Estimating the Economic Impact of Telemedicine in a Rural Community

One commonly discussed benefit of broadband access in rural America is the potential for telemedicine visits that allow rural residents to take advantage of urbanized medical services. While the primary benefit of telemedicine is often viewed as improved health care access, the availability of these services also offers significant economic contributions to the local community. Site visits to 24 rural hospitals of varying size over a four-state area in the Midwest provide information to develop a methodology for estimating telemedicine’s economic impact. Using this technique, telemedicine services contribute between $20,000 and$1.3M annually to these local economies, with an average of $522,000.telemedicine, economic impact, teleradiology, telepsychiatry, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Health Economics and Policy,

RURAL BROADBAND AVAILABILITY AND ADOPTION IN OKLAHOMA

Broadband Adoption, Rural Broadband Availability, Broadband Infrastructure, Broadband Digital Divide, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, R22, D12,

Farming and the Internet: Reasons for Non-Use

Rural broadband infrastructure and service has received a significant amount of funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. These funds should increase broadband availability, but will broadband be used in rural areas and in particular by farmers? This paper uses Agricultural Resource Management Survey data to investigate why the majority of U.S. farmers choose not to use the Internet in their farm business. Although frequently cited by policymakers, concerns about inadequate Internet service or security actually account for a small percentage of responses. This research identifies targeted educational programs that focus on alleviating perceived barriers to Internet use.ARMS, farming, Internet, multinomial logit, non-use, Agribusiness, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Farm Management,

Farming and the Internet: Factors Affecting Input Purchases Online and Reasons for Non-Adoption

Using the 2005 ARMS data, significant factors are identified that influence the decision to purchase farm inputs over the Internet and reasons for not adopting the Internet. Internet input purchasing farmers tend to be younger and more educated. Non-adopters that are more educated most likely cite Internet security concerns as their primary reason for not adopting.ARMS, Internet, Farming, e-commerce, Farm Management, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Q12, R1,

Small Broadband Providers: Where and Why?

Using new data set of Federal Communication Commission, we model where small broadband providers choose to locate. When using all areas data, we find that even in term of small broadband providers, digital divide between rural and urban areas still exist. However, when we restrict data on areas previously depicted as no provider, rural areas seem to be an attractive target for small broadband providers. In addition, areas with high number of household but low number of business seem to be interested by small broadband provider especially rural areas. The results also suggest that USDA policies to increase broadband providers in rural area are ineffective.Marketing,

How Specialized is “too” Specialized? Outmigration and Industry Diversification in Nonmetropolitan Counties across America

Outmigration and industrial composition have separately been the focal points of a significant amount of research related to nonmetropolitan counties; however, few (if any) studies have explicitly looked at the relationship between the two topics. The primary objective of this research is to identify what industry specialization level is “too” specialized with regards to outmigration – that is, to determine the level where specialization begins to have a damaging effect on population change. County-level data from a variety of sources is used to explore the impact of both earnings-based and employment-based definitions of specialization on net migration in nonmetropolitan counties from 2000 – 2009. Two distinct techniques (ordinary least squares and average treatment effects) are then used to assess both the impact and causality of being “too specialized.” The results suggest that a variety of specialization thresholds exist across various industries, including some surprising positive influences of industry composition on migration rates.Outmigration, Nonmetropolitan, Industrial Specialization, Industrial Diversification, Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Building a Rural Library Hotspot Lending Program: Results from a One-Year Pilot

In today\u27s society, individuals and households without reliable Internet connections are increasingly at risk of facing significant disadvantages. This article describes an Extension-led pilot project in Oklahoma centered on addressing this issue through the establishment of a hotspot lending program in four rural libraries. Through the program, libraries allow patrons to check out the Internet by providing cellular-based hotspots that connect to a user\u27s smartphone, tablet, or laptop. Feedback from librarians and 297 survey respondents suggests that the program is highly popular and is reaching the target audience. Conclusions on barriers faced and suggestions for best practices, including the role Extension can play, are provided

Critical Access Hospitals and Retail Activity: an Empirical Analysis

This paper takes an empirical approach to determining the effect that a critical access hospital (CAH) has on local retail activity. Previous research on the relationship between hospitals and economic development has primarily focused on single-case, multiplier oriented analysis. The positive empirical results provide additional evidence on the far-reaching economic development impacts of CAHs. The results also emphasize the importance of continued support for these rural institutions, including federal and state subsidies.Critical Access Hospital, retail, economic impact, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Health Economics and Policy, R11, I18,

The Role of Infrastructure in the Rural - Urban Digital Divide

A significant gap exists in the percentage of rural and urban households that connect to the Internet. Furthermore, this "digital divide" has been increasing with respect to high-speed connections. The primary course of action to address this emerging high-speed digital divide has been to subsidize digital communications technology (DCT) infrastructure. This paper explores the diffusion of DCT infrastructure in both rural and urban areas over the period 2000 - 2003, and estimates its contribution to the emerging divide in high-speed access. The findings suggest that the rural - urban high-speed divide is more strongly associated with differences in household characteristics like education and income than differences in infrastructure.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

UNDERSTANDING THE RURAL - URBAN DIGITAL DIVIDE

This paper explains the current "digital divide" in internet use between rural and urban areas using a Logit adoption model with data collected from the August 2000 Current Population Survey. A non-linear decomposition shows that rural urban household attribute differences account for 66 percent of the digital divide, while place based differences account for the remaining 34 percent of the divide.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,