The New Rural Economy: Change, Dynamism and Government Policy

Abstract:     
With contributions by David Campbell, Chris Carter, Barry Gamble, John Hibbs, Bob Lee, John Meadowcroft, Julian Morris, Richard D. North, Sean Rickard, Aileen Stockdale & Paul Withrington.

The book charts the development of the new rural economy and considers whether government policy has kept apace with those developments. In the rural economy tourism now employs more people than agriculture, and the agricultural sector itself has become much more diverse. But the government bodies charged with delivering countryside policy very often seem wedded to a view of the rural economy and the traditional agriculture sector as synonymous.

In The New Rural Economy, Professor Berkeley Hill of Imperial College London analyzes the appropriate roles of the public and private sectors in the developing rural economy and questions whether evidence of "market failure" necessarily justifies government intervention, if "government failure" imposes greater costs than the problems intervention was intended to remedy.

Professor Hill's analysis is followed by a number of short papers by a wide range of authors who examine in-migration, land-use planing, rural transport, the future of farming, forestry and the protection of the rural environment from a variety of perspectives.

The New Rural Economy is essential reading for those concerned with the development of the countryside and the proper role of government in creating a sustainable, long-term future for those living and working in rural Britain.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 136

Keywords: rural, economy, countryside, agriculture, farming, transport, housing, land use planning

JEL Classification: Q0, Q00, Q01, Q1, Q18, Q22, Q23, Q28

working papers series