Publications

NERCRD 2025 Annual Report

The NERCRD team invites you to explore our recent work, which leverages and transforms our federal investment into impactful research, synergistic partnerships, and greater capacity in the region and beyond. In 2025, NERCRD delivered on its mission by:

• conducting high-impact research in support of vibrant rural economies
• supporting several knowledge-sharing networks
• organizing public webinars that provided professional development on high-priority topics.
• publishing a bi-monthly newsletter to support the critical work of fostering vibrant rural communities.

Authors: Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development

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

Archive of earlier annual reports

To request a copy of an earlier NERCRD annual report (1997-2024), please send an email to nercrd@psu.edu.

Economic and Quality of Life Data for the Upper Valley Region of New Hampshire/Vermont

This report presents sustainable tourism indicators identified from public data sources in the Upper Valley region of New Hampshire/Vermont.

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

Publication: Published by NERCRD Date Published: December 12, 2025

Tags: data brief, outdoor recreation, tourism, TRIP

Economic and Quality of Life Indicators for Monongahela National Forest

This report presents sustainable tourism indicators identified from public data sources in the Monongahela National Forest (Mon Forest) region of West Virginia. More from this project here.

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

Publication: NERCRD publication Date Published: October 24, 2025

Tags: data brief, outdoor recreation, tourism, TRIP

Land Grant Community and Economic Development Capacity in the Northeast

This report summarizes the findings of an inventory conducted in 2024-2025 aimed at understanding the capacity of the Land Grant Institutions in the Northeast U.S. to conduct research and Extension programming that corresponds with the priority areas of the NERCRD, which at the time of this study included:

• Food Systems, Nutrition Security, and Agriculture
• Economic Development, Resilience, and Innovation
• Tourism and Outdoor Recreation

A companion poster, which was presented at the 2025 National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals (NACDEP) conference in Charleston, WV, is available here.

Authors: Stephen Alessi

Publication: NERCRD publication Date Published: March 30, 2025

Tags: Extension

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

Economic and Quality of Life Indicators for Allegheny National Forest Counties in Pennsylvania

This report analyzes sustainable tourism indicators in Pennsylvania’s five-county
Allegheny National Forest region (Cameron, Elk, Warren, McKean, and Forest Counties) as part
of a USDA-funded multi-state project examining rural gateway community resilience. More from this project here.

Authors: Han, Luyi; Goetz, Stephan J.; Eades, Daniel; Arbogast, Doug

Publication: Published by NERCRD Date Published: August 1, 2025

Tags: data brief, outdoor recreation, tourism, TRIP

Fostering Sustainable Growth in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny National Forest

The Allegheny National Forest region offers significant potential for sustainable tourism growth by balancing environmental protection and economic development. Researchers from West Virginia University and Penn State and their local collaborators drew on the perspectives of ANF visitors and residents in a survey conducted in 2024. This article shares key findings from the survey.

Authors: Claudia Schmidt, Douglas Arbogast, Jinyang Deng, and Stephan J. Goetz

Publication: Penn State Extension Date Published: June 25, 2025

Tags: outdoor recreation, tourism, TRIP

Rural-Suburban-Urban Differences in Caregiving in the Northeast U.S. Region

This “Research Snapshot” describes the caregiving experience for rural, suburban, and urban caregivers in the Northeast region of the U.S., as reported by households as part of the “NER-Stat: Caregiving Survey” — a regional household survey that the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development (NCRCRD) conducted in collaboration with Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development (NERCRD), The Ohio State University and the National Farm Medicine Center. The survey was conducted in 2023 with 4,480 responses from the 13 states of the Northeast Region through a Qualtrics online panel. The dataset that this brief draws upon is also available online here: https://purr.purdue.edu/publications/4491/1

To learn more about this research and to access other briefs in this caregiving series, click here.

Authors: Elena Pojman and Florence Becot

Publication: NERCRD Research Brief Date Published: June 24, 2025

Tags: caregiving