New Article on the Economic Performance of Rural Areas

When comparing various economic indicators related to business formation and innovation, rural areas often appear to perform worse: On average, both the number of patent applications, and the rate of new business formation are lower in rural areas than in urban ones. This can easily give the impression that rural economies are less dynamic and innovative than their urban counterparts. However, this impression contradicts the fact that the share of total economic output generated in rural areas has not declined over time. On the contrary, for more than 25 years the rural share of value added has remained stable—or even increased slightly.

Further information on this topic can be found in the article “Unternehmertum und Innovation auf dem Land”, published in the December issue of Deutsche Bauern Korrespondenz (in German).

Contact: Dr. Petrik Runst