Resources and Rural Communities

ALTHOUGH BOTH RELATE FUNDAMENTALLY to the concept of land, the fields of resource economics ¹ and rural economics have developed fairly independently over the past decades. Resource economists have historically focused much of their attention on the role of pollution externalities, the design of policies to induce efficient pollution control, the measurement of the costs and benefits of changes in environmental quality, and the optimal extraction or use of renewable and nonrenewable resources. ² In contrast, research by rural economists has focused primarily on migration and the generation of income and jobs in rural communities and the potential for economic growth in these areas (Barkley, Chapter 3, this volume).