Rural News
Jennifer Emerling / There Is More Work To Be Done
Jennifer Emerling / There Is More Work To Be Done
A weak recovery for small counties
The weak recovery for small counties. A Washington Post article warns that small business trends endanger the very life of rural economies. From 2010 through 2014, smaller U.S. counties lost more businesses than they created.
Nearly 2 out of 3 rural counties lost businesses, on net, from 2010 to 2014.
Manuel Adelino, an economist at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, warns that “the lack of new business formation in rural America may lead to widening gaps in income and employment.”
Adelino’s research shows that after the Great Recession, lower-income borrowers were effectively shut out of credit markets. Industry groups and many economists have warned that the Dodd-Frank financial regulation act, passed in 2010, may have forced smaller banks that often serve rural communities to tighten their lending.
