Welcome back to ECON-versations with NABE! This episode is a webinar replay from the Opportunities for Rural America webinar, held on August 29, 2023.

As we navigate a world of slow population growth, structural impediments to higher labor force participation, unstable global supply chains, and price/wage growth, we need to consider how we maximize production from our human and physical capital. Maximizing efficient production cannot be disaggregated from where the production and people are located. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. saw both employment and population move to the most urban parts of the nation. This was not just the move away from agricultural communities that we have seen for centuries; it included movement away from smaller towns and micropolitan areas. Smaller towns and more rural areas in the aggregate continue to underperform urban areas across a number of metrics, including employment-to-population ratios, business and entrepreneurial growth, and poverty rates. Perhaps we are leaving opportunities on the table to leverage the workforce and land in rural areas to create stronger and more inclusive economic growth. Since the pandemic, low (and falling) immigration and birth rates, continued congestion and land scarcity in urban areas, and remote work opportunities, create even greater potential. But how do we engage our rural areas and improve urban-rural connectivity? Join this webinar to learn more about policies that can help us build geographically inclusive and efficient growth.