ANTLE, JM ECONOMETRIC ESTIMATION OF PRODUCERS RISK ATTITUDES

641987

MOREY, ER; ROWE, RD; WATSON, M

A REPEATED NESTED-LOGIT MODEL OF ATLANTIC SALMON FISHING

601993

RAHM, MR; HUFFMAN, WE

THE ADOPTION OF REDUCED TILLAGE - THE ROLE OF HUMAN-CAPITAL AND OTHER VARIABLES

601984


Enhancing Opportunities in Rural Areas?

1. UNDOCUMENTED MEXICO-UNITED-STATES MIGRATION AND THE RETURNS TO HOUSEHOLDS IN RURAL MEXICO

2. DO ROADS CAUSE DEFORESTATION? USING SATELLITE IMAGES IN ECONOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF LAND USE

3. FARM DIVERSIFICATION AND RURAL-DEVELOPMENT4. THE VILLAGE AGAINST THE CENTER - RESOURCE DEPLETION IN

SOUTH-ASIA5. OFF-FARM LABOR-MARKET ENTRY AND EXIT6. MIGRATION TO THE UNITED-STATES AND MEXICAN RURAL-

DEVELOPMENT - A CASE-STUDY7. ECONOMIC-IMPACTS, VALUE ADDED, AND BENEFITS IN

REGIONAL PROJECT ANALYSIS8. RURAL-URBAN EFFECTS OF TERMINATING FARM SUBSIDIES9. LOCAL ECONOMIC-CONDITIONS AND WAGE LABOR DECISIONS

OF FARM AND RURAL NONFARM COUPLES9 of 500 most cited articles, 13-38 cits


Most Cited Papers in JRS

Author TI CitsYear

GREENWOOD, MJ HUMAN MIGRATION - THEORY, MODELS, AND EMPIRICAL-STUDIES

1441985

CARLINO, GA; MILLS, ES

THE DETERMINANTS OF COUNTY GROWTH

771987

RICHARDSON HW INPUT-OUTPUT AND ECONOMIC BASE MULTIPLIERS – LOOKING BACKWARD AND FORWARD

641985


Enhancing Opportunities in Rural Areas

1. THE CONTRIBUTION OF PUBLICLY PROVIDED INPUTS TO STATES ECONOMIES

2. DO PRODUCER SERVICES INDUCE REGIONAL ECONOMIC-DEVELOPMENT

3. THE DETERMINANTS OF 1963-77 REGIONAL MANUFACTURING GROWTH - WHY THE SOUTH AND WEST GROW

4. A MONOPOLISTIC COMPETITION MODEL OF SPATIAL AGGLOMERATION - DIFFERENTIATED PRODUCT APPROACH

5. WHAT ATTRACTS FOREIGN MULTINATIONAL-CORPORATIONS - EVIDENCE FROM BRANCH PLANT LOCATION IN THE UNITED-STATES

6. TAX COMPETITION WITH INTERREGIONAL DIFFERENCES IN FACTOR ENDOWMENTS

7. SERVICE EXPORTS AND REGIONAL GROWTH IN THE POSTINDUSTRIAL ERA

8. MIGRATION WITH A COMPOSITE AMENITY - THE ROLE OF RENTS9. TECHNOLOGY AND REGIONAL-DEVELOPMENT - A SURVEY

12 of 25 most cited articles, 40-144 cits


Implications/Assumptions

Regional Science community is a natural ally• Substantive, theoretical, and

methodological links to issues of importance to Rural America

• Common pedigree and training in Economics

• Applied, data-intensive• “Economics plus” ®


Key Quests in Rural Research—Theory

What do we want from rural development theory?1. Theory that describes and helps us understand

the world that is2. Theory that helps us predict how the world will

change3. Theory that helps us learn how we can change

the world4. Theory that allows us to measure the outcomes

of policies, programs, and plans


Theory We Need Follows from the Things We Do

We need theories that help us1. Inform debates about federal rural development

policy2. Identify fruitful community development strategies

and appropriate and effective state policies3. Evaluate the outcomes for rural folks and

businesses of private sector decisions, public programs, and technological changes

4. Understand the prospects of rural economic activities


Theory We Need Follows from the Things We Do (cont.)

5. Predict the consequences of infrastructure investment, trade agreements, health care finance, welfare reform, and more

6. Understand the distributional consequences of rural growth or decline

7. Understand whether we are working with or against market forces and whether we are attempting to correct anti-rural biases in policies or striving to create rural biases

8. Identify when the rural condition is the result of market failure, market efficiency, or government intervention

9. Create empirical models that allow us to measure all these things


Key Quests in Research—Subject

World view—location, place, and interaction in space matter

• Location of people: migration, housing, immigration

• Location of economic activity:economic development, agglomeration, advantage, clusters

• Interaction in space: transportation, land use, public finance, education, labor markets, poverty, communication and utilities, environment

