TRANSPORTATION AND RURAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF IMPORTANT LOCATION FACTORS

Policy tools used for economic development have passed through three phases. The current phase focuses on providing a family of services to firms. In this study, a mail survey was sent to economic development specialists in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska to measure their perceptions regarding different location factors. A ranked order of important location factors was calculated. Perceptions of economic development specialists and manufacturers were compared using a Spearman's rho correlation coefficient. A comparative analysis was also completed based on community sizes above and below 5,000 people. Results indicate that the correlation of perceptions between economic development specialists and manufacturers is statistically significant. However, rankings of some specific location factors differ greatly. This divergence in ranks suggests that economic development specialists may not be aware of factors that are important to manufacturers. This lack of awareness may cause important services to be excluded from the family of services. The most effective information delivery system for economic development specialists was also studied. Examination of the data processing capabilities revealed that many economic development specialists do not have a computer. Thus, a newsletter would be the best information delivery system. The newsletter may be supplemented with floppy disks for those with computer capabilities. This report is presented in six chapters. Chapter 1 is an Introduction. Chapter 2 presents the results of a literature review of the rural economy and transportation and, to obtain greater insights into firm-level decision-making, a review of location theory. In Chapter 3, the survey and methods used to examine the perceptions of economic development specialists and manufacturers are mapped out. The method used to determine the most efficient information delivery system is also addressed. The empirical results of the location factors are presented in Chapter 4. The results from the data processing capabilities analysis are presented in Chapter 5. Finally, the summary, conclusions, study limitations, and the need for further study are presented in Chapter 6.