Throughout the second half of the 20th Century, urbanization, new technologies, rapid labor-saving productivity growth in primary industries, and improved highways combined to create large-scale rural-urban functionally integrated regions. These forces have raised the stakes for regions in their...

Rural economies in the United States and Canada are characterized by incomes persistently below those in metropolitan areas and both unemployment and underemployment rates continuously above those in major urban economies. Other socio-economic comparisons also indicate an adverse relationship....