This paper addresses the possibility that competitive rural manufacturing is increasingly driven by quality-of-life factors required to attract highly skilled and creative workers. Recent findings that highly creative workers are drawn to amenity-rich rural areas provide the empirical leverage...

Export base theory, which posits that overall regional growth is a function of external sales of locally produced goods and services, dominates economic development practice. But the consumption base can also serve as a growth driver, especially in small towns and rural areas. Local investments...

In this study we use data envelopment analysis (DEA) and an extension of DEA called value efficiency analysis (VEA) to explore the “"production”" of quality of life within counties in the mid-Atlantic region and the extent to which production frontiers and efficiency differ between rural...

A regression discontinuity approach is used to measure the impact of public-goods creating programs in a declining inner city neighborhood of Worcester Massachusetts. Using GIS data, we develop a hedonic model of residential sales, using a parcel-level GIS tax assessment and land use database...

This paper examines the adaptation of dasymetric mapping methodologies to agricultural data, including their testing and transposition, in order to recover the underlying statistical surface (i.e., an approximation of the real distribution of data). A methodology based on the ideas of Gallego...

Direct marketing strategies increasingly have been recognized as a viable business option in U.S. agriculture as they allow producers to receive a better price by selling products directly to consumers. The objective of this study is twofold. Using a national survey, we first estimated a...

Many studies on the adoption of precision technologies have generally used logit models to explain the adoption behavior of individuals. This study investigates factors affecting the intensity of precision agriculture technologies adopted by cotton farmers. Particular attention is given to the...

Precision farming information demanded by cotton producers is provided by various suppliers, including consultants, farm input dealerships, University Extension systems, and media sources. Factors associated with the decisions to select among information sources to search for precision farming...

The extent of forage purchasing behavior in milk production and its impact on profitability are analyzed using data from the 2000 and 2005 dairy versions of the Agricultural Resource Management Survey. Forage outsourcing is more common with hay than with silage and haylage, and is more prevalent...