M. Rose Olfert

Biography

Rose Olfert is a professor (emerita) in the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy (65%) and in the Department of Bioresource, Policy, Business and Economics in the College of Agriculture and Bioresources (35%). Olfert’s research and teaching interests are in regional economics, rural development and the role of public policy in regional/rural restructuring and growth. Although most of her rural development work focuses on North America she is also working with international collaborators in Chile, Peru and the Netherlands. Her research and publications focus on the spatial location and re-location of economic activity, including the determinants and impacts. She has published on topics including off-farm employment, occupational segregation, urbanization trends and rural community evolution, cities as engines of growth, location choices of professionals, State Trading Enterprise impacts on International trade, co-ops and credit unions, the changing role of distance, migration patterns, equalization payments and commuting patterns and their determinants. Olfert’s current research is focused on the distinction between people-based and place-based public policy and the conditions under which place-based policy may be appropriate.

Research Interest

Public policy Rural/regional economics Rural-urban interdependence People-based vs. Place-based policy Rural economic restructuring Resource based economies