In this paper we determine the extent to which information about the comparative importance of major sectors of a state's economy can improve the ability to forecast compound annual growth rates in personal income. We first calculate compound growth rates in disposable personal income per capita...

The challenges associated with (back-) migration of people to rural communities in the 1990s are examined. It is argued that reducing the "brain drain" from rural areas through the creation of job opportunities for college-educated individuals, is central to an effective rural(community)...

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...

In this paper we attempt to identify and model factors associated with medical doctors' county-level location decisions. Our goal is to determine whether public policy levers and private incentives exist which can be manipulated to increase the availability of doctors in rural areas. After...

In this paper the structure of the rural economy in Armenia is explored from a household perspective. The paper draws on the livelihoods framework, recognizing the different capitals and activities that support rural households' livelihood strategies. Ownership of capitals and access to...

Helping to sustain a viable rural sector, rural tourism enjoys public support in many countries. We claim that due to club-good and agglomeration externalities in the rural accommodation market, public support should be integrated in a broader local development policy that regulates the number...

We estimate jointly three types of discrete-choice labor decisions of farm couples: farm work, off-farm work, and hired farm labor. Using a 16-choice multinomial logit model, we find that operators' and spouses' farm labor are substitutes. Hired farm labor increases with farmers' qualifications,...

Tajikistan is judged to be highly vulnerable to risk, including food insecurity risks and climate change risks. By some vulnerability measures it is the most vulnerable among all 28 countries in the World Bank’s Europe and Central Asia Region – ECA (World Bank 2009). The rural population,...