SAES-422 Multistate Research Activity Accomplishments Report
Sections
Status: Approved
Basic Information
- Project No. and Title: NC_OLD1100 : Rural Development, Work and Poverty in the North Central Region
- Period Covered: 07/01/2004 to 06/01/2005
- Date of Report: 07/08/2005
- Annual Meeting Dates: 05/11/2005 to 05/11/2005
Participants
Goe, Richard - Kansas State University; Keeney, Roman - Purdue University; Schulman, Michael (michael_schulman@ncsu.edu) - North Caroline State University; Anderson, Cindy (cda@iastate.edu) - Iowa State University; Weng, Chih Yuan - Iowa State University; Lobao, Linda (lobao.1@osu.edu) - Ohio State University; Loveridge, Scott (loverids@msu.edu) - Michigan State University; Fennelly, Katherine (fenne007@umn.edu) - University of Minnesota; Hess, Donna (donna_hess@sdstate.edu) - South Dakota State University; Green, Gary (gpgreen@wisc.edu) - University of Wisconsin; Wendy Wintersteen (agexecdean@iastate.edu) Administrative Advisor - Iowa State University; Flora, Cornelia (cflora@iastate.edu) - Iowa State University; Emery, Mary (memery@iastate.edu) - NCRCRD staff, Iowa State University
Accomplishments
1) Research design based on the conference to further specify the cultural perceptions of poverty and its alleviation.
Status: The research design is complete and committee members assigned to various aspects of the research.
- Research objectives:
- 1. Determine the model of the changes in low wage employment growth in rural areas by looking at the intersection of household, employer, labor force, and labor market. Are these changes indications of significant restructuring or are jobs disappearing?
- 2. Determine the degree to which rural labor markets in each state deviate from the predictive model.
- 3. Identify in each state rural labor markets that have been most successful in increasing good jobs (non-low wage work) and those who have been least in increasing good jobs a stratified.
- 4. Compare the development strategies and practices of employers offering high wage jobs with benefits and those offering low wage jobs with out benefit in each labor market.
- 5. Determine what actions at the community level are related to the creation of good jobs and the creation of low wage, temporary, and part time work.
- Specific hypotheses to be tested:
- a. Proportion of and change in working poor in labor markets is a function agricultural dependency, low educational levels, and distance from urban centers (Beale code).
- b. Labor markets with a higher dependence on import sensitive industries are more likely to increase in proportion of working poor.
- c. Labor markets with high concentrations of women and immigrants would be more likely to have high proportions of working book.
- d. Labor markets with high numbers of immigrants will have higher levels of entrepreneurship, as measured in number of small businesses.
- e. Communities clusters that counties that invest in big box stores are have more low wage jobs and higher rates of SSI.
- f. Community action can have an impact on improving the situation of the working poor.
- Research Methodologies:
- 1. Labor market and county level will be compiled in an SPSS file from a variety of data sources will be compiled (Iowa, South Dakota, Ohio, Kansas, Wisconsin).
- 2. Using multiple regression and hierarchical modeling, a predictive model of % working poor and change in working poor will be developed (Iowa, Kansas, North Carolina, Wisconsin).
- 3. High low wage work rural communities and low low wage work communities in each North Central state will be identified using the models developed (Iowa, Michigan, Purdue).
- 4. Semi-structured interviews will be carried out with employers in those communities. That data will be coded using N-Vivo and SPSS (All states. Wisconsin, Purdue, North Carolina and Michigan will take the lead in framing the interview schedule).
- 5. Community case studies to determine the degree of community agency and its impact on low wage work will be carried out in the identified (All states: Michigan and Minnesota will take the lead in determining the specific data gathering instruments to be used in each community).
2) Analysis of rural labor markets, rural labor force, and levels of poverty.
- 1. Analysis of changes in rural labor markets, rural labor force, and presence of working poor.
- Status: Existing databases have been combined into to data sets - labor markets and counties and individual characteristics of rural labor markets and the rural labor force have been correlated with the percent working poor. Counties at risk of outsourcing and with high levels of inequality have been identified and zero-order correlations calculated.
- 2. Conduct employer interviews.
- Status: A basic questionnaire has been developed in Wisconsin and will be discussed electronically by the group in the fall.
- 3. Community case studies to determine the intersection of structure and agency.
- Status: The committee is discussing a community capitals approach.
- 4. A grant-writing team has been formed (Iowa, Michigan).
Impacts
- The initial analysis has been presented to a variety of organizations interested in rural development, increasing their interest in issues of the working poor and inequality in program development. These organizations include the Humphrey Institute and the National Association for Rural Mental Health.
- Outputs include: Presentations at the Humphrey Institute and at The Clock is Ticking for Rural America: A Behavioral Health and Safety Conference. An article for Rural Development News on the potential impact of outsourcing in the region is in press.