Weber, Bruce A.

August, 2006

By: Edwards, Mark Evan; Weber, Bruce A.; Bernell, Stephanie L.
This study examines the extent to which household demographics, local economic and social conditions, and federal food security programs explain the likelihood of household food insecurity in Oregon. Between 1999 and 2001, Oregon had the highest average rate of hunger in the nation and ranked in the top five states with respect to food insecurity. Statistical analyses using a multivariate logit model reveal that food insecurity is influenced by much more than demographics and individual choices. County-level factors such as residential location (urban versus rural) and housing costs significantly affect the likelihood that families will be food insecure.

December, 2003

By: Davis, Elizabeth E.; Connolly, Laura S.; Weber, Bruce A.
The employment outcomes of a group of jobless poor Oregonians are tracked in order to analyze the relative importance of local labor market conditions on their employment outcomes. Local job growth increases the probability that a jobless poor adult will get a job and shortens the length of time until she finds a job. After accounting for both the effects of personal demographic characteristics and local job growth, there is little evidence that the probability of employment or the duration of joblessness differs in rural compared with urban areas.

July, 1999

By: Waters, Edward C.; Weber, Bruce A.; Holland, David W.
Most studies of a state's economic base count as "basic" only the "traditional" exports of goods, federal spending, and business investment. "Nontraditional" elements of the economic base (including exports of services, federal transfers to state/local governments and households, and extraregional property income) are typically ignored. We construct a social accounting matrix (SAM) for Oregon and estimate Oregon's economic base accounting for both traditional and nontraditional elements. Almost 20% of Oregon's jobs depend on extraregional income to households (including government transfers and outside property income), 11% depend on lumber and wood and paper products, and 8% depend on agriculture.

July, 1998

By: Weber, Bruce A.
This article explores and develops three ideas: (a) that the aridity of western North America and its attendant characteristics have fundamentally shaped the work of western agricultural economists and encouraged some distinctive western contributions to the study of economics; (b) that in order to understand economic relationships that are critical to rural western economic development, economists need to move beyond the standard equilibrium economic models and explore some emerging models of spatial development and institutional change in which the concept of "increasing returns" plays a key role; and (c) that the West provides a fine laboratory for testing these frameworks.

July, 1994

By: Waters, Edward C.; Holland, David W.; Weber, Bruce A.
A core-periphery, multiregional, input-output model of western Oregon is used to estimate impacts of periphery timber harvest reductions resulting from listing of an endangered species. Under the most probable scenario, 31,620 total jobs would be lost in the two regions. Fourteen percent of this impact is absorbed in the core (Metro) region. Forty percent of periphery and 80% of Metro jobs lost are from service sectors, a result of important core-periphery trade in central place services. Explicit inclusion of unemployment benefits for displaced workers reduces employment loss estimates by 12% to 14%.