Title: Growth of Information Technology industries in urban and rural areas

Authors: Hanas A. Cader, John C. Leatherman

Addresses: Department of Accounting, Agribusiness and Economics, South Carolina State University, 300 College Street, Orangeburg, SC 29117, USA. ' Department of Agricultural Economics, Kansas State University, 331 Waters Hall, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA

Abstract: The use of Information Technologies (IT) has changed the economic landscape in urban and rural areas alike. Future economic prosperity may depend, in part, on the relative extent regions can attract, grow and hold IT-intensive industries. In this article, IT-related and e-commerce-intensive industries| direct employment generation performance was examined in urban and rural areas of Kansas between 1990 and 2003. The results indicated that IT-producing and -using industries have been growing faster in metro-adjacent and non-metro area counties than in metro counties. The presence of larger firms and higher population densities significantly enhanced IT-producing and -using industry employment growth. Contrary to expectation, an increasing share of knowledge workers in the labour force was found to hinder IT-industry employment growth in rural areas. e-Commerce industries faired poorly outside of metro areas.

Keywords: e-commerce; electronic commerce; employment growth; information technologies; Kansas; USA; United States; ICT; regional development; employment generation; urban areas; rural areas.

DOI: 10.1504/IJFIP.2009.022102

International Journal of Foresight and Innovation Policy, 2009 Vol.5 No.1/2/3, pp.136 - 149

Published online: 18 Dec 2008 *

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