Review of Rural Development Efforts

Looking for information about the state of rural ED efforts. Check out this EDA-funded study by Harvard's Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness

In summary the report says that current policies to improve the disappointing economic performance of rural regions are,  by and large, not working. This is increasingly the consensus among policy makers  across political parties, not only in the United States but also in many other countries  around the globe. Not only is the performance of rural regions lagging, but the gap in performance levels between rural and urban areas seems to be widening. This state of affairs exists despite significant efforts to boost rural regions through a wide variety of  policies with budgets of billions of dollars in the United States alone.
 
Here for more.  (Download the report)