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Downscaled climate projections need to be linked to downscaled projections of population and economic growth to fully develop implications for land, natural resources, and ecosystems for future scenarios. We develop an empirical spatiotemporal approach for jointly projecting population and income at the county scale in the United States that is consistent with neoclassical economic growth theory and overlapping labor markets and that accounts for labor migration and spatial spillovers. Downscaled projections generated for the five Shared Socioeconomic Pathways used to support global scenario analysis generally show growth focused around relatively few centers especially in the southeast and western regions, with some areas in the Midwest and northeast experiencing population declines. Results are consistent with economic growth theory and with historical trends in population change and convergence of per capita personal income across US counties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores the role of women as city boosters in California. Reference to urban development related activities of California women; Implications of the increasing membership of women in chambers of commerce throughout the state in the 1910s and the 1920s; Reevaluation of interpretations of women's public work away from models stressing gender identity, moral and social reform, and political activism; Assertion that urban growth and development offered unlimited potential for economic prosperity that could be realized through the careful marketing of California.

Explores the influence of boosterism on the migration of African Americans in the West. Contribution of overzealous boosterism to the Kansas exodus; Adjustment of promotional efforts by boosters in the surrounding states in order to discourage overflow from the exodus; Publicity over the exodus that alerted some speculators to the profit potential of the black settler market; Conclusions implying that boosters regardless of color employed a common national assumption to which both blacks and white could relate.

Explores the significant role played by Chautauqua boosters in the Middle West and West from 1874-1900. Promotion of a vision of racial and religious progress; Reference to the origins of Chautauqua in forests and prairies of the Middle West; Factors that contribute to Chautauqua's appeal to Western boosters; Perceptions of the nineteenth-century urban development in the region; Projection by Chautauqua's Western boosters of an innovative vision of imaginative democracy deeply rooted in older modes of racial and moral authority.

Explores the important role played by the Chicago Western Railroad and Iowa Townsite Co. in the urban development of Iowa. Extent of Chicago Western Railroad's participation in townmaking; Discussion on the strategy of townbuilding in the region; Benefits of the development and promotion of Iowa's townsites; Factors that contributed to the failure in Iowa Townsite Co.'s scientific planning.

Explores the concept of boosterism and townsite development along the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railroad in South Dakota. Impact of the so-called “great Dakota bust” on railroad expansion plans; Inception of an impressive townsite development and booster program as an important corollary of the management of Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad (M&Stl); Construction of a collection of secondary main lines and branches to dominate the eastern part of the state; Role of M&Stl townsite agent Thomas A. Way in the establishment of communities along the M&Stl lines.

