Publications

The Impact of COVID-19 on Racial Inequality in Diet Quality

Although a large and growing literature has investigated the diet and nutrition disparities (see Kozlova, 2016; Allcott et al., 2019 for earlier work), little research has analyzed the impact of COVID-19 on racial/ethnic disparities in diet quality. We complement the existing literature by providing causal estimates of how COVID-19 impacted the racial gaps in diet quality and by examining the causes of racial gaps.

Authors: Yuxuan Pan, Linlin Fan, Stephan J. Goetz, Alexander Stevens

Publication: Presented at 2023 Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Meeting Date Published: July 23, 2023

Tags: COVID-19

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Internationalization of the Rural Nonfarm Economy and the Cloud: Evidence from US Firm-Level Export Data

The move toward universal broadband availability envisioned in the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program presents a double-edged sword for many rural communities: increasing the leakage of local spending to more internet sales countered by better opportunities for tapping remote markets. This paper uses confidential data to examine how export intensity is affected by subscription to cloud computer services—a technology that requires very high-speed broadband. Earlier research identified an enabling effect of the cloud on various types of firm-level innovation, effectively reducing the cost of experimentation by replacing large fixed IT investments with a pay-as-you-go service. To the extent that exporting places new demands on IT-enabled functions such as order fufillment and tracking, marketing, or document control, cloud subscriptions could substantially reduce the cost of entering, and excelling in, export markets.

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

Publication: Presented at 2023 Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Meeting Date Published: July 23, 2023

Tags: rural innovation

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Impact of Community Reinvestment Act on Minority and Female Employment Growth

In this paper, we examine how the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) affected minority and female employment from 2012 to 2019. We also investigate whether the effects varied between metro and nonmetro areas. We combine demographic and income data from the American Community Survey (ACS) with employment data from the Census Longitudinal Employer- Household Dynamics Local Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES). In order to determine the causal effects of the CRA on employment growth outcomes, a quasi-experimental study approach is used. According to the statistically significant findings, the CRA designation increased residence-based employment in CRA designated tracts, including job growth for female and minority groups. Additionally, we observe that these effects were higher in tracts located in non-metropolitan areas compared to metro areas.

Authors: Luyi Han, Yuxuan Pan, Stephan J. Goetz, Anil Rupasingha

Publication: Presented at 2023 Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Meeting Date Published: July 23, 2023

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International Workshop on Agritourism 2022 Conference Proceedings

The International Workshop on Agritourism (IWA) 2022 Conference Proceedings is intended to increase access to the scholarship that was shared during the three-day conference, which was hosted by University of Vermont Extension in Burlington, Vermont, USA, on August 30 – September 1, 2022. It contains 27 peer-reviewed papers. NERCRD staff provided editorial, project management, and graphic design support to this effort.

Authors: Edited by Lisa Chase, Chadley Hollas, Xinyi Qian, and Claire Whitehouse

Publication: Published jointly by the National Extension Tourism Network and the Global Agritourism Network, with support from the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development Date Published: July 13, 2023

Tags: agritourism, NET, proceedings

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Agritourism and Direct Sales Clusters in the United States

Agritourism and direct-to-consumer sales are increasingly used as diversification strategies to generate additional farm revenue streams. Yet despite their growing importance, the impacts, interactions, and adoption of these strategies remain poorly understood. Here we use univariate and bivariate local Moran’s I statistics to identify agritourism and direct-to-consumer sales hotspots in the United States and a Seemingly-Unrelated-Regression Spatial Durbin Model to examine the association between agritourism and direct farm sales to consumers. We find that agritourism and direct sales reinforce each other within the same county but not consistently across neighboring counties.

Authors: Claudia Schmidt, Zheng Tian, Lisa Chase, Chadley Hollas and Stephan J. Goetz

Publication: Agricultural and Resource Economics Review Date Published: April 17, 2023

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Rural US Residents Recognize Anxiety Better than Urbanites and Suburbanites but Hold Similar Stigma

Recognizing signs of psychological distress is a critical first step in assisting people who are struggling with poor mental health to access help. However, community-level factors that impact recognition and stigma are underexplored. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between rurality, other community-level variables, and individual variables with regard to the recognition and stigma of anxiety.

Authors: Scott Loveridge, Mark Skidmore, Robert Shupp, Paula K. Miller, Courtney Cuthbertson, Stephan J. Goetz

Publication: The Journal of Rural Health Date Published: March 29, 2023

Tags: mental health

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Investing in Rural Recovery: Comprehensive Summary of National Rural Development Stakeholder Listening Sessions

This report summarizes results from the an initiative carried out by the Regional Rural Development Centers in 2021 and 2022 to identify investments needed to fill the gaps between rural communities’ assets and opportunities. These facilitated dialogues included four sessions conducted at the regional level focusing on issues of regional importance, and four national sessions on topics of widespread importance.

Authors: Jason Entsminger, John Green, Rachel Welborn, Renee Wiatt, Z. Bednarikova, Rianna Gayle, and Yuxuan Pan

Publication: Published by the Regional Rural Development Centers Date Published: February 27, 2023

Tags: COVID-19

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2022 Annual Report

This report summarizes annual accomplishments and activities at the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development.

Authors: Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development

Date Published: February 1, 2023

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The NET Effect: Members of the National Extension Tourism Network Help Raise the Bar in Sustainable Tourism and Outdoor Recreation

This 57-page publication is available here as a Flipping Book or here as a PDF (6.8MB). It contains eight case studies that explore innovative Cooperative Extension and Sea Grant work in sustainable tourism and outdoor recreation. It features work being done in Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, and West Virginia.

The magazine is an outcome of a partnership of the National Extension Tourism (NET) design team, the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development (NERCRD), and the New Technologies for Ag Extension (NTAE) grant program.

Authors: Heather Martin, Rose Hayden-Smith, and Kristen Devlin

Publication: Published by the Extension Foundation Date Published: January 22, 2023

Tags: NET, NTAE

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The U.S. Recreation Economy: Data, COVID-19, and Implications for Extension

The breadth, depth, and speed of the economic collapse associated with the COVID-19 pandemic was unprecedented in economic history. No sector was hit harder than Leisure and Hospitality, which accounts for the economic core of tourism and recreation-based activity. Only recently has employment in this sector begun to show signs of recovery toward pre-pandemic levels. Here we document the importance of the Leisure and Hospitality sector to the economy and identify impacts from the pandemic and recovery, at both state and local (county) levels. Selected implications for Extension Services programming by Land- and Sea-Grant institutions are highlighted.

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

Publication: 2021 NET Conference Proceedings Date Published: October 4, 2022

Tags: COVID-19

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