Gender and Household Economic Strategies in Rural Appalachia

In recent decades, many Appalachian households have experienced declining incomes due to the loss of traditional male jobs in the mining and manufacturing sectors. One response to this decline has been an increase in female employment in formal sector activities. Another response is homework, or the home-based production of goods and services for sale in the formal and informal sectors. In rural Appalachia, where formal jobs are often unavailable or inadequate to support a household, many women are engaging in homework as an economic strategy. Consequently, economic restructuring cannot be fully understood without analyzing household strategies and gender relations. This paper examines the intersection of gender, households, and economic restructuring as it relates to women's homework and employment shifts in rural Appalachia. Research for this paper entailed qualitative interviews with 50 West Virginia women who are engaged in the home-based production of goods and services. The study analyzes the variety of homework activities done by rural women, their contribution to household incomes, and the effect of these activities on gender relations and divisions of labor in the home. The research forwarded in this study advances a conceptual understanding of household economic strategies and has some practical applications for women and economic development in underdeveloped regions .     

A NOTE ON REAL WAGE RIGIDITY AND STATE UNEMPLOYMENT RATES*

ABSTRACT This paper extends the research of Hyclak and Johnes (1989) in analyzing the relationship between the rigidity in real wages and state unemployment rates. It presents evidence contrary to the empirical findings of Hyclak and Johnes in that measures of real wage rigidity are not robust over time in explaining changes in state unemployment rates. Moreover, an alternative proxy accounting for divergent growth patterns across states does not significantly affect changes in state unemployment rates.     

THE EFFECTS OF TAXES,EXPENDITURES, AND PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE ON METROPOLITAN AREA EMPLOYMENT*

ABSTRACT. Data for 28 metropolitan areas over a 15-year period are used to determine the impacts of government spending, taxes, and public infrastructure on total employment and disaggregated employment. After carefully controlling for the government budget constraint we find that taxes are negatively related to total employment and education spending is positively related to total employment. Nevertheless, we find that it is difficult for metropolitan areas to influence the composition of their employment with government tax and expenditure policies. Moreover, at current levels of public infrastructure, marginal changes in infrastructure have no strong effect on employment.     

OBNOXIOUS FACILITY LOCATION IN THE INTERIOR OF A PLANAR NETWORK*

ABSTRACT. The problem of locating a point that is as far as possible from arcs and nodes of a network is investigated. Each arc or node may have a different multiplicative factor (weight) for its distance. A graphical solution approach, as well as a computational algorithm, is presented.     

INDUSTRIAL CENTERS AND REGIONAL GROWTH IN THE PRESENCE OF LOCAL INPUTS*

ABSTRACT. A large proportion of regional production takes place in nontraded goods and services. In addition, significant productivity increases can be observed in some segments of this sector. Starting from these two empirical observations we construct a model of growth in a two-region setting with factor mobility. The growth process is based on endogenous technological change in the nontraded input sector, whose output serves as an input in the production of one of the two final goods, the so-called industrial good. We consider two extreme cases, one with locally limited, the other with interregional knowledge spillovers. Conditions are established under which interior solutions with production of local inputs and steady-state growth in both regions result, and others under which we find a core-periphery pattern with growth concentrated in one region only. The stability of the equilibria is discussed by considering the transition processes. Finally, it is shown that catching-up as well as leapfrogging may occur, if new technologies become available.     

LONG-TERM FORECASTING OF NONCOINTEGRATED AND COINTEGRATED REGIONAL AND NATIONAL MODELS*

ABSTRACT. Johansen's (1988) multivariate test for cointegration is first applied to four models involving quarterly state data and five variables, along with a national model based on Friedman and Kuttner's (1992) model of money demand, which uses three variables. Each regional model consists of frequently used national and state series, for which theory suggests the possible cointegration of several series pairs. Beginning with all five series, however, one state model is found to be cointegrated over each of 20 successive estimation intervals. The money demand model and one state model are not cointegrated over the same intervals. In the cointegrated case, five-year experimental forecasts show that error correction mechanism (ECM) and Bayesian ECM models outperform all other approaches. More importantly, forecasting performance improves further by respecifying the ECM model based on three cointegrated series pairs rather than the five-component cointegrating vector. For the two noncointegrated systems, the first-difference model suggested by the cointegration/ error correction literature is far superior to VAR in levels over both shortand long-term horizons.     

THE ONTARIO COUNTRY ROAD AS A CULTURAL RESOURCE

This paper demonstrates that the morphology of ordinary rural roads tells much about regional development. It uses southern Ontario as a case study, but the principles may be applied widely. It is a plea for recognition of a deep heritage in unspectacular things: ditches, fence-lines, culverts, jogs in the survey, and more. This paper also encourages local and regional planners to conserve signs of change in the roadscape and to celebrate them. Roadside evolution is worth publicizing, and unnecessary destruction of elements that enhance the story must be discouraged.
Cet essai démontre que la morphologie des routes rurales ordinaires en dit beaucoup au sujet du développement regional. On peut employer cet exemple de /'Ontario du sud mais les principes peuvent s'appliquer d'une manière plus large. Dans ce manuscrit on doit reconnaître /'heritage profond des elements communs: des caniveaux, des clotures, des aqueducs, des irrégularity de I'arpentage, etc. Cet essai encourage aussi les planificateurs i conserver ces signes du paysage routier et à les mettre en Évidence. On doit les faire connaître au public, et décourager leur déstruction.     

Formalizing the Informal Sector: Barriers and Costs

This article uses material from a series of case studies conducted in Latin America to analyse various aspects of the formalization of the informal sector. In particular, it examines the legal and bureaucratic barriers confronting informal sector micro-enterprises which seek to become part of the formal, legal circuit, and assesses the costs in time and money which are involved in the formalization process. The process itself is seen as consisting of two elements — achieving legality and retaining that status over time — each of which involves certain bureaucratic and financial demands. While recognizing that the requirements for formalization can represent a burden in some cases, the main finding of the article is that the procedures and related costs vary between countries to such a degree that it is impossible to claim, as some earlier studies have done, that disproportionate regulation and bureaucracy constitute an insurmountable obstacle to the legalization of informal sector enterprises.