Coastal risks are increasing from both development and climate change. Interest is growing in the protective role that coastal nature-based measures (or green infrastructure), such as reefs and wetlands, can play in adapting to these risks. However, a lack of quantitative information on their relative costs and benefits is one principal factor limiting their use more broadly. Here, we apply a quantitative risk assessment framework to assess coastal flood risk (from climate change and economic exposure growth) across the United States Gulf of Mexico coast to compare the cost effectiveness of different adaptation measures. These include nature-based (e.g. oyster reef restoration), structural or grey (e.g., seawalls) and policy measures (e.g. home elevation). We first find that coastal development will be a critical driver of risk, particularly for major disasters, but climate change will cause more recurrent losses through changes in storms and relative sea level rise. By 2030, flooding will cost $134–176.6 billion (for different economic growth scenarios), but as the effects of climate change, land subsidence and concentration of assets in the coastal zone increase, annualized risk will more than double by 2050 with respect to 2030. However, from the portfolio we studied, the set of cost-effective adaptation measures (with benefit to cost ratios above 1) could prevent up to $57–101 billion in losses, which represents 42.8–57.2% of the total risk. Nature-based adaptation options could avert more than $50 billion of these costs, and do so cost effectively with average benefit to cost ratios above 3.5. Wetland and oyster reef restoration are found to be particularly cost-effective. This study demonstrates that the cost effectiveness of nature-based, grey and policy measures can be compared quantitatively with one another, and that the cost effectiveness of adaptation becomes more attractive as climate change and coastal development intensifies in the future. It also shows that investments in nature-based adaptation could meet multiple objectives for environmental restoration, adaptation and flood risk reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Since the site of human subjects research has public health, regulatory, ethical, economic, and social implications, we sought to determine the global distribution and migration of clinical research using an open-access trial registry. Methods: We obtained individual clinical trial data including location of trial sites, dates of operation, funding source (United States government, pharmaceutical industry, or organization), and clinical study phase (1, 1/2, 2, 2/3, or 3) from ClinicalTrials.gov. We used the World Bank's classification of each country's economic development status ["High Income and a Member of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)", "High Income and Non-Member of the OECD", "Upper-Middle Income", "Lower-Middle Income", or "Low Income"] and United Nations Populations Division data for country-specific population estimates. We analyzed data from calendar year 2006 through 2012 by number of clinical trial sites, cumulative trial site-years, trial density (trial site-years/106 population), and annual growth rate (%) for each country, and by development category, funding source, and clinical study phase. Results: Over a 7-year period, 89,647 clinical trials operated 784,585 trial sites in 175 countries, contributing 2,443,850 trial site-years. Among those, 652,200 trial sites (83%) were in 25 high-income OECD countries, while 37,195 sites (5%) were in 91 lower-middle or low-income countries. Trial density (trial site-years/106 population) was 540 in the United States, 202 among other high-income OECD countries (excluding the United States), 81 among high-income non-OECD countries, 41 among upper-middle income countries, 5 among lower-middle income countries, and 2 among low-income countries. Annual compound growth rate was positive (ranging from 0.8% among low-income countries to 14.7% among lower-middle income countries) among all economic groups, except the United States (-0.5%). Overall, 29,191 trials (33%) were funded by industry, 4,059 (5%) were funded by the United States government, and 56,397 (63%) were funded by organizations. Countries with emerging economies (low- and middle-income) operated 19% of phase 3 trial sites, as compared to only 6% of phase 1 trial sites. Conclusion: Human clinical research remains concentrated in high-income countries, but operational clinical trial sites, particularly for phase 3 trials, may be migrating to low- and middle-income countries with emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a diffusion process to describe the global dynamic evolution of credit operations at a national level given observed operations at a subnational level in a sovereign country. Empirical analysis with a unique dataset from Brazilian federate constituents supports the conclusions. Despite the heterogeneity observed in credit operations at a subnational level, the aggregated dynamics at a national level were accurately described by the proposed model. Results may guide management of public finances, particularly debt manager authorities in charge of reaching surplus targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we extend some usual techniques of classification resulting from a large-scale data-mining and network approach. This new technology, which in particular is designed to be suitable to big data, is used to construct an open consolidated database from raw data on 4 million patents taken from the US patent office from 1976 onward. To build the pattern network, not only do we look at each patent title, but we also examine their full abstract and extract the relevant keywords accordingly. We refer to this classification as semantic approach in contrast with the more common technological approach which consists in taking the topology when considering US Patent office technological classes. Moreover, we document that both approaches have highly different topological measures and strong statistical evidence that they feature a different model. This suggests that our method is a useful tool to extract endogenous information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the concept of triple bottom line (TBL) and its relevance to economic development. It tackles the focus of the concept on the economic, environmental and social value of an investment, motivations for addressing triple bottom line performance, ways that development investment can yield triple bottom line impact, and examples of the use of TBL approaches in rural, urban and sub-urban communities in the U.S.

The article explores the life and career of economist Albert Otto Hirschman. It offers information his educational background and his service in the U.S. Army during World War II. Emphasis is given to aspects of his academic career and scholarly legacy in development economics and the study of developing countries.

The article presents a reprint of the article "Start with a sound budget, then challenge everything that's holding the economy back," by George P. Shultz and his coworkers published in the "Wall Street Journal." It mentions that the U.S. needs to develop a long term strategy which must be based on principles of the free-enterprise system. It focuses on strategic economic thinking which can establish policies that help in economic growth, employment, and American geopolitical leadership.

