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Agriculture is an important sector in economic growth of North Carolina that contributes 19 percent of the state’s income and employs over 20 percent of the work force. Of the total population, 30 percent are living in rural North Carolina where income earnings, education level, and employment opportunities are low while poverty and unemployment rates are considerably high. Of 100 counties 85 are rural and agriculture is one of the significant employment sectors. The objective of this study is to examine the potential use of agricultural sector in the economic growth of North Carolina. County level data gathered from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, USDA, and U.S. Census Bureau for the period of 2000 to 2010 are used for the study. A system of simultaneous equations is used for analysis. The results summarize that increasing income increases agricultural activities and vise versa. Thus, counties with high income levels are more capable of improving agriculture and counties with high gains through agriculture are more competent of improving income levels. Results highlight the importance of secured satisfactory level of income through agriculture to enhance economic growth.

Investment in education to increase economic growth, as one form of human development, has gained economists‟ and policy makers‟ interest. It establishes human capital that makes a substantial contribution to economic and income growth and preserves returns in the form of skilled labor which leads to increased development and improved quality of life. Different theories and models have used to examine the relationship between education and economic growth. Most of them paid attention to human capital accumulation as source of acceleration in economic growth. Some of them used human capital as an engine of economic growth to technological change. But for human accumulation, a country should invest more on education. Thus, the main objective of the study is to analyze higher education growth and economic growth in West Virginia. A set of simultaneous equations with three endogenous variables of per capita income change, education change and population change was used for the analysis. Results indicate that income growth and education growth are positively related while education growth reduces population growth in West Virginia.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps low income people and households buy food for proper health. This study seeks to examine the effects of changes in economic conditions and welfare on SNAP participation in the Appalachian region. Using county level data, the Spatial Durbin (SDM) Model was used to examine the effect of economic conditions, demographic attributes and institutional factors on SNAP participation. Empirical results from the marginal effects indicate that poverty had the greatest influence on SNAP participation. Findings from this study could be helpful in improving welfare programs in this region.

This study focuses on testing the relationship between income inequality and growth within U.S. counties, and the channels through which such effects are observed. The study tests three hypotheses: (1) income inequality has an inverse relationship with growth; (2) regional growth adjustments are the channels through which the inequality and growth are equilibrated; and (3) income inequality is endogenous to regional growth and its adjustment. Results, based on a system of equations estimation, confirm the hypotheses that income inequality has a growth dampening effect; income inequality is endogenous to regional growth and growth adjustment; and the channels through which income inequality determines growth are regional growth adjustments, such as migration and regional adjustment in job and income growth. Results have numerous policy implications: (1) to the extent that income inequality is endogenous, its equilibrium level can be internally determined within a regional growth process; (2) to the extent that traditional income inequality mitigating policies have indirect effect on overall regional growth, they may have unintended indirect effects on income inequality; and (3) to the extent that regional growth adjustment also equilibrates income inequality, such forces can be utilized as policy instruments to mitigate income inequality, and its growth dampening effects hence forth.

In this paper we develop a spatial panel simultaneous-equations model of business growth, migration behavior, local public services and median household income in a partial lag-adjustment growth-equilibrium framework and utilizing a one-way error component model for the disturbances. This model is an extension of the 'jobs follow people or people follow jobs' literature and it improved previous models in the growth-equilibrium tradition by: (1) explicitly modeling local government and regional income in the growth process; (2) explicitly modeling gross in-migration and gross out-migration separately in order to spell out the differential effects, which used to be glossed over under net population change in previous studies; (3) explicitly incorporating both spatially lagged dependent variables and spatially lagged error terms to account for spatial spillover effects in the data set; and (4) extending and generalizing the modeling and estimation of simultaneous systems of spatially interrelated cross sectional equations into a panel data setting. To estimate the model, we develop a five-step new estimation strategy by generalizing the Generalized Spatial Three-Stage Least Squares (GS3SLS) approach outlined in Kelejian and Prucha (2004) into a panel data setting. The empirical implementation of the model uses county-level data from the 418 Appalachian counties for 1980-2000. Generally, the results from these model estimations are consistent with the theoretical expectations and empirical findings in the equilibrium growth literature and provide support to the basic hypotheses of this study. First, the estimates show the existence of feedback simultaneities among the endogenous variables of the model. Second, the results also show the existence of conditional convergence with respect to the respective endogenous variable of each equation of the model and the speed of adjustment parameters are generally comparable to those in literature. Third, the results from the parameter estimation of the model indicate the existence of spatial autoregressive lag effects and spatial cross-regressive lag effects with respect to the endogenous variables of the model. One of the key conclusions is that sector specific policies should be integrated and harmonized in order to give the desirable outcome. Besides, regionally focusing resources for development policy may yield greater returns than treating all locations the same.

