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Replaced with revised version of poster 07/20/10.

Rural broadband infrastructure and service has received a significant amount of funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. These funds should increase broadband availability, but will broadband be used in rural areas and in particular by farmers? This paper uses Agricultural Resource Management Survey data to investigate why the majority of U.S. farmers choose not to use the Internet in their farm business. Although frequently cited by policymakers, concerns about inadequate Internet service or security actually account for a small percentage of responses. This research identifies targeted educational programs that focus on alleviating perceived barriers to Internet use.

This paper seeks to develop a methodology that will be useful for rural water districts in assessing the future of their water systems infrastructure. In particular, the use of free water simulation software and publicly available data on population, roads, and terrain present rural water systems with the opportunity to analyze their existing distribution system and forecast where problems are likely to occur. This methodology will allow various alternatives (such as consolidation with a neighboring system, or pipe upgrades) to be evaluated and the costs of implementing these alternatives to be explored. Finally, different avenues for funding the associated costs can be summarized and presented to the community, including the steps needed to apply for popular grant and loan programs

The contribution of farmers markets to the U.S. economy has become more significant due to the increased demand for fresh, locally produced products. However, compared to other marketing outlets, the economic contribution of farmers markets often goes unrecognized. This study focuses on farmers markets in Oklahoma and uses the IMPLAN model to estimate the impacts of farmers markets to Oklahoma’s economy. The results from this study show that farmers market activities are a vital part of Oklahoma’s economy, generating total direct sales of $3.3 million, with a total economic impact of almost $6 million.

Using the 2005 ARMS data, significant factors are identified that influence the decision to purchase farm inputs over the Internet and reasons for not adopting the Internet. Internet input purchasing farmers tend to be younger and more educated. Non-adopters that are more educated most likely cite Internet security concerns as their primary reason for not adopting.

The IMPLAN model is used to estimate total (direct and secondary) economic impacts of farmers' markets in Oklahoma's economy. The results show that Oklahoma farmers' markets generate a total gross sale of $3.3 million, with a total economic impact of $7.8 million.

Recent data from the Federal Communications Commission allows for examination of the location decisions of “small” broadband providers, i.e. those with less than 250 subscribers. While anecdotal evidence suggests that small providers may be serving disadvantaged or underserved areas, the data indicates that more than two-thirds service urban areas and seemingly choose areas with high demand potential. This paper models the location decision of these small providers and analyzes whether they are influenced by federal assistance programs such as USDA broadband grants and loans. The results suggest that while small providers do tend to locate in urban areas with higher levels of education and income, they also favor rural areas with high levels of Hispanics and African-Americans. No statistical impact is found for the federal-level policies included in the analysis, implying that the focus of these programs may be on the wrong areas.

As health information technology becomes more prevalent for most healthcare facilities, hospitals across the nation are choosing between performing this service in-house and outsourcing to a technology firm in the health industry. This paper examines factors affecting the information technology (IT) outsource decision for various hospitals. Using 2004 data from the American Hospital Association, logistic regression models find that governmental ownership and a proxy variable for hospitals that treat more severe injuries positively impact the probability of outsourcing for IT services.

This paper studies “entrepreneurial communities” using both quantitative and qualitative data from the state of Oklahoma. Household-level survey data and community-specific characteristics are used to determine what factors affect whether a rural community operates in an entrepreneurial manner. Case studies from successful rural communities provide a more qualitative viewpoint of the factors that lead to entrepreneurial activity.

Using new data set of Federal Communication Commission, we model where small broadband providers choose to locate. When using all areas data, we find that even in term of small broadband providers, digital divide between rural and urban areas still exist. However, when we restrict data on areas previously depicted as no provider, rural areas seem to be an attractive target for small broadband providers. In addition, areas with high number of household but low number of business seem to be interested by small broadband provider especially rural areas. The results also suggest that USDA policies to increase broadband providers in rural area are ineffective.

