The paper reviews the role of Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) as drivers of employment and economic growth in rural regions across a number of OECD geographies. It argues that SME creation is especially important for rural economic development and identified lessons for national level...

Canada and the United States may be the two countries with the greatest degree of cultural similarity and degree of economic integration in the world , yet they continue to have significant trade problems. Many of these problems involve commodities important to rural areas, such as lumber,...

Fostering higher levels of economic activity in rural regions constitutes an important policy challenge for most OECD countries. While some rural regions have higher than average growth rates, most grow at slower rates than the majority of urban regions. Because rural regions are structurally...