Economic Development, Resilience, and Innovation

Early Growth, Limited Persistence: User Entrepreneurship and Firm Employment Growth

This study examines how firms founded by user entrepreneurs differ from other entrepreneurial ventures in their employment growth over time. The results show that firms founded by user entrepreneurs experience stronger employment growth during their first five years, particularly in the middle-to-upper portion of the growth distribution, but this advantage weakens as firms mature. These findings underscore the potential value of timely support from entrepreneurial ecosystem organizations.

Authors: Zheng Tian, Luyi Han, Timothy R. Wojan, Stephan J. Goetz

Publication: Journal of Business Venturing Insights Date Published: October 8, 2026

Tags: entrepreneurship, rural innovation

To Stay or Go? New Insights into Northeast Rural Households’ Intention to Move

In this NERCRD data brief, findings from the 2024 NER-Stat household survey shed light on which rural households are more likely to move and their reasons for wanting to do so.

Authors: Yuan Zhuang, PhD Candidate, Penn State Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Education

Publication: Published by NERCRD Date Published: August 24, 2026

Tags: data brief, NER-Stat

The impact of energy price shocks on US local industries: A state-level analysis

In this study, the researchers use annual panel data for the 50 US States to examine how local industries have adapted to energy price changes from 2001 to 2019. They estimate a recursive dynamic system to model how energy prices affect output both directly and indirectly through induced capital adjustment and energy intensity. They find that energy price increases reduce local GDP in the short run but also lead to long-term increases in energy efficiency.

Authors: Minsu Kim and Stephan J. Goetz

Publication: Energy Economics Date Published: July 15, 2026

Tags: energy

Exploring sustainable tourism indicators (STIs) for the U.S. with secondary data

In this article, the researchers propose using secondary data to develop a novel composite sustainable tourism indicator while also addressing advantages and limitations of the survey-based approaches used in Europe to measure sustainability in tourism. They apply this indicator to recreation-dependent U.S. counties and find that while some counties improve across multiple sustainability dimensions, others experience inconsistent trends, highlighting the complex relationships between tourism development and local community well-being.

Authors: Luyi Han, Stephan Goetz, Doug Arbogast, and Daniel Eades

Publication: Tourism Economics Date Published: May 22, 2026

Impacts of community reinvestment act designation on employment in the presence of spatial spillovers

This study investigates the impact of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) designation on the resident employment-to-population ratio in the USA from 2012 to 2019, using synthetic difference-in-differences method. It also examines how these effects differ among underserved populations and between metropolitan, micropolitan, and small towns and rural areas. The findings suggest that the CRA has contributed to meaningful gains in employment in underserved communities, while also generating broader economic effects in neighboring areas.

Authors: Anil Rupasingha and Stephan J. Goetz

Publication: Annals of Regional Science Date Published: May 19, 2026

Tags: Community Reinvestment Act

Economic shocks, food insufficiency and mental health: Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic

Millions of Americans experienced a sudden loss of income along with hunger early in the COVID-19 outbreak. Using Household Pulse Survey data from April 23, 2020 to March 29, 2021, the authors found that the pandemic significantly impacted both food sufficiency and mental health, with food insufficiency having a larger negative impact on mental health than income loss.

Authors: Yuxuan Pan, Linlin Fan, Stephan Goetz

Publication: Plos ONE Date Published: March 12, 2026

Tags: COVID-19, food security, mental health

Caregiving Along the Life Course Among Farming Households

This research was funded in part by NERCRD, and draws upon the Northeast and North Central Caregiving Survey conducted by the Regional Rural Development Centers. Using survey data from 704 farming caregivers in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest, the authors examine four research questions: 1) Who are the caregivers? 2) What resources does caregiving require? 3) How does caregiving impact farming caregivers’ finances and well-being? 4) What type of support do caregivers use and what support do they want?

Authors: Emily M. L. Southard and Florence A. Becot

Publication: Journal of Agromedicine Date Published: March 5, 2026

Tags: caregiving

Rural innovative firms and credit: Findings from the annual business survey

Credit access remains a critical constraint for rural firms. This study examines how the innovation orientation of businesses affects credit access in urban and rural areas using the 2021 Annual Business Survey.

Authors: Luyi Han, Timothy R. Wojan, Anil Rupasingha, Stephan J. Goetz

Publication: Elsevier Finance Research Open Date Published: September 17, 2025

Tags: rural innovation

Small Business Loans in Different U.S. County Types

This working paper describes how the number of financial loans and loan amounts per capita vary across different U.S. county types over the period 2000-2022, using Community Reinvestment Act small business loan data.

Authors: Yuxuan Pan, Stephan J. Goetz, and Yuan (Timothy) Zhuang

Publication: NERCRD Rural Development Working Paper Series Date Published: August 20, 2025

Tags: Community Reinvestment Act, RDP

Design: A critical input to rural innovative entrepreneurship

Abstract: Described as a mediation between people and technology, design is critical to innovative entrepreneurship but has been ignored in innovation research. The rigorous study of design has suffered from an inability to differentiate firms that approach design as ad hoc from those approaching design as a structured, creative process. This research uses newly available data from the 2022 Annual Business Survey Design Module categorizing 4 different approaches to design. These data allow us to examine the link between design and innovation with a focus on businesses in nonmetropolitan counties that challenges conventional wisdom that design is overwhelmingly an urban phenomenon.

A news release describing the key findings and their implications is available here.

Authors: Timothy Wojan, Luyi Han, Zheng Tian, Stephan J. Goetz

Publication: Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Date Published: June 18, 2025

Tags: rural innovation