As residential high-speed Internet access has become more prevalent, the composition of the "digital divide" between rural and urban households has shifted. In 2000, dial-up access rates in rural household lagged behind their urban counterparts by eleven percent. By 2003, however, dial-up access rates were equal between rural and urban households, due in part to soaring high-speed rates in urban areas. This paper explores the household decision between no Internet access, dial-up access, and high-speed access. In particular, nested logit and multinomial logit specifications are compared. The paper also uses a decomposition technique to estimate the contributions of various factors (including education, income, and infrastructure levels) to each of the "access-specific" divides between rural and urban households. The results suggest that the nested logit is the preferred specification, and that differences in education and income account for the majority of each type of divide.

This dissertation explores the persistent gap between rural and urban areas in the percentage of households that access the Internet at home (a discrepancy commonly known as the "digital divide"). The theoretical framework underlying a household's Internet adoption decision is examined, with emphasis on the roles that household characteristics, network externalities, and digital communication technology (DCT) infrastructure potentially play. This framework is transferred into a statistical model of household Internet access, where non-linear decomposition techniques are employed to estimate the contributions of these variables to the digital divide in a given year. Differences in Internet access rates between years are also analyzed to understand the importance of temporal resistance to the continuing digital divide. The increasing prevalence of "high-speed" or broadband access is also taken into account by modeling a decision process where households that choose to have Internet access must decide between dial-up and high-speed access. This nested process is also decomposed in order to estimate the contributions of household characteristics, network externalities, DCT infrastructure, and temporal resistance to the high-speed digital divide. The results suggest that public policies designed to alleviate digital divides in both general and high-speed access should focus more on the broader income and education inequities between rural and urban areas. The results also imply that the current policy environment of encouraging DCT infrastructure investment in rural areas may not be the most effective way to close the digital divide in both general and high-speed Internet access. Ph. D.

A significant gap exists in the percentage of rural and urban households that connect to the Internet. Furthermore, this "digital divide" has been increasing with respect to high-speed connections. The primary course of action to address this emerging high-speed digital divide has been to subsidize digital communications technology (DCT) infrastructure. This paper explores the diffusion of DCT infrastructure in both rural and urban areas over the period 2000 - 2003, and estimates its contribution to the emerging divide in high-speed access. The findings suggest that the rural - urban high-speed divide is more strongly associated with differences in household characteristics like education and income than differences in infrastructure.

This paper explains the current "digital divide" in internet use between rural and urban areas using a Logit adoption model with data collected from the August 2000 Current Population Survey. A non-linear decomposition shows that rural - urban household attribute differences account for 66 percent of the digital divide, while place based differences account for the remaining 34 percent of the divide.

To decrease the steady rise in the prison population, we must deter ex-offenders from re-offending and recidivating, once they have been released. For ex-offenders, finding employment is critical to successful post-release re-integration which can help reduce the chances of them recidivating. Ex-offenders who are consistent in their employment patterns are less likely to return to a life of crime. This study investigated the relative importance and significance of 11 selected variables on four separate levels of employment consistency. The selected variables were chosen based on what has been identified in the literature as effecting employment patterns of ex-offenders and the general population, and what data was reliable and available. The study group consisted of 2,314 male Virginia ex-offenders released in fiscal year 2001. The results revealed that the variables of time served, career and technical education program completions, educational level, age at release, race, and being convicted of a violent offense were positive predictors of employment consistency. On the other hand, having a record of minor infractions and being a repeat offender were associated with decreasing employment consistency in the analysis. The findings of the study suggest that it is important for offenders to make changes in the ways they think and their attitudes. This can be accomplished by taking advantage of opportunities in prison to participate in rehabilitative services and educational programs. In addition, as offenders get older they tend to abandon criminal ways of thinking, and once released they are more apt to stay employed. Furthermore, the influence of the race variable did not affect the study group of ex-offenders as anticipated. Ph. D.