=> Public policy on national, state, local, and international levels


Key Quests in Research—Methods

• Spatial analysis, modeling, and econometrics

• Policy and project evaluation• Impact assessment• Forecasting• Optimization

– Favorite methods Nobel Laureates:Klein, Leontief, Stone, McFadden


Sample Current Issues in Extension and Outreach

• Economic and fiscal impacts of agriculture, airports, colleges of veterinary medicine, community colleges, Wal-Marts, locks and dams, Jones Act, environmental restoration, strip mining, casino gambling, land use change, urban agriculture, home gardening, sports stadiums

• Feasibility and market potential for veterinary services, bio-energy, biotechnology, livestock, jails, military base conversions

• Public policy for land use, transportation, public finance, schools, economic development


Obstacles and Opportunities in Education

• Rural economics does not exist– Urban economics– Regional economics

• Rural economics can and should exist– Issue-driven like early urban economics– Aggressively rurally obsessed in the interpretation,

extension, and synthesis of• Regional economic development, location and land

economics, resource economics, transportation economics• Education, health, housing, poverty


Allies Who Care—Research Funders

• National Science Foundation, NIH, NCI, CDC• Economic Development Administration and

Appalachian Regional Commission• Many, many federal agencies• World Bank, OECD, EU, and other international

organizations• Foundations and other organizations—people,

places, rural, stewardship, quality of life, economic and social opportunity, education“Beyond Agriculture”


Allies—Extension

• The people in counties who feel– a lack of economic opportunity or – overwhelmed by opportunity and opportunists

• The organizations and foundations who fund research

• State legislators and local governments, business groups, and other organizations


Allies—Education

• The many teaching departments – who teach related courses for any minor or

specialization related to rural economics– who provide part of the “economics plus” ®

• Finance• Business management• Marketing• Policy analysis• Law


Regional/Rural Economics

A luxury you cannot afford?


Regional/Rural Economics

A luxury you cannot afford to be without?


Producers Care

• RURAL economic development• RURAL land and water economics• RURAL education and health economics• RURAL transportation and communication

economics• RURAL public finance• RURAL commercial and public facility

location


Gardner/Illinois Farm Bureau Chair

• We seek a colleague who has the intellectual curiosity, flexibility, and interest to study the wide range of local, state, national, and international policy issues when they are important to agriculture and rural economies, for example, public finance and local government, environment, income support and stability, biotechnology, trade, transportation, energy, education, and immigration.


Priorities to Action A

• Provide input to hiring decisions in government agencies by signaling what areas are important for our profession

• Listen to government agencies to learn what areas are important for our society


Priorities to Action B

• Increase funding opportunities through national grants to support economics research and education

• Take full advantage of the many funding opportunities available to support economics research and education

• Make clear the important scholarly and societal issues that we can address and how


Priorities to Action C

• Communicate to policy makers and stakeholders the importance of economics research, extension, and education

• Listen and be responsive to policy makers and stakeholders when they tell us of the importance of new economics research, extension, and education


Priorities to Action D

• Identify opportunities to collaborate with other disciplines and professional societies

• We have natural allies and decades of constructive interaction with them


Enhancing Economic Opportunities in Rural Areas—Priorities & Action

• Woeful capacity constraint– Research: numbers and

knowledge<2% solution is not

good enough– Teaching: virtually

non-existent– Extension: big job, few

people, incomplete teams

• First action priority if we are serious– Build capacity– Develop theory– Embrace and lead

allies– Exploit synergies:

agriculturalresourceregional and spatial


Are You Serious about Rural Area Opportunities?

• Will you hire to match the goal?• Will you seek to achieve critical mass?• Would you embrace regional/rural economics if

money were available—or is ag and resources already a bit much?

• Will you add rural America to traditions of (1) farm and home and (2) international?

• Will you take responsibility for rural folks or only folks as producers and food consumers?


Bad Things Happen When You Leave Rural Economics to Others

• Rural America defined nonsensically, the residual– Makes us look backwards and see “economic

opportunities in rural areas” all wrong• Data are poor.

– No data for “economic opportunity” in Rural America

– Gives us over a million metropolitan farmers– Grand Canyon is not rural– Hides fact that much of rural America is fastest

growing part of the nation and economically strong


Outside Core Based Statistical Areas

What proportion of the U.S. population lives in Rural America in 2000?

Answers:

1. 55 million people, or 19%



4. 7 million people, or 2 %



Andy’s Rural America—Urban America as the Residual


Poverty Rate, 2000—Policy Categories, Calls for Action


Government Farm Payments


How Much Effort to Enhancing Opportunity in this Rural Region

• Practice what we preach abroad?– Use the period of government support (or oil

revenues, etc.)

To build a sustainable economy that can compete in world markets

• Is the C-FARE community interested in creating this outcome?

• Is this truly a priority for action?

november 6, 2003prof. andrew isserman university of illinois enhancing economic opportunities in...

Documents

j of regional analysis

regional economists

journal of regional

j agr econ2

marriage of regional

regional science131

regional science6

regional scientists