Farm numbers and average farm size in the United States have held about constant since the 1974 Census. but the proportion of mid-sized farms has decreased This pattern follows four decades of a strong trend toward fewer and larger farms Markov analysis IS a standard procedure for projecting...

Inflation and unemployment plagued the U S economy during the decade of the seventies Some economic models suggest that inflation and unemployment are bi-polar events - they cannot occur at the same time This article reviews two models that have been in the economics literature since the...

A number of possible geographic delineations can be used for areal allocation of population, income, employment, and other social and economic characteristics, in a rural developm~nt indicator system. This paper shows that estimates of statistical parameters vary for alternative geographic...

This study applies the logic of queuing thcory to the availability of hospital services in a ruraloriented. multicounty planning district in northwestern lower Michigan. The seven hospitals in the area had 611 beds and provided services for 489 patient-days in 1 year. The study found that the...

Traditional economic theory has Ignored the spatial aspects of rural development This article reviews literature which focuses on the functional relationships between geographic space and rural development Spatial considerations affect the size and location of individual firms They also affect...

An export slump is one of the major problems plaguing U S agriculture Many of the world economic forces, that had turned against U S farmers m the early eighties have now changed The exchange rate is one of these forces This article presents a simulation of the disparate impacts of depreciation...

ERS provides economic information on the near-term agricultural outlook and on longrun projections. Here is an overview of efforts to improve such information through comprehensive quantitative models. The various models incorporate intercommodity relationships within agriculture, aggregate farm...

Changes in productivity are usually associated With technology At the firm level, this is a natural way to think about productivity. However, in aggregate analysis, measures of productivity can change even when technology does not The measures change when the proportions of farms in stable...

Realizing the potential for economics research depends on the successful completion of several interdependent tasks: • A problem is identified, • Data related to the problem are collected, • Description transforms data into useful information, • Theory is brought to bear...