Thomas G. Johnson

The role of verbal output time in the effects of word length on immediate memory

In three experiments, we examined the role of delays within overt verbal responding in causing effects of word length on immediate recall. Although a phonological memory decay mechanism has been implicated by past research on word length effects, the exact basis of the effect remains unclear. The added difficulty of recalling longer words could arise both while subjects attempt to rehearse words silently and while they attempt to repeat words aloud. To examine the latter mechanism, the lengths of words in the first and second halves of lists to be recalled were varied independently, and both forward and backward recall orders were used. Recall of each word was found to be influenced by the total pronunciation time for all items to be recalled prior to that word, although there was an additional advantage for the last item output. The results clarify and generally support the theory of the articulatory loop, and the method permits an improved analysis of immediate memory into decay-based and other factors.

The Rural Economy in a New Century

This article discusses the economic status of rural America. It focuses on the current status of rural areas and the incipient forces that will change life in rural areas through the early twenty-first century. During the twentieth century, technology eroded the employment base of most rural communities, depressed incomes, and made out-migration the only recourse for millions. The fortunes of rural communities are diverging. Some are continuing to face economic decline. Others are trying to cope with rapid growth in population, land use conflicts, and growing demand for public services. The twenty-first century could instead favor rural communities. Economic and demographic trends are reducing the cost of distance and increasing the value of space. Technology is reducing the need for proximate labor. Demand for rural community lifestyle is growing. With effective rural policy, rural communities could contribute much more to the national economy.

Economic Factors that Influence Educational Performance in Rural Schools

This paper examines the value that young people in rural areas place on education. It employs survey data of over 700 youths in four central Appalachian school districts, OLS regression techniques, and an ordered probit model in a human capital framework. Students who are less willing to move and who have less positive perceptions of local employment opportunities will have less positive attitudes toward education and will perform more poorly in school. Those who are more willing to move place a higher value on education and perceive education as a means of leaving the rural community.

Bowling Alone but Online Together: Social Capital in E-Communities

In this paper, we present a non-technical overview of new forms of voluntary association called online (or e-) communities and explore the implications they present for community development theory and practice. E-communities are groups of people with common interests that communicate regularly, and for some duration, in an organized way over the Internet (Ridings et al., 2002). They are designed to provide users with a range of tools for learning, personal development, and collective action—all embedded in a complex, continuing, and personally enriching network of social relations. We pose several fundamental questions, including these: a) what are the key features of online communities? b) how do they compare to (offline) communities of place? c) how are they designed and developed? and d) how do e-community members use them to affect collective action? We define key terms related to online communities, place them in the context of broader Web cultural practices, and review emerging literature in online community development. We present findings from case studies of four very different active online communities. Social interaction in these communities was extensive, and surprisingly civil. Web site managers use a variety of community development practices to attract and retain members, and to establish community norms, trust, and collective resources.

Macroeconomic Imbalances: A Multiregional General Equilibrium Analysis

This article analyzes regional and sectoral consequences of recent federal budget and trade deficits. A multiregional computable general equilibrium (MCGE) model is developed in which regions differ in technology, factor endowments, tax rates, government expenditure patterns, and trade relationships. An application to Virginia and the rest-of-the-United States indicates that traditional sectors (agriculture, forestry, basic wood products, mining, textiles, and apparel) bear a greater burden of adjustment to macroeconomic imbalances than do other sectors. The analysis demonstrates that seemingly aspatial national policies may shift the geographic distribution of national output and income.

Place-Based Economic Policy: Innovation or Fad?

This paper explores the emerging concept of place-based economic policy. It reviews recent literature on place-based economics policy, especially regional competitiveness policy, and explores the adoption and diffusion of this concept by economic development practitioners and social science researchers. It attempts to answer the question: Are place-based economic policy and the underlying conceptual foundations lasting innovations, or are they fads which economic development practitioners and social scientists will adopt until another fad emerges? The conclusion is that economic development practitioners and social scientists do tend to respond to fads. To ensure that regional economic development policy is not dominated by fads, social scientists must get out in front of economic development practitioners far enough to thoroughly develop and test regional competitiveness and other place-based economic theories.

Local Preferences for Economic Development Outcomes: Analytical Hierarchy Procedure

Governments frequently formulate policies designed to stimulate regional economic development. Rarely, however, are efforts made to measure local preferences for economic development outcomes. While the political process should eventually sort out how well local governments are meeting the needs of their constituents, the irreversible nature of many development outcomes makes it preferable to incorporate local preferences directly into the decision making process. This paper presents a straightforward means of measuring preference trade-offs. The analytical hierarchy procedure is applied to local economic development outcomes in three Virginia counties and is shown to improve the targeting of industries by incorporating local preferences in the targeting process. The method has wide applicability for different development decisions. Copyright 2000 Gatton College of Business and Economics, University of Kentucky.

Distributional Effects of Household Linkages

The study uses input-output models with disaggregated household sectors to demonstrate that important interhousehold linkages are ignored in standard input-output models of both rural and urban regions. The results indicate that higher-income households are not strongly linked to low-income households and that, given equal changes in exogenous income, low-income households will have much higher impacts on the local economy than high-income households. In addition, significant differences in household linkages were found between rural and urban regions.

Rural Entrepreneurship in a Time of Recession

Economic recessions increase costs, risk, stress, uncertainty, and business failures while decreasing the availability of employment. Individuals who seek to become self-employed in recessionary times, whether out of need or for opportunity reasons, face difficult and unique circumstances. We use cross-section repeated-measures rare events logistic regression to model the effects that living in rural America and changes in the economy have on the probability of individuals engaging in necessity or opportunity entrepreneurial activities both before the recession (2005–2007) and during the recession (2008–2010). Key findings indicate that before the recession, individuals living in rural metro and nonmetro counties were more likely to engage in opportunity-driven entrepreneurial activities when compared to individuals living in more urban counties. Positive employment growth rates before the recession also increased the probability that individuals in rural areas would engage in opportunity entrepreneurship. The recession marked a shift in the motivation of individuals in rural America to become self-employed. There is a clear decline in opportunity entrepreneurship and an increase in necessity entrepreneurship. In all rural and mixed-rural counties, college education positively predicts opportunity entrepreneurship, whereas individuals with incomes below

Decomposing Sources of Regional Growth with an Input-output Model: A Framework for Policy Analysis

50,000 or working in a part-time job are more likely to engage in entrepreneurship driven by need.