S mall businesses form the foundation of most rural and urban economies. To grow and prosper, these enterprises need access to equity capital as well as the debt capital provided by traditional banking institutions. While debt markets function well in most rural places, rural equity markets tend to be unorganized or nonexistent (RUPRI Rural Finance Task Force). The impetus for the Rural Policy ...

Rural America’s real estate market has remained strong during the recession. While there is no comprehensive statistic to summarize the overall market for rural real estate, a variety of indicators indicate healthy demand. Farmland values rose throughout the year. Rural housing activity remained robust in the face of an economic downturn. Suburban growth and the increasing use of rural areas as...

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OPPORTUNITIES The economic environment of the rural poor comprises several interlocking markets: for agricultural produce and for agri-inputs; for production support (agricultural extension) or financial services; for information; for assets, including land and water; for labour; and for food and other consumer goods. The terms upon which the rural poor enter and participate in such markets are...

Four billion people live in poverty around the world, and marketing organisations are still battling to convert them into clients. For past decade, business visionaries have claimed that "Base of Pyramid" represents a vast, unexplored market. Some world's most powerful savvy firms sought meet their basic requirements by selling anything from clean water energy, FMCG consumer durables. It is gre...

The paper presents a brief description of the practical research approaches adopted for technology diffusion in the rural markets. Research also highlights an evolution in rural regions’ socio-economic and technological culture due to the introduction of technology. Based on this viewpoint, adaptation of a user-centred approach to introduce information technology to rural regions is discussed. ...

This article explores two neglected questions: (1) Does the relationship between hospital concentration and costs vary between urban and rural markets? and (2) Do hospital costs in non-metropolitan areas vary with rurality? Covariance model results using 1992 data reveal that: (1) Although metropolitan and urban markets exhibit a negative relationship between hospital average costs and market c...

Rural and urban labour markets in developing countries are integrated by migration flows, which respond to earnings opportunities at origin and destination. This is the core of the celebrated Harris and Todaro (1970) model, which shows how in equilibrium, migration flows equate expected wages between rural and urban areas. One important implication of this model is that changes in rural employm...

Availability of farmers markets may increase fruit and vegetable consumption among rural residents of the United States. We conducted a community-based marketing campaign, Plate it Up Kentucky Proud (PIUKP), in 6 rural communities over 2 years to determine the association between exposure to the campaign and fruit and vegetable purchases, adjusted for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program r...

This study describes the Impact of rural maintenance programme on rural markets in Bangladesh. Rural Maintenance programme (RMP) is a year-round programme for maintenance ol 16 miles earthen roads In each selected union. The programme is run by crews consisting of 15 destitute women. The findings suggest that better road maintenance by RMP in the programme areas has resulted in more traffic f l...