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Feature articles in this issue:

• Overcoming Persistent Poverty And Sinking Into It: Income Trends in Persistent-Poverty and Other High-Poverty Rural Counties, 1989-94. by Mark Nord. Post-1990 income and population trends in persistent-poverty and other high-poverty rural counties suggest that, in general, economic conditions are improving in those counties. Recent per capita income growth in the persistent-poverty counties was more than twice that in other rural counties. Improvements are concentrated in the East, while trends are mixed in the Southwest, the Ozarks, and the upper Midwest. Most high-poverty counties with predominantly Black poor experienced substantial income growth, while income declined in a substantial minority of high-poverty counties with high proportions of Hispanic and Native American poverty.
• Rural Labor Markets Often Lead Urban Markets in Recessions and Expansions. by Karen S. Hamrick. Rural labor markets respond quickly to business cycle movements, and appear to show signs of recession and expansion before urban labor markets. The rural and urban unemployment rates, on the other hand, show about the same degree of response to changes in gross domestic product. Some rural labor market groups part-time for economic reasons workers and discouraged workers respond less to business cycle movements, so that an expansion is less likely to benefit these individuals than those in urban areas.
• Rural Industry Clusters Raise Local Earnings. by Robert M. Gibbs and G. Andrew Bernat, Jr. Industry clusters have become a popular strategy for rural economic development, yet their benefits to the local areas have not been fully examined. Labor is expected to be more productive within clusters, which should translate into higher wages. Our analysis confirms this, showing that workers' earnings in rural industry clusters are about 13 percent higher than those of comparable workers outside clusters. The wage boost is similar for workers regardless of age or education level.
• Commuting and the Economic Functions of Small Towns and Places. by Lorna Aldrich, Calvin Beale, and Kathleen Kassel. Fully three out of four nonmetro counties have average out-commuting rates from their towns and places of more than 35 percent. Commuting is one way to take advantage of housing and job options in nearby communities; hence, commuting rates are higher in parts of the country where places are closer together, mainly east of the Mississippi. Commuting rates are higher from smaller towns and places. Commuting implies that creating job opportunities for a community's residents may not require bringing jobs into that community. Conversely, bringing jobs into a community will not necessarily mean jobs for residents. Separation of work and residence could result in need for social services, housing, and water and sewer facilities that do not decline when jobs do. This separation may also separate sources of tax revenues from the needs.
• Rural Areas in the New Telecommunications Era. by Peter L. Stenberg, Sania Rahman, M. Bree Perrin, and Erica Johnson. The new Telecommunications Act, enacted in 1996, was the first comprehensive rewrite of the Communications Act of 1934 that had ushered in an era of universal phone service for rural areas. The 1996 Act's provisions fall into five major areas: telephone service, telecommunications equipment manufacturing, cable television, radio and television broadcasting, and the Internet and online computer services. All these provisions will affect rural areas, but universal service is the most critical. Without the universal service provision rural areas may rapidly fall behind urban areas. In May 1997, the Federal Communications Commission enacted regulatory provisions for universal service.
• Industrial Uses of Agricultural Products Such as Crambe Play a Role in Rural Community Development. by Jacqueline Salsgiver. Growing public concern about pollution and the environment has sparked interest in industrial uses of agricultural products. Industrial uses of these products can provide farmers with new market opportunities. Expanding industrial demand for farm products may boost farm income and can restore economic opportunity in rural communities by attracting value-added industries. For example, increased crambe production and the construction of a new oilseed processing plant may bring employment and income growth to rural North Dakota.
• Sustaining a Rural Black Farming Community in the South: A Portrait of Brooks Farm, Mississippi. by Valerie Grim and Anne B. W. Effland. The rural South has long been, for Blacks especially, a place characterized by declining agricultural opportunities, diminishing numbers of land owners, limited education and employment, few government services, continuous outmigration, and persistent poverty for many who remain. Nevertheless, not all communities suffering from these conditions have abandoned hope. Some have drawn on the strength of their own traditional institutions to sustain and even rebuild community life. Members of the Brooks Farm community, in the face of declining population and resources, have continued to provide services from within the community. At the same time, they have learned new ways to organize to secure services the community cannot provide for itself.

Contents and Editor's Notebook, 22kb

Overcoming Persistent Poverty And Sinking Into It: Income Trends in Persistent-Poverty and Other High-Poverty Rural Counties, 1989-94, 1,142kb

Rural Labor Markets Often Lead Urban Markets in Recessions and Expansions, 58kb

Rural Industry Clusters Raise Local Earnings, 600kb

Commuting and the Economic Functions of Small Towns and Places, 619kb

Rural Areas in the New Telecommunications Era, 34kb

Industrial Uses of Agricultural Products Such as Crambe Play a Role in Rural Community Development, 49kb

Sustaining a Rural Black Farming Community in the South: A Portrait of Brooks Farm, Mississippi, 58kb

Book Reviews, 30kb

Download entire issue, 2,592kb.

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