Because of several policy distortions, including import-substitution industrialization, widespread government intervention, and both domestic and international competitive barriers, there has been a general presumption that Latin America has been much less productive than the leading economies in the last decades. In this paper we show, however, that until the late 1970s Latin American countries had high productivity levels relative to the United States. It is only after the late 1970s that we observe a fast decrease of relative total factor productivity (TFP) in Latin America. We also show that the inclusion of human capital in the production function makes a crucial difference in the TFP calculations for Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of economics since 1945 was marked by an increasing internationalization that was simultaneously in large part a process of Americanization. This article focuses on the role refugee economists from Continental Europe played in the rise of American economics. It focuses on the emigration of German-speaking economists after 1933; and then deals with the special case of Jacob Marschak who emigrated twice, first from the Soviet Union in 1919 and then from Nazi Germany, and exerted a greater influence in Britain and in the USA. Finally important contributions by émigré economists to game theory, public finance and development economics are reflected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accountability movement in public policy hails a new programme for US foreign assistance - the Millennium Challenge Account established in 2004 with the aim of 'picking winners' for grants among developing countries based on their demonstrated quality of governance. This article uses the MCA's own rating system to dispute its claim to know in advance which countries are best positioned to meet major development goals. High governance scores alone bear little or no relationship to growth in national income or decline in poverty. Attempting to measure public-policy performance limits the range of choice available to policy-makers, and may inadvertently limit true performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article surveys a half century of American policy toward African countries, tracing its origins to the policy advocated in the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration by then Vice President Richard Nixon that the United States should both acknowledge that African nationalism was a positive force and accept that the newly independent countries of the continent would need to focus on economic development. Tracing the evolution of U.S.-Africa interaction over the course of the succeeding ten presidencies, the author discerns a considerable continuity in Washington's adherence to the twin Nixonian principles that economic development should be the core policy and that respect for African independence and “nationalism” constitutes the foundation of diplomatic relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the research on passports and economic development during the ninteenth century by the elites in the U.S. It states that the differences of the universal decline in the standard of living in the nonmodern America were authenticated for slaves and the dwellers of separated regions. It mentions that the evidence from the applications of passport at present proposes that even in the structured market in the urban northeast, part of the population was almost resistant against the forces that cause the decline of net-nutritional status that the common man went through.

The article discusses the government's power in possessing private properties for economic development in the U.S. Under just compensation, the government can transfer property from A to B when it is rationally conceivable that B's use will benefit the public. Meanwhile, governments have made use of eminent domain for the construction of roads and other projects with a clear public use.

The article offers information on the growth and expansion of entrepreneurship education in the U.S. It is reported that entrepreneurship education first emerged in 1947 with the offering the first college-level entrepreneurship course by Harvard University. It is stated that entrepreneurship education in colleges and universities in Canada has grown in terms of course offerings over the last twenty years at rates of 444% at the undergraduate level and 232% at the graduate level. The institutionalization of cross-disciplinary entrepreneurship education has also been identified as a contributing factor to economic development in the knowledge economy.

In contrast to many discussions based on annual emissions, this article presents calculations and projections of cumulative contributions to the stock of atmospheric CO2 by the major players, China, Europe, India, Japan and the USA, for the period 1900-2080. Although relative contributions to the climate problem are changing dramatically, notably due to the rapid industrialization of China, long-term responsibilities for enhanced global warming have not been transparently quantified in the literature. The analysis shows that if current trends continue, by the middle of this century China will overtake the USA as the major cumulative contributor to atmospheric concentrations of CO2. This has enormous implications for the debate on the ethical responsibilities of the major greenhouse gas emitters. Effective climate policy will require both the recognition of shared responsibility and an unprecedented degree of cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new model of knowledge-based regional economic development was invented in Boston during the 1930s and subsequently transferred to northern California where it also had independent roots. Drawing upon academic, business and government resources and configuring them in new formats created new firms and new industries. Nevertheless, the two regions often appear dissimilar when they are contrasted synchronically, due to the different stages they may be in at the time. Thus, some observers argue that Boston and Silicon Valley are distinctive watersheds, irrelevant to follow-on regions. However, if the development process of these two prototypical high-tech regions are analysed diachronically, a trajectory with similar phases of development may be identified. We suggest that these two regions exemplify a general model for high-tech regional growth and renewal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the technology-guided economic development which has the trend to focus on methods and exercises for commercializing university-based research. It discusses that regions can also have a technology mismatch. It infers that Southeastern Wisconsin is just one of the many United States regions with a grown manufacturing base ill-prepared to formulate early phase, basic research. It also infers that the Center for Advanced Technology and Innovation (CATI) formulated a unique technology-led economic development scheme that leverages late-stage, applied research from private industry as a tool for regional entrepreneurial and small business expansion.

