The report discusses commercial banks' role in supporting economic development in rural America. It details demographic and economic trends in rural America. It discusses a number of economic development programs available to commercial bankers and to private sector/public sector partnerships....

The provision of services in rural areas is constrained by a number of issues arising from the remoteness of such areas and the relative sparsity of rural populations. These factors combine to increase the cost of supply and reduce the demand for services, which consequently threatens the...

The growth of the urban fringe is widespread throughout the United States, and is impacting many parts of the economy. Agriculture is of particular concern since fringe growth involves low-density development, and consumes a great deal of land relative to suburbanization. The impact of fringe...

Records of rental agreements for agricultural land in England between 1690 and 1914 are used to develop an annual rental price index for agricultural land. This index displays a long run cointegrating relationship with indices for the price of agricultural output and agricultural wage rates. A...

Regional employment and population change have displayed considerable spatial disparities within Northern Ireland in recent years. It is important to gain a better understanding of the causes of these spatial disparities to facilitate the development of effective policies to promote economic...

The 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances provides robust information on the financing of small businesses including an overview of their firm’s organization, financial characteristics, and credit use. Information from the survey is used in this study to compare the financial characteristics...

CDFI serve an important social function because by providing access to financial services to underserved low-income individuals and families. Understanding what governance mechanisms promote efficient use of scarce resources that these organizations possess matters because only sustainable...

This study employed Nigeria’s household data from the RIGA database to examine the effect of off-farm income on rural poverty and income distribution. Specifically, the study employs the Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) poverty measurement indices to examining the effect of off-farm income on...

Transaction Cost (TC) economics is highly relevant to public policy issues, enabling exploration of the influence of institutional and organisational arrangements upon policy performance. As policies evolve, often becoming more multifaceted as they grow, so the associated transactions costs...