Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Major accomplishments included: The investigators examined specific policy issues by a national committee of policy analysts, to apply the best research currently available. Committee provided timely analysis of current issues facing rural America. The researchers conducted both very general studies concerning restructuring and studies on specific sectors and sub-sectors and their impacts on rural employments and income. Research on farm labor, particularly farm family labor and migrant labor and on welfare recipients entering the labor force was a major focus. Researchers in several states also looked at returns to education, an important factor in employment. Standardization of social, economic and fiscal impact assessment tools for evaluating impacts of exogenous changes (such as industrial restructuring and devolution) on rural communities. Both local and state rural economic and fiscal impact analysis was performed. For local economies, the development and continuous updating and refinement of local economic and fiscal impact evaluation models at the sub-state level was and continues to be a great collaboration. Researchers continually share their thoughts and modeling advances with each other. While these models are not published per se, the studies using them are. On the state level, most states are experiencing budget shortfalls from which questions of tax and expenditure policies emerge. The researchers have provided useful analysis to their states in these crisis situations. Specific policy areas analyzed included: clusters and targeted development, transportation policy, nontraditional venture capital programs, Missouri's Tax Increment Financing, HUD Canal Corridor Initiative, telecommunications, land and water use, and welfare. Development and use of a common database and research methodology (IMPLAN input-output (I/O) and construction of econometric models) to compare restructuring trends across regions and states to study the growth in: (a) value-added agricultural processing industries; (b) service-related activities relative to manufacturing and production agriculture; and (c) small, specialized firms related to traditional, large-scale plants. Development of hybrid input-output and SAM models and comparison of model results across states and regions.