In the neoliberal form of capitalism, economic expansion tends to be accompanied by rising profits and stagnant wages, creating a potential problem of overproduction. This obstacle to expansion has been overcome in the U.S. economy in the neoliberal era through rising household debt and the emergence of asset bubbles. However, certain trends in the U.S. economy suggest that the past methods of promoting expansion and averting severe crises in the neoliberal era may be becoming nonviable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines how inward foreign direct investment (FDI) impacts manufacturing productivity in select industries across US regions. Although some evidence has documented the phenomenon of knowledge spillovers to national economies, little is known about how the regional penetration of foreign investment affects the productivity performance of local firms. The analysis proceeds in a novel fashion by adjusting aggregate data on industry operating statistics to “net out” the contaminating influence of foreign firms producing in each of the host regional economies. A cross section of state-by-industry observations is used to estimate labor productivity, controlling for FDI penetration both by region and by industry. In general, the results demonstrate that domestic firms do not reap productivity gains as a result of a larger presence of foreign affiliates. Related research efforts, although not specifically concerned with the regional transmission of FDI spillovers, offer corroborative support for these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the importance of race to transport and cultural history in the U.S. The theory of race provides the political-ideological conditions under which systems of maritime and rail transport did their work of moving capital, people, and commodities around the world. It stated that some people has inclined to be characterised as threatening to a social order based on spatial, cultural, and biological segregation of the fictive categories known as races. Furthermore, the author cited that the rise of systems on modern transport would have been impossible without industrialization that required a new and compelling concept of race.

The article illustrates how economic development strategy and business attraction targeting have been changing over time and how new analysis tools are enabling economic developers to become more sophisticated in their identification and refinement of feasible target strategies in the U.S. It focuses on the use of the local economic assessment package (LEAP) approach to economic development evaluation to exemplify how it can be applied. It is emphasized that the LEAP approach involves three steps such as economic assessment, targeting diagnostics and policy analysis.

This paper examines trends in local economic development policies in Canadian and U.S. cities over the past fifteen years. Using data drawn from surveys conducted at four points in time -- 1990, 1994, 2001, and 2005 -- the study provides a longitudinal assessment of change versus stability in overall approach toward economic development. Findings indicate that Canadian and U.S. cities have followed relatively similar trajectories in the extent to which they use particular economic development policies. Overall, the most common economic development policies in both nations have been and continue to be very similar: infrastructure investment generally, land development, basic promotion, and the use of special events to attract and retain businesses and residents and to promote the community. Thus, there is a visible pattern of the "least of differences" among cities in Michigan and Ontario in their development strategies and approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. This study explores the entrepreneurial tendencies of Mexican immigrants in metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) on the U.S. side of the Mexican border vis-à-vis the U.S. interior. Methods. Using 2000 Census data available in the 5% Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, we empirically analyze the self-employment rates and earnings of Mexican immigrants residing in U.S. cities near Mexico versus those in nonborder MSAs. Results. Our findings indicate that Mexican immigrants in MSAs along the U.S.-Mexico border have significantly higher self-employment rates (but lower earnings) than their counterparts in the rest of the United States and non-Hispanic whites in border cities. Explanations for these findings include the existence of trade opportunities in U.S. border cities as well as intense labor market competition that crowds a greater share of immigrants into self-employment. Conclusion. Immigration reform that curtails the immigration flow from Mexico might hinder small business formation and economic development on the U.S. side of the Mexican border. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) which is the perils of pursuing African Development through U.S. trade law. The article also explores the whether AGOA has served as a catalyst for African economic development. It also examines the legislative history that led to AGOA, the legal framework that resulted and the economic consequences for African states. The author also enumerates three main factors that have limited AGOA's effectiveness.

