• Basic Information
• Additional Info

Basic Information

• Project No. and Title: W4001 : Social, Economic and Environmental Causes and Consequences of Demographic Change in Rural America
• Period Covered: 10/01/2017 to 09/30/2018
• Date of Report: 10/02/2018
• Annual Meeting Dates: 09/21/2018 to 09/22/2018

Participants

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Accomplishments

Impacts

1. Research on the social and economic factors driving geographic differences in opioid and other drug mortality rates is being used by the USDA Office of Rural Development to develop a national county-level vulnerability index that captures both upstream (e.g., social, economic) and downstream factors (e.g. access to treatment) contributing to substance use disorders in rural America. This index could help policymaker better understand the factors that make rural communities vulnerable or resilient to public health crises.
2. Research shows that risks for developing substance use disorders are not equally distributed across different population and economic subgroups. Drug mortality rates are much higher and have risen more sharply in parts of rural Appalachia, New England, and the desert southwest while remaining comparatively low in other rural areas, including the Mississippi Delta, the upper Great Plains, and parts of Texas. Research highlights the salience of county-level economic and family distress on this geographic variation, noting that these associations are region-specific and vary by metropolitan status. These results raise awareness of geographically-relevant policy recommendations, including strategies to reduce economic deprivation, family dissolution, and social isolation in the places most adversely affected by employment restructuring since the 1970s.
3. Research on changes to earnings and the social safety net in rural America, and how those changes relate to changes in poverty rates over time, raised awareness and increased knowledge about differences in economic opportunity and how government policies offset market risk for rural American families. The proportion of disposable household income from income transfers is higher in rural America than in urban and has not declined since the end of the Great Recession. Research raised awareness that the safety net effectively reduces significant poverty, especially for rural single mothers. Additional work-family policies such as affordable daycare is needed to make further progress against poverty for single parents and married families with one parent working.
4. Research on the poverty in the Upper Midwest raised awareness and increased knowledge about the links between economic well-being and regional industrial changes, specifically how the links change over time and are different across places. New knowledge generated by the study shows that places dependent on manufacturing were once more likely to have low numbers of people living in poverty, but are now more likely to have higher numbers of people living in poverty. This is especially the case in places that experienced dramatic losses in manufacturing between 1970 and 2016. Policy implications include stressing the need to consider local and long-run industry conditions when developing anti-poverty and other economic development policies.
5. Research on how migration into the US South has influenced poverty in the region raised awareness and increased knowledge about the importance of migration trends for places. Different types of migration have different impacts on overall poverty. For instance, new migrants to the region have contributed to lower poverty whereas natives returning to their home states have contributed to higher poverty. Policy implications include stressing the need to consider the different assets and challenges associated with distinct types of migrations when developing policies aimed at enhancing economic and community wellbeing.
6. Research on how historical dependence on slavery have lasting impacts for today’s communities and their residents raised awareness about the different forces driving racial inequality in America. Although racial inequality exists in all places within the US, the links between race and inequality are not same across all places, not even in the South. Southern places with the strongest ties to slavery have a pattern of racial inequality that still follows the pattern of exploitation of blacks by whites. The rest of the nation, including southern places with weaker ties to slavery, have a pattern of inequality that shows a more tempered oppressive response by whites over blacks. In both cases, whites are advantaged by inequality. Potential policy implications include stressing the importance of local racial histories in developing anti-poverty and other economic development policies.
7. A published essay on the human impacts of sea level rise raised awareness and increased knowledge about the obstacles and opportunities for social scientists to contribute to research and policy. The essay helped readers from multiple disciplines and nations understand the current challenges of generating useful research and potential strategies to overcome them, and to set the agenda for researchers to generate studies useful for community planning.
8. State fisheries management and habitat programs are largely supported by fishing license sales and returns from excise taxes, but the number of people who fish has been declining in recent years. Research on changes in fishing participation across the Midwest emphasized age and generational differences in fishing participation for women and men. If recent trends continue, the future number of male fishers will continue to decline, while the number of women will likely grow. Fisheries managers and policy makers should engage women as active stakeholders in decision-making. State departments of natural resources are using these findings to make management and recruitment decisions.
9. Published research and continued data collection efforts on social and public health implications of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill raised awareness and increased knowledge about resilience and vulnerability in the wake of environmental shocks.
10. Outreach activities at Wisconsin’s Applied Population Laboratory helped public policy makers, local decision makers, and rural residents understand the changing population of Wisconsin and associated needs, so that they are adapted to current and projected rural population trends. APL provides training, data consulting, and other forms of direct support and assistance to Extension specialists and county-based educators, and other stakeholders, in addition to collaborative applied research on emerging community and population issues.
11. Interdisciplinary discussions with researchers and Extension faculty in the University of Minnesota system helped set the agenda for the W4001 project by exploring ways in which workforce housing impacts rural community and economic development.
12. Contributions by several members to the Rural Poverty Research Conference: Fifty Years After the People Left Behind, in Washington, DC, including a webinar to about 500 participants, raised awareness on what we know and what we need to know about rural poverty 50 years after the publication of the President’s National Advisory Commission on Rural Poverty, The People Left Behind.
13. Collaborative research in partnership with the Vermont Council on Rural Development provided access to demographic, economic, social, and environmental indicators for towns and counties within the state.
14. Research and policy discussions with legislators, public and NGO policy makers provided insights into recent demographic change in New Hampshire and New England and the policy challenges the state and region will face in light of these changes.
15. Research and policy discussions with health care practitioners and administrators in rural Washington raised awareness about inpatient admissions and readmissions related to chronic conditions, and about rural-urban differences in emergency department use for chronic conditions.
16. Work with Congressional staff on a draft bill directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop a national strategy to increase life expectancy – preliminarily titled: “National Strategy to Increase Life Expectancy Act”—could lead to much-needed research on the causes of declining US life expectancy across different geographies (e.g., urban-rural continuum), evaluation of existing federal government efforts to reverse these trends, development of recommend federal policy changes, and projections of life expectancy gains if such changes were to be implemented.
17. Several policy discussions related to project objectives with Congressional Staff helped set the agenda for rural economic development. For example, policy discussions related to the farm bill reauthorization, rural poverty, rural demographic change, and infrastructure needs helped inform NY senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s rural economic development platform.
18. Research and policy discussions with staff at the National Association of Counties, Washington DC, focusing on the types of information available from a primary data collection survey on county governments, was shared with county governments across the nation.
19. Research brought into the classroom raised awareness of issues related to the project’s objective to over 800 undergraduate and graduate students across the country. New knowledge resulted from mentoring over 20 PhD students as lead advisors or PhD committee members.

Publications