The Rise of the Creative Class

A structural model of regional economic growth is estimated using data for 2243 rural US counties Five indices designed to capture specific amenity and quality of life characteristics are constructed using fifty-four separate indicators Results suggest that amenity characteristics can be organized into consistent and meaningful empirical measures that move beyond ad hoc descriptions of amenities In addition to insights into the influence of local characteristics ranging from tax burdens to income distribution on regional economic growth, results suggest that predictable relationships between amenities, quality of life, and local economic performance exist

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The Role of Amenities and Quality of Life In Rural Economic Growth

Let's do away with rural.

Recent work challenges the notion that attracting creative workers to a place is sufficient for generating local economic growth. In this article, we examine the problem of sustaining robust growth in the periphery of the USA, demonstrating the contingent nature of talent as an engine for economic growth. We test the hypothesis that rural growth in the knowledge economy is dependent on the ability to utilize new knowledge, perhaps generated elsewhere, in addressing local economic challenges. Tests confirm that the interaction of entrepreneurial context with the share of the workforce employed in the creative class is strongly associated with growth in the number of new establishments and employment, particularly in those rural counties endowed with attractive outdoor amenities.

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The rural growth trifecta: outdoor amenities, creative class and entrepreneurial context

High-Tech America: The What, How, Where, and Why of the Sunrise Industries

A modification of the Boamet model of local economic change is developed that links the growth of urban nodes in functional economic regions to employment and population change in the rural hinterlands of these regions. The two-equation model uses labor market and residential zone observations that are consistent with commuter fields around each rural community in the regions studied. The model parameters are estimated for 204 Danish rural municipalities, for 3515 rural communes in six regions of Eastern France, and for 268 rural census tracts in South Carolina. Results indicate that urban nodal spread effects are often significant and tend to dominate urban backwash impacts on rural communities. Accordingly, rural communities need to be concerned with the economic fortunes of their urban nodes and with policies that affect the pattern of urban growth between urban center and the urban fringe.

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Extending Carlino‐Mills Models to Examine Urban Size and Growth Impacts on Proximate Rural Areas

Historically, employment in high-technology manufacturing industries has been concentrated in metropolitan areas. The product life cycle theory of industrial location suggests, however, that employment in this sector will decentralize as these industries mature and production processes are standardized. This study utilized shift-share analysis and Enhanced County Business Pattern data to determine the extent to which a metropolitan-to-nonmetroplitan employment shift occurred from 1975 to 1982. Employment shifts for nonmetropolitan counties of different sizes, adjacency status, and cenus regions were estimated. Also, the specific high-technology manufacturers (four-digit SIC) participating in the decentralization process were identified. The findings of this study indicate that nonmetropolitan employment in the high-tech sector increased by more than 13,000 as a result of decentralization. Small- and medium-sized nonmetropolitan counties and nonmetropolitan areas in New England, the South, and the West experienced the greatest gains in high-technology employment. Urban-to-rural employment shifts in innovative high-technology industries was restricted to primarily counties adjacent to metropolitan areas and nonmetropolitan counties in the New England and Pacific regions.

The Decentralization of High-Technology Manufacturing to Nonmetropolitan Areas

Although cooperatives are viewed as an important vehicle for community development, the relationship between cooperatives and communities is a neglected research issue. Because of this neglect, no framework for analysis of the relationship between cooperatives and communities exists. We present case studies of non-agricultural cooperatives in rural areas that provide some general insights into the innovative activities of successful cooperatives in rural community development. The case studies help define a new framework for analyzing the complete impact and efforts of cooperatives as community development agents. In contrast to the typical unifunctional and multifunctional categorization of cooperatives, our framework identifies two main categories of cooperative community development activities: unintentional, by simply organizing a business as a cooperative, and intentional, by creating community development programs. Cooperatives in this latter group are further sub-divided according to how closely th...

Cooperatives in Rural Community Development: A New Framework for Analysis

Regional industrialization efforts include industrial recruitment, entrepreneurial and small business development, and business retention and expansion programs. Recently, many states and communities have targeted their industrialization programs at specific industries to promote the development of industry clusters. Broadly defined, an industry cluster is a loose, geographically bounded collection of similar and/or related firms that together create competitive advantages for member firms and the regional economy.
The purpose of this paper is to summarize the debate concerning the advisability of industry cluster targeting as an employment generation strategy for states and sub-state regions. Our review of the appropriateness of a clusters strategy begins with a summary of industry cluster characteristics. Next we present the potential advantages developed clusters provide regional economies and the difficulties of establishing competitive clusters in new locations. We conclude with a summary of the implications of an industry clusters strategy for regional industrial development.

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Targeting Industry Clusters

During each of the last eleven years, an average of over 4,000 jobs were eliminated in nonmetropolitan Iowa alone because of industrial outmigration or failures. Despite the magnitude and consequences of this phenomenon, industrial outmigration has been studied relatively little by rural development organizations or regional economists. Too frequently plant closings have been dismissed as simply a random occurrence over which the

David L. Barkley

Papers

Extending Carlino‐Mills Models to Examine Urban Size and Growth Impacts on Proximate Rural Areas

The Decentralization of High-Technology Manufacturing to Nonmetropolitan Areas

Cooperatives in Rural Community Development: A New Framework for Analysis

Advantages and Disadvantages of Targeting Industry Clusters

Plant Ownership Characteristics and the Locational Stability of Rural Iowa Manufacturers