The article discusses the period of market revolution in the U.S. Market revolution centers on the general displacement of traditional controls over production, distribution and exchange that are governed by economic factors such as supply, demand and price. The author claims that the general liberation that resulted from the American Revolution as it led individuals free access to natural resources, free from the restraining authority of kings or governors. It is believed that three colonial habits persisted and one new expediency provided the energy following American independence. These include pioneering, innovation, slavery and exploitation, which in turn gave rise to market revolution. For a long time, market revolution has been known in history simply as progress, the story of America's success.

Intellectual property rights have been driven relentlessly towards a unitary system for the entire world, originally through passive copying of flawed United States arrangements, but more recently as a result of determined lobbying by American interests. But diversity and competition have the same beneficial potential for institutions themselves as they have for the economic development they can foster or hinder. A financial dimension in measuring grants, protecting innovation directly, compulsory technical arbitration of disputes, and some positive discrimination in favour of smaller firms could contribute to moving the balance back towards the diversity in rights that other countries need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on workforce placement and training system in the U.S. Complicatiosn in the federal workforce system; Building effective workforce and economic development partnerships; Coordination of supply and demand. INSETS: Case in Point: The Difficulty of Matching Supply and Demand;Finding the Niche: Helping Washington State Manufactuerers....

Focuses on the power of information in economic development in the U.S. Opportunities that inner cities offer for retailers, financial institutions, real estate developers and other businesses. INSETS: San Antonio;Supermarket: Gary, Indiana;Home Improvement Retailer: Chicago, Illinois.

The implementation of the "Washington consensus" model in less developed and transitional countries, together with the neoliberal economic development, has also implied the transition from the "bad" to the "good" governance. The concept of the "good" governance centres around the governance ideology of effectiveness and the high-quality public service delivery. The increased effectiveness and capability, however, does not necessarily ensure qualifying governance for a longterm shaping of a state's future. The governance model in transition largely determines the transitional success or failure. The "bad" governance in Croatia is a consequence of low efficacy and rampant corruption as well as of a lack of strategic and creative governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines declining adult human stature in the nineteenth century in three countries: the United States, England, and the Netherlands. While this was not unprecedented, these three relatively important nations did experience a deterioration in the biological standard of living at a time when economic development was proceeding at a goodly pace. England and the Netherlands were among the most urbanized countries in Europe at the time, while the United States was still predominantly rural and agrarian. The essay argues that a confluence of circumstances contributed to the worsening of the physical condition of these populations even while real income per capita was growing. Among the factors involved were rapid urbanization without adequate public health and sanitation; a transport revolution and related commercialization, which brought people and goods into much closer contact; the consequent integration of disease environments, both within and across nations; and a growing dependence of the working populations on wage income along with a probable growing inequality in wealth and income, exacerbating the impact of fluctuations in food prices. Technological change had an impact on these events by lowering the relative prices of industrial goods. While the term Malthusian crisis (i.e., a shortage of subsistence followed by a rise in mortality) seems inappropriate in these cases, a similar process may have been taking place. It suggests that such a crisis may not commence with an increase in mortality but rather with an adjustment of the human organism to new nutritional circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States' approach to Algeria's civil conflict has been based on the stringent assumption that a choice must be made between a secular government that is pro-western (although corrupt and repressive) and an Islamist regime that is anti-western (although equally repressive if allowed to govern). The article shows that this approach hot only works to sustain authoritarianism in Algeria and reinforce a vicious cycle of poverty and civil violence, but also ignores the causal links between the practice of dictatorship in the country and the rise of anti-American violence. In this sense, America's foreign policy towards Algeria is a contributory factor to transnational terrorism. An alternative approach that is based on economic development and democracy promotion is proposed here to achieve sustainable democracy and internal peace in Algeria and weaken the forces that give rise to anti-American violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

