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The Rural Town as a Producing Unit: An Empirical Analysis and Implications for Rural Development Policy*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2015

Harry W. Ayer
Affiliation:
University of Arizona
Joe Weidman
Affiliation:
University of Arizona

Extract

Emphasis at nearly all levels of government has been placed on rejuvenating rural areas in terms of their income and employment opportunities. Implicitly this rejuvenation is to occur in rural towns and not on farms, since employment opportunities in farming, while improving in the 1973-1976 time period, are not likely to expand greatly. Popular doctrine to stimulate economies of rural towns is fostered by the observed problems of pollution (air, water, noise), slums and human crowding, crime and traffic congestion associated with many large cities, and the concomitant problems of low income, poor consumer and producer services, and declining job opportunities in numerous rural towns. According to popular political opinion, a more desirable social state could be reached by reversing the migration flow, thereby relieving pressures of large cities and enhancing the standard of living potential in rural areas.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Southern Agricultural Economics Association 1976

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Footnotes

*

This article is Journal Paper No. 2221 of the Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of Arizona.

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