Brady J. Deaton

Food Aid Disincentives: the Tunisian Experience

An econometric model is used to assess the short-term (impact), interim, and cumulative effects of food aid on the economy of Tunisia for the period 1960-92. Food aid displaced neither domestic production nor commercial imports of food grains. Rather, food aid provided incentives to promote growth through its income and policy effects. Food aid provided increased public revenue that enabled the government to take an active role in domestic pricing, preventing disincentive prices and promoting domestic production. The results indicate a positive role for food aid when disincentive effects are managed through public policies. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2003.

Migration and Return Migration: A New Look at the Eastern Kentucky Migration Stream

Most studies of the economics of migration have implicitly assumed that migratory streams are homogeneous. However, migratory streams from one region to another consist of two distinct streams: a stream of first-time migrants and a stream of return migrants moving back to their area of origin. In fact, a substantial proportion of all U.S. migration is return migration, 14 percent from 1955 to 1960. Moreover, in states with histories of substantial out-migration, an even greater proportion of in-migrants are returnees, 35.4 percent between 1955 and 1960. Yet, economists have largely ignored return migration in their attempts to explain changes in the labor force.

Rural Industrialization and the Changing Distribution of Family Incomes

Income distribution has been a central topic in political economy and has received continuing emphasis by our profession. Few studies, however, have been undertaken to examine the distribution effects of rural industrialization. Notable exceptions are two recent studies which call attention to the effects of industry on the lowest income groups (Reinschmidt and Jones, Kuehn et al.). With poverty diminution remaining an important matter of public policy, the changing size distribution of family income among new industrial workers must be a central concern for rural development policy. The size distribution of income is important in shaping the social structure of society, in reducing transfer payments, in lowering development costs, and in facilitating recovery of investment in human capital.

CONCEPTUAL UNDERPINNINGS OF POLICY ANALYSIS FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT

The breadth of rural development analysis and policy continues to yield challenges and frustrations. The exciting challenge is the mandate to integrate and synthesize a broad array of information in a manner that advances the state of knowledge and improves the well-being of people. The frustration grows out of a lack of focus that retards productive scientific interchange and diffuses policy inputs (Nelson 1984). The purpose of this paper is to provide a concise overview of the challenges associated with the breadth of the field and to suggest areas of analysis and analytic devices that would facilitate greater focus in the future. The next section presents a brief overview of the scale and character of our task. Following the overview, three critical issues related to capital flows are addressed. The determinants of capital formation are central concerns for development. We emphasize capital formation because of the relevance of these issues to policy decisions and because of their fundamental importance to filling gaps in knowledge. The paper concludes with a suggestion of two analytic devices, representative communities and counterfactuals with a future orientation, that would facilitate scholarly progress and informed policy.

New Institutional Arrangements for Supplying Local Public Services under New Federalism with Special Reference to Education

My approach in this paper is first to review selected principal contributions to our current perspective on public service research. Then, after a brief discussion of the New Federalism and its economic implications, a theoretical framework for assessing induced changes in local institutions will be posited. The third major section will apply the framework to interpreting local supply responses in primary and secondary public education.

GRANTSMANSHIP AND CONSULTING POLICY: DISCUSSION

What I am most disturbed about in Dr. Knutson’s paper is not just his willingness to oversimplify a very complex problem of how to secure funding for the mission of the university -but he fails to take into account that his approach demeans many different kinds of contributions faculty make at different periods in their careers and at different stages in the life of a department or college. He fails to take into account the consequences of his suggestions for furthering the mission of the university. A brief overview of my concerns are:

The Determinants of Wage Increases in New Manufacturing Plants in Rural Areas

The spatial trend of manufacturing industry toward smaller towns and rural areas, particularly in the South and West, appears to be continuing into the 1980s (Haren, 1980). Economic research has been undertaken to examine the reasons for this national shift (Haren, 1970; Beale; Lonsdale et al.), the influence of community decisions on the location process (Smith et al.; Klindt et al.; Kuehn et al.), and various facets of industrial impact on rural communities (Summers et al.; Reinschmiedt and Jones; Deaton and Landes).