Issues Related to Treating R&D as Investment in BEA's Regional Accounts

This paper presents an analysis of regional issues related to treating R&D as an investment . It provides experimental estimates of the impact on gross domestic product by state of the new treatment of R&D. It also discusses several important conceptual and methodological issues pertaining to these estimates.

Industry Clusters and Rural Labor Markets

Along with the recent resurgence of interest in the agglomeration and clustering of economic activity, there has been increasing interest in industry clusters as a potential economic development strategy. Ultimately, the question of whether or not clusters are an appropriate focus of economic development strategies for rural areas depends on the relationship between clusters and local economic growth. The primary purpose of this paper is to discuss some of the issues involved in measuring the relationship between clusters and rural economic growth. Preliminary evidence of a positive association between industry clusters and rural earnings growth are presented, supporting the notion that a cluster-focused development strategy may be effective in some rural areas

ESTIMATING THE EFFECTS OF PESTICIDE USE ON BURLEY AND FLUE-CURED TOBACCO

Crop Production/Industries,

REGIONAL DIFFERENCES IN THE CONTRIBUTION OF OFF-FARM WORK TO INCOME INEQUALITY

This paper uses the concept of the Gini Coefficient and data from the 1991 Farm Costs and Returns Survey (FCRS) to measure the role of off-farm income and that of other income sources in the size distribution of farm operator households' total personal income. Disaggregated FCRS data by region and by level of participation in off-farm employment show that nonparticipating farm operator households have, as a group, higher income inequality than participating households. The results also indicate that, irrespective of the off-farm work status of the farm operator household, the distribution of income among households in the North Central region is least unequal and that in the West is most unequal.Labor and Human Capital,

Global patient outcomes after elective surgery: prospective cohort study in 27 low-, middle- and high-income countries.

BACKGROUND: As global initiatives increase patient access to surgical treatments, there remains a need to understand the adverse effects of surgery and define appropriate levels of perioperative care. METHODS: We designed a prospective international 7-day cohort study of outcomes following elective adult inpatient surgery in 27 countries. The primary outcome was in-hospital complications. Secondary outcomes were death following a complication (failure to rescue) and death in hospital. Process measures were admission to critical care immediately after surgery or to treat a complication and duration of hospital stay. A single definition of critical care was used for all countries. RESULTS: A total of 474 hospitals in 19 high-, 7 middle- and 1 low-income country were included in the primary analysis. Data included 44 814 patients with a median hospital stay of 4 (range 2-7) days. A total of 7508 patients (16.8%) developed one or more postoperative complication and 207 died (0.5%). The overall mortality among patients who developed complications was 2.8%. Mortality following complications ranged from 2.4% for pulmonary embolism to 43.9% for cardiac arrest. A total of 4360 (9.7%) patients were admitted to a critical care unit as routine immediately after surgery, of whom 2198 (50.4%) developed a complication, with 105 (2.4%) deaths. A total of 1233 patients (16.4%) were admitted to a critical care unit to treat complications, with 119 (9.7%) deaths. Despite lower baseline risk, outcomes were similar in low- and middle-income compared with high-income countries. CONCLUSIONS: Poor patient outcomes are common after inpatient surgery. Global initiatives to increase access to surgical treatments should also address the need for safe perioperative care. STUDY REGISTRATION: ISRCTN5181700

An Update on Rural Manufacturing: Rural Capital Expenditures Lagged Urban in 1992

Rural manufacturing employment was less severely affected by the 1990-91 recession and recovered more strongly than did urban employment. However, the gap between rural and urban manufacturing wages did not narrow and rural labor productivity growth lagged. In addition, capital expenditures per worker in rural areas declined relative to urban, possibly foreshadowing further widening of the differences between rural and urban labor productivity and wages

FARMLAND OWNERSHIP AND LEASING IN THE UNITED STATES, 1982

This report is a summary of the most current data on owning and leasing agricultural land in the United States. Drawn primarily on the 1982 Census of Agriculture, data on owning and leasing are presented by region for size of holdings, tenure, type of farm organization, and value of farm sales

Manufacturing and the Midwest Rural Economy Recent Trends and Implications for the Future

Rural communities in the Midwest gained manufacturing jobs during the 1980’s and into the 1990’s even as urban areas sustained large job losses. Mirroring national patterns, most of the rural manufacturing job gains were in less urbanized and completely rural nonmetro counties. In addition, counties that have gained manufacturing jobs exhibited substantially better economic performance than other counties. These recent trends indicate that, as long as rural manufacturing firms are able to maintain their competitiveness, manufacturing may well provide the basis for continued economic growth

SHARE LEASING AND PRODUCTION EFFICIENCY

This report reviews the current economic literature 'on the relationship between type of land lease and agricultural resource allocation. Current economic theory of land leasing does not provide a completely satisfactory explanation of lease choice in U.S. agriculture primarily because of deficiencies in the treatment of bargaining and part-owner operators. In addition, results from the literature on the principal-agent problem and on implicit contracts have not been fully exploited in the landleasing literature