Microcredit has expanded rapidly since its beginnings in the last 1970s, but whether and how much it reduces poverty is the subject of intense debate. Generally it depends on how the program is implemented and the set of policies that regulate it. In this spirit, microcredit impacts in the...

Job satisfaction is an important measure of utility that employees derive from their jobs and is related to various features of the job such as pay, security, intrinsic values of work, working conditions, career growth opportunities, working hours, and the like. This paper analyzes the...

Urban sprawl and rural rebound are major foci of recent regional economic studies. Using 1980 and 2000 Census data from 11 southern states, binary logit regressions of population changes in rural-and-metropolitan counties and Black Belt-and-non-Black Belt counties reveal education, poverty,...

The paper contributes to the understanding of the role of economic sectors in employment growth by examining the extent to which sectoral employment influence employment development in the rural southeast United States over the period 1970 through 2007. The analysis employs two specifications of...

In this paper we develop an autoregressive spatial simultaneous equations model to investigate the county-level determinants of small business growth and median household income in Appalachia during the period 1990-2000. Our GS2SLS and GS3SLS estimation results indicate significant spatial...

This paper investigates poverty in rural Georgia Counties for the years 2000 and 2009. Analysis from 2000 concluded unexpected results from the female head of household and percent black variables. The 2009 results were more consistent with expectations but the percent white and out migration...

Income convergence and both endogenous and exogenous factors causing income growth in the southeastern United States were examined by using county level census data between 1980 and 2000. The study found that spatial variations in education, employment, and industries concentrations were...

Replaced by updated/revised version. This is an electronic version of a journal article, please cite as: Collier, B., A.L. Katchova, and J. Skees. “Loan Portfolio Performance and El Nino, an Intervention Analysis.” Agricultural Finance Review 71(2011):98-119.

This paper examines the effects of gender on the adoption of new technologies of peanut production in Eastern Uganda. The findings suggest that females adopt improved varieties at a lower rate compared to males. In addition, females in female-headed households are less likely to adopt.

Precision agriculture and autosteer technology are, overall, profitable investments for farmers, as previous literature has established. However, what has not been investigated is whether or not farmers perceive these technologies as such. This research postulates that cotton farmers must see...