9/11 has been used in New York City politics to both explain the current fiscal crisis and justify certain economic development policies. Such use of 9/11 obscures the long-term historical roots of the current fiscal crisis, which in fact lie in the contradictions of the set of economic development policies implemented in the years since the city's last major fiscal crisis in the mid-1970s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amidst the continuing controversy over American economic development incentives, this article looks at three key effectiveness issues: Do economic development incentives encourage new investment and employment? Are these incentives targeted at economically depressed areas or economically depressed people? How costly are these incentives? For all these questions, our findings come out against traditional economic development incentives. We suggest that there is a need for a radical transformation of economic development policy in the U.S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides an overview of the Western American boosterism. Definition of boosterism; Factors that contributed to the inception of boosters; Role of boosters in the development of the West; Reference to the many facets of Western American boosterism.

Presents a revision of the draft delivered at Williams College on October 24, 1997 about development economics.

The article looks at African immigration to the U.S. Since the end of World War II, a dramatic expansion of the global capitalist economy is linking countries of the world together into a complex network of trade, finance and technology flows. One result of expanding global trade and economic integration is that global gross national product has grown to unprecedented heights. But most of the benefits so far have gone to already wealthy countries. Political turmoil is closely linked to this failure of economic development. As pressures of poverty, rapid population growth, disease and illiteracy and environmental degradation mount, they produce a volatile cocktail of insecurity. In Western Europe large-scale labor recruitment, often from previous colonies, began in the 1960s and ended after 1973, when energy crises and recessions led to restrictive immigration policies.

This article discusses the relation among industrialization, modernization and the quality of life. In the narrowest technical sense, industrialization refers to the process of increasingly shifting the composition of all goods produced by any society in two major respects, first, the share of all products resulting from manufacture rather than from agriculture increases markedly and, second, there is a major shift in the share of all fabrication which is undertaken not by craft hand-labor but by machine processes, especially as driven by inanimate sources of energy. No less important were changes in the character of the population's education and residence. In 1870, no one in the United States lived in a city of a million population, but by 1970 almost 19 million people lived in such metropolitan conglomerations. The potential indicators of a nation's industrialization and modernization are numerous, but they are also highly consistent. To judge the quality of life we have several alternative modes available. The first critical choice is between subjective and objective measures. Within each of these sets a second set of choices can he made, providing us with 4 basic types of potential indicators.

Focuses on the domestic policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt during the years of World War II. How the late 1930s were important for liberal policy formulation than commonly recognized; Excerpts and comments from Roosevelt's speeches in the 1940s suggesting a continued focus on economic reforms; Impact of the National Resources Planning Board (NRPB) in the development of the Third New Deal and economic development during the war years; Reports issued by the NRPB that explained the focus of liberal policy innovation; What the reports said about public aid and the nation's economy; Importance of the information contained in the reports.

This article uses data from a nineteenth-century industrial community in the U.S. to consider the conditions under which entrepreneurs introduce the technology of steam power. The steam engine seems the quintessential technology of industrialization. Not surprisingly, historians have traditionally assigned a central role to the steam engine in the industrialization of western society. If steam was the critical pivot of industrialization, then the geographical and chronological pattern of the adoption of steam power in manufacturing would have paralleled the spread of U.S. manufacturing activity. But beyond an overall contrast between North and South, this was not so. The multiplication and spread of manufacturing enterprises was first a New England phenomenon and then, by the mid-nineteenth century, became most concentrated in the Middle Atlantic states. The relationship between steam and the size of steam users was much the same in 1870 and 1880 as it had been earlier; value added per industry and firm was nearly substantially higher among steam users. As with cost savings, steam's locational flexibility was more critical to Western manufacturers than their Eastern counterparts.

Reports on the application of fuzzy-set clustering for regional economic analysis of Nevada communities. How quantitative and qualitative procedures used to aggregate communities and counties often ignore the diversity that may exist in those communities; Choice of variables in fuzzy-set clustering; Comparison of the results of hard and fuzzy-set clustering procedures used to aggregate the Nevada communities; Suggestion of specific economic development programs for aggregate and individual counties based on the fuzzy-set clustering analysis results.