Oregon’s high hunger and food insecurity rates have been a concern throughout the last decade. These high rates earned Oregon the dubious distinction as the most food insecure with hunger state in the late 1990’s. While Oregon’s ranking has improved in recent years, our understanding of why Oregon ranked so...
Latinos are less likely to be civically involved in their community than any other minority group, despite the fact that they are the biggest minority in the United States. A great concern exists over ways to effectively promote and improve this group’s participation in their community’s decision-making process [or civic...
Rural communities will continue to be disproportionately shocked by economic fluctuations. Market forces are likely to lead to the decline of many rural communities and they will need to be economically resilient to survive. This thesis draws on several social sciences and the natural sciences to develop ideas that communities...
Historically, rural economic development has focused on attracting outside firms or increasing exploitation of natural resources, often without equitable or lasting returns to the community. The Rural Wealth Creation framework was developed as a systems-based approach to assessing and leveraging local assets for the creation of lasting wealth in communities....
Why do rural households leave for urban places? And how does this
decision affect their economic well-being? Rural places in the United States have higher poverty and unemployment rates and lower levels of educational attainment relative to urban places. Does leaving a rural place for a city offer a pathway...
This analysis explores potential changes in the behavior of Oregon's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants after the 2008 recession. I examine this using individual-level administrative data from the State of Oregon in a linear probability model and a duration model. After controlling for a standard set of factors known...
This study models poverty changes across the United States between 1990 and 2000 as a function of spatial poverty variables (variables that attempt to capture the spatial effects of poverty and poverty changes), social capital, local employment growth, and demographic controls. Newly available decennial census data at the tract level...
Absentee-owned manufacturing plants made up a significant
portion of the manufacturing sector in Oregon. In both 1969 and
1979, more than a quarter of the state's wage and salary
manufacturing workers were employed by manufacturers whose home
offices were located in other states or nations. Although the
orthodox economic view...
A net shift analysis was used to analyze growth in employment
and value added from 1954 to 1982 in SIC 2037, Frozen Fruits, Fruit
Juices, and Vegetables. This analysis indicated that the Pacific
Northwest dominated the growth experienced in this sector over this
time period. Oregon's share of total U.S....