A Barro-type economic growth model is estimated for the 50 states in the U.S. using data for three decades beginning in 1960. Frontier estimation techniques are used to test for the presence of state-specific shocks to economic growth that are independent of the usual, normally-distributed...

Changes in income distribution are estimated for the U.S. South over the 1970 and 1980 decades using Gini coefficients for county-level, real family income. To explicitly investigate causal relationships between economic growth and inequality, a two-stage least squares model was estimated. In...

This article reviews the literature that evaluates WalMart’s impacts on local economies. The authors first describe the methods used to account for potential reverse causality of WalMart’s store location decisions, and then they discuss the literature assessing the company’s...

Population growth creates a challenge to food availability and access. To balance supply with growing demand, more food has to move from production to consumption sites. Moreover, demand for locally-grown food is increasing and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) seeks to develop and...

Although most countries in the world are rapidly urbanizing, the majority of the global population – particularly the poor – continue to live in rural areas. This Handbook rejects the popular notion that urbanization should be universally encouraged and presents clear evidence of...

Community-focused agriculture has been heralded as a development strategy to induce local economic growth. This study examines county-level linkages between community-focused agriculture and growth in total agricultural sales and economic growth more broadly. Using Census of Agriculture data,...

The biotechnology industry has experienced remarkable growth since its inception, and growth prospects are strong for the remainder of the decade. In this article, the authors develop a formal model to discern factors affecting the location of biotechnology firms. The number of biotechnology...

State and local governments increasingly look to entrepreneurship as a means of stimulating economic growth. However, can the public sector play a role in promoting entrepreneurial activity—and if so, what should that role be? The authors investigate independent effects of financial and...

In agriculture, studies dealing with the separation of ownership from control have focused on sharecropping, paying little attention to the impact of management and ownership on efficiency. Using Argentine data, this study tests the hypothesis that efficiency is a function of type of management,...