Bradford F. Mills

Understanding the Non-Metropolitan-Metropolitan Digital Divide

Abstract A consistent gap exists between home Internet use in metropolitan areas and in non-metropolitan areas in the U.S. This digital divide may stem from technology differences in home Internet connectivity. Alternatively, differences in education, income, and other household attributes may explain differences in metropolitan and non-metropolitan area home Internet access. Effective programs to reduce the metropolitan-non-metropolitan digital divide must be based on an understanding of the relative roles that technology and household characteristics play in determining differential Internet usage. The household Internet adoption decision is modeled using a logit estimation approach with data from the 2001 U.S. Current Population Survey Internet and Computer Use Supplement. A decomposition of separate metropolitan and non-metropolitan area estimates shows that differences in household attributes, particularly education and income, account for 63 percent of the current metropolitan-non-metropolitan digital divide. The result raises significant doubts that policies which focus solely on infrastructure and technology access will mitigate the current metropolitan-non-metropolitan digital divide. Copyright 2003 Gatton College of Business and Economics, University of Kentucky..

The Migration of Young Adults from Non-Metropolitan Counties

This article examines young adult migration from non-metropolitan counties to either different non-metropolitan counties or to metropolitan areas. The results show that expected gains in initial earnings provide young entrants to the labor force with a marked incentive to migrate from their non-metropolitan counties of origin. Initial earnings gains stem, in part, from higher returns to schooling in both metropolitan areas and other non-metropolitan counties. The propensity to migrate is also sensitive to the costs of migration, which, in turn, are correlated with paternal education and the local presence of extended family. Copyright 2001, Oxford University Press.

Determinants of Food Stamp Program Exits

This article examines factors that influence Food Stamp Program exits and finds that families who leave the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program are also more likely to leave the Food Stamp Program. However, the influence of TANF departure is smaller in states with large TANF caseload declines. The results also suggest that many families leaving the Food Stamp Program are still eligible for benefits. These families may have poor information on food stamps eligibility in the face of TANF departure or may view Food Stamp Program reauthorization procedures as too costly relative to program benefits.

Why Has Poverty Increased in Zimbabwe

Poverty in Zimbabwe increased significantly during the 1990s, and it increased in all sectors of the economy. In the middle of the decade, more than 60 percent of Zimbabwean households fell below the national poverty line. There are competing reasons for this: some say it was the result of the government instituting the Economic Structural Adjustment Program (ESAP), and others say that ESAPs effectiveness was hampered by recurring drought. This document sheds light on the sources of the increase in Zimbabwean poverty, with the use of non-parametric, and parametric statistical methods. These techniques support the conclusion that the drought, though harmful, does not entirely explain the increase in poverty. The deteriorating economic environment, reducing the returns to both human, and physical assets, also had profound effects on household well-being. What are the prospects for improvement in the near future? Only serious structural changes to the economy can create labor market conditions, conducive to long-term, broad-based growth.

Reducing the size of the public sector workforce: Institutional constraints and human consequences in Guinea

Public sector employment reduction programmes have become an important component of economic reform efforts in sub‐Saharan Africa. This article examines the fiscal, institutional and human consequences of an employment reduction programme in the West African state of Guinea. While fiscal benefits appear to have been marginal and compensation schemes well targeted, the human costs of the programme were significant due to long spells of unemployment among retrenched workers.

Are Spells of Unemployment Longer in Nonmetropolitan Areas? Nonparametric and Semiparametric Evidence

I use nonparametric and semiparametric proportional hazard models to examine whether individuals resident in nonmetropolitan areas experience lower per period rates of exit from unemployment following job loss than metropolitan area residents. Results show that between 1989 and 1993 per period cumulative rates of exit from unemployment were slightly higher in nonmetropolitan areas, mainly due to nonmetropolitan–metropolitan differences in individual characteristics and local economic conditions. Employment density is found to have a positive association with rates of exit of unemployment in metropolitan areas but not in nonmetropolitan areas. Copyright 2000 Blackwell Publishers

Unemployment Duration in Non-Metropolitan Labor Markets

Non-metropolitan areas of the U.S have experienced significant structural economic changes in recent decades. These changes have raised concerns that some non-metropolitan workers may face significant costs to employment displacements associated with economic adjustments. This paper explores the roles that linkages to metropolitan labor markets, area labor market conditions, and individual attributes play in determining the rates of exit from unemployment to employment among non-metropolitan area residents. Adjacency to a metropolitan area is found to significantly increase transition rates from unemployment to employment among displaced non-metropolitan workers, but local economic conditions are found to have relatively weak or insignificant effects on transition rates. Also, lack of post-high school education and minority status both significantly reduce rates of exit from unemployment in non-metropolitan areas following employmentdisplacement. Copyright 2001 Gatton College of Business and Economics, University of Kentucky.

Ex -ante agricultural research evaluation with site specific technology generation: the case of sorghum in Kenya

Agricultural commodity research has very site-specific productivity impacts. Crucial determinants of the magnitude and distribution of research benefits include agroecological conditions for technology generation and adoption, as well as commodity market-structure. This paper presents a process for ex-ante research evaluation which accounts for these factors with a dynamic, spatial multi-market model. Simulation results based on sorghum research in Kenya demonstrate that potential research benefits can vary dramatically across program research target zones. In Kenya, however, population-induced demand growth not technological development will have the greatest influence on future sorghum markets.

Processes and methods for research programme priority setting: the experience of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute Wheat Programme

Abstract As funding for agricultural research in developing countries becomes increasingly scarce, national research institutes must develop efficient processes for targeting available resources to meet client needs. This paper presents the application of a rigorous process for setting national commodity programme research priorities both spatially and by major research theme. The exercise is conducted in three phases with the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute Wheat Programme. First, a working group of Wheat Programme scientists develops a consensus on programme target zones as well as the potential for the generation and adoption of technologies in those zones. Secondly, the working group assumptions are combined with available economic data to develop ex ante economic surplus measures of programme impact. Thirdly, the results are presented to a larger group of programme stakeholders in order to review the working group assumptions, establish research priorities and then translate those priorities into guidelines for research managers on resource allocation decisions.

The Potential Impact of Tobacco Biopharming: The Case of Human Serum Albumin

Biopharming stands to significantly expand the uses of many agricultural crops. This article examines the potential size and distribution of welfare gains from biopharming transgenic tobacco as a source of human serum albumin (HSA) using an economic surplus model under imperfect competition. The results suggest that HSA from transgenic tobacco will generate annual profits for the innovating firm of between