Currently, the research community lacks the capacity to provide accurate, up-to-date information about conditions and trends in rural areas. Bringing together some of the best known rural development researchers, this volume begins to build an information base that can serve as a foundation for rural development policy. It deals with four components of development--education, entrepreneurship, physical infrastructure, and social infrastructure. The opening chapters address two aspects of each component--the use of the component to achieve rural development and measuring the impact of its use. The volume then applies specific analytic methods of measuring impact to each component.

The opening chapters address two aspects of each component--the concept of using that component to achieve rural development and the concept of measuring its impact. The volume then examines analytic methods of measuring impact. Following an overview of analytic methods, chapters apply a different analytic technique to each of the components. The techniques considered include econometric models, computable general equilibrium models, input-output analysis, and the case-study method.

Henry Wright, a milk-loathing dairy promoter turned environmentalist, is naive, unsure of himself, sometimes quirky. Now he is caught in the political fight of his life-to get a climate change bill passed by a Congress riddled with the scheming pals of polluters. But this test of his political skills is no match for his fight to escape his own seemingly inevitable death. The Hero of Gucci Gulch is set in the halls of Congress, where anti-environmental skullduggery mixes with mayhem to create exciting twists and turns sure to entice any fan of mysteries. Henry befriends Alicia Cummings, a pretty young intern whose passion for environmental justice matches his own. But youthful impetuousity leads her to ignore Henry's warnings and she digs too deeply into the nefarious plans of the powerful opposition. When Henry finds her strangled body in a lonely Washington garden, he becomes the number one murder suspect. He tries to plow his anguish into his legislative campaign, but the unsolved murder weighs heavily on him and he can't leave it alone. He stumbles onto clues that point to his anti-environmental enemies, and when the police are slow to act he takes matters into his own hands. His increasingly daring amateur investigation gets him crosswise with the police but he persists until violence and still more death force him to live on the run. Henry faces both personal threats and political challenges as he claws his way toward the surprising conclusion. The first novel in a series featuring the lobbyist amateur sleuth is rich with Washington and political insider details. It will appeal to mystery fans, environmentalists and lovers of political intrigue alike.