In this paper, multivariate spatial autoregressive model of local public expenditure determination is developed. The empirical model is developed based on maximization of community utility function. The model is estimate by efficient GMM using Appalachian counties and the results indicate significant spatial spillover effects with respect to local public expenditures.

In this paper we develop an autoregressive spatial simultaneous equations model to investigate the county-level determinants of small business growth and median household income in Appalachia during the period 1990-2000. Our GS2SLS and GS3SLS estimation results indicate significant spatial spillover effects and conditional convergence in counties of Appalachia during the study period.

International development goals moved beyond increasing food production to include poverty reduction and protecting the environment in a sustainable way. Degradation of natural resources due to exploitation coupled with population pressure in developing countries causing food insecurity and environmental degradation further. Participatory watershed management approach is proposed to address this problem effectively.

This study aims at examining the relationship between macroeconomic and policy variables and food stamp program participation in West Virginia. Static and dynamic econometric models are employed. Results indicate that macroeconomic conditions significantly explain food stamp program participation. Results could be helpful to welfare programs in West Virginia.

This study investigates demographic change and income inequalities, and relationship between economic growth and income inequality in West Virginia. Income growth was positively related with population and employment growth, but is significantly and negatively related with income inequality. This indicates that higher income inequality is associated with slower economic growth.

OLS and 2SLS regressions and cross-sectional county data are used to examine the major determinants of poverty and income inequality in rural counties of West Virginia. The empirical findings confirm the possibility of simultaneity between poverty and income inequality. Poverty is the main determinant of increased levels of income inequality.

In OLS and 2SLS regression analysis a positive relationship exists between small business and economic growth. A strong inverse relationship also exists between the incidence of poverty and small business and economic growth. Thus, the empirical result establishes the linkage between small business, economic growth and the incidence of poverty

This paper examines the relationship between quality of life, health and several socioeconomic variables. The analysis utilizes empirical data obtained from a survey questionnaire administered on a random sample of over 2000 residents in twenty-one counties in West Virginia, and spatial data obtained by geocoding the survey respondents' addressees. Quality of life is measured by a three-point categorical measure of overall satisfaction and an ordered probit model is used to examine the relationships. The empirical results are consistent with the theoretical predictions and indicate, for instance, that quality of life satisfaction increases with income and education while it decreases with unemployment.

Ordinary and two-stage least square regressions were used to examine the major determinants of poverty and income inequality with cross-sectional data of 38 rural counties of West Virginia. The empirical findings confirm the possibility of simultaneity between poverty and income inequality and poverty level is the main determinant of increased levels of income inequality. The proportions of population in welfare, population of age 65 or older, female-headed households, people unemployed, and the level of inequality contributed to increased poverty levels. The proportion of employment shares in finance, insurance and real estate, and per capita income contributed to reduced poverty levels. But, per capita income, the proportion of human capital stock, and the proportion of employment shares in manufacturing contributed to reduced income inequality.

Although world food and agricultural production, based on current trends, will be sufficient to meet demand in the decades ahead, the world still faces a serious food crisis, at least as perilous and life-threatening for millions of poor people as those of the past. To this end, the main objective of this paper is to illuminate the world food situation and to provide a critical analysis of the core causes of world food insecurity by identifying the various misconceptions surrounding our understanding of hunger, starvation, and poverty. A clear and deeper awareness of the real causes of hunger and malnutrition in poor countries is imperative to enable and challenge policy makers and planners to lay the groundwork at the grass-roots level for appropriate policy measures and development programs designed to alleviate poverty and ensure food security.

The relationships between intersectoral export and local employment and regional economic growth are analyzed in a long-run equilibrium framework. Dynamic location quotients decompose regional employment into export and local components for multiple sectors. Johansen's Full-Information Maximum Likelihood (FIML) approach is used to identify the existence and resultant rank of the co-integrating relationship between sectoral export and local employment in West Virginia's four metropolitan areas. Empirical results indicate inter-sectoral basic and non-basic employment form a co-integrating system of equations. Furthermore, this analysis shows that inter-sector shocks to local and export employment may cause multipliers to be positive or negative in magnitude.

A descriptive analysis and a survey of literature were used in this assessment of the transformation of the structure of production agriculture. The changes in production agriculture have important implications for resource use, population distribution in rural communities, and the survival of small farms. The shifting structural change in production agriculture as a response to economic and technological adjustments is not a temporary phenomenon. The economic and natural base of agriculture will change toward greater capital intensity and concentration of ownership, and will raise public policy questions in relation to the survival of a large farm population.