Tax incentives by state and local governments to attract industrial development are undergoing another round of public criticism in the news media. There are those who argue that any form of economic incentive in an attempt to entice businesses to locate in a particular state or community is...

In this paper, we define social capital from different perspectives and show how it is linked to the concept of a community. Based on these definitions, a conceptual framework for analyzing and measuring social capital and its indicators is developed. A typology for analyzing social capital is...

The slides that follow provide an introduction to rural economic development and public policy. I have scanned the original slides and inserted them into modern PDF and PowerPoint presentations. Some of the hand-made charts have older data, but could be easily updated. These color slides were...

Between 2006 and 2009, the OECD undertook a series of reviews of national rural development policy. The reviews largely followed a consistent approach and used the OECD’s New Rural Paradigm (NRP) as a common metric for assessing various national approaches. Although the reviews cannot be...

Most rural regions are weak participants in the modern economy. As a result they are often seen as inherently incapable of sustained economic growth. Yet, OECD evidence shows that there are rural regions with relatively high rates of economic growth. Increasing the number of high performance...

Fostering higher levels of economic activity in rural regions constitutes an important policy challenge for most OECD countries. While some rural regions have higher than average growth rates, most grow at slower rates than the majority of urban regions. Because rural regions are structurally...

Between 2006 and 2009, the OECD undertook a series of reviews of national rural development policy. The reviews largely followed a consistent approach and used the OECD's New Rural Paradigm (NRP) as a common metric for assessing various national approaches. Although the reviews cannot be...

This is a new version of a series of color slides on social capital as presented at a conference on rural development presented in Tampa, Florida in 2004, and sponsored by the Southern Rural Development Center.