Numerous techniques have been devised to make economic base analysis more cost-effective. The simplest of these, the assignment or assumption method, allocates the entire employment (income) of each industry to either the basic or nonbasic sector of the regional economy. Unfortunately,...

This paper uses OLS regression to analyze the relationships existing between occupation jobs and industry jobs in small southwestern U.S. towns. First, occupation employment in the representative town is estimated from its industry employment. Then the towns are classified into different...

The social economy holds promise for rural community development through local capacity building, improving political engagement, expanding networks, and increasing productivity by reducing transactions costs. In this study, the contribution of co-op membership to rural community population...

States have attempted to attract industries by offering a variety of tax incentives and economic development programs with mixed success. States have recently begun to focus on high-tech industries, where average wages are significantly above the all industry average. This study analyzes whether...

Considerable ambiguity exists regarding the assessment of regional economic development. Alternative measures often produce conflicting conclusions. Even if economic development progress is defined as improvement in economic welfare, it is not directly measurable. Therefore, this paper develops...

Regional science is highly relevant in assessing issues that tangibly impact our lives. Conversely, economics is so fixated on mathematical rigor that it does not have the impact on policy that it should. Similar constructive criticisms apply to geography. To illustrate how regional scientists...

Fellows Address: The biggest issue facing the United States in recent years is the poor economy, most dramatically illustrated by the lack of job creation. The lack of jobs is not a phenomenon that began with the 2007-2009 Great Recession and sluggish recovery, but has been a feature of the...

Several recent studies contend that falling real minimum wage rates are an important factor behind rising wage inequality and increasing poverty rates. Other studies find the more conventional result that they have very little influence on poverty and inequality, but these studies are generally...

We examine differential state employment growth by appraising the relative effects of traditional cost factors versus knowledge and technology spillovers. One emphasis is the influence that industry composition has on employment growth. Traditional cost factors examined include wage rates,...

We examine family income inequality using 1990 Census of Population data for the 3,109 counties and independent cities in the 48 contiguous United States. Numerous characteristics of counties are examined for their role in influencing county income inequality. We particularly focus on...