Agriculture in the Texas High Plains depends entirely on the Ogallala Aquifer. Texas enacted water conservation legislation to address declining reserves in the aquifer. We developed an integrated regional water policy model that links a hydrology model with an economic optimization model to...

Statistically predicted future tourism demand is used to conduct an economic impact analysis in twelve tourism zones in the state of Arkansas. The analysis reveals spatial variability in employment, and output growth that will continue into the future. Tourism has the potential as an economic...

Replaced with revised version of paper 06/16/09.

This study estimates the economic impacts of a hypothetical retiree in-migration scena-rio involving elderly households and examines the effect of aggregation of study regions in an input-output framework on their regional purchase coefficients, and multipliers. Using migra-tion estimates to...

This study utilizes survey data analyzed at the regional level to obtain additional insights which may be left unnoticed if the analysis only considers data at the state level. The current analysis reveals that farm operators’ and/or landowners’ decision to participate in the agritourism...

The ever-growing livestock industry in the Texas High Plains has a significant impact on water usage and groundwater resources throughout the region.  The groundwater sources are depleting at an excessive rate and have low-recharge while precipitation is scarce in this region.  The regional...

Supporters claim that entrepreneurship is critical to building and sustaining the regional economies of urban and rural areas across the nation. Proponents argue that economic development practices that enhance and support entrepreneurship are essential because they cultivate innovation which,...

The value of maintaining a minimum streamflow objective on average is lessened when there is considerable dispersion around the average. An integrated economic and hydrology model is presented which provides water policy planners with a way to accurately measure both the economic cost and...

Irrigated agriculture has played a vital role in the development and growth of the Great Plains Region of the United States. The primary source of water for irrigation in this region is the Ogallala Aquifer. The Southern portion of the Ogallala Aquifer is considered exhaustible due to the low...

Three alternative groundwater conservation policies were examined for their impact on the regional economy of the Southern High Plains of Texas using nonlinear optimization models and an input-output model. Restriction of drawdown of the aquifer was found to be more effective than proposed water...