Economic Research
EconomistsResearch Economists
All Publications and Papers for
Ronald A. Wirtz
Editor, fedgazette
The rise of the West: More than just an oil story
March 2013 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
In South Dakota, we trust
February 2013 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Money, and more money: Public and private trusts
February 2013 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Government employment: Job insecurity
January 2013 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Local governments go to the barbershop
January 2013 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Please do this. Good luck
January 2013 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Where the manufacturing jobs are
October 2012 - fedgazette
Exporting growth
October 2012 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Made (again?) in the USA
October 2012 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Manufacturing an uptick
October 2012 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
District broadband: Digital desert or open highway?
August 2012 - fedgazette
New rental available, comes with yard
July 2012 - fedgazette
Buddy, can you spare a bedroom?
July 2012 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Rental housing markets: Musical chairs, with fewer chairs
July 2012 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Rental prices: On the rise after a nice slumber (for renters)
July 2011 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
College Finance 101: Not all their (de)fault?
April 2012 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
The fine print on student default rates
April 2012 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Anatomy of the measurement problem
January 2012 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Self-employed: To be, or not to be
January 2012 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
The other, silent flood
January 2012 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
A flood of floods
October 2011 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
A long, tall slap of water
October 2011 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
After the flood
October 2011 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Amid the flood: Heartache, hard work and hope
October 2011 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Minot: Reeling but resilient
October 2011 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
A seeping feeling
October 2011 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Booming, and well positioned, but still risk averse
July 2011 - fedgazette
Cage match: Entrepreneurs vs. the recession
July 2011 - fedgazette
A health check for the job-laying goose
July 2011 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
The fine print on tracking establishments
July 2011 - fedgazette
Base hits, but not a lot of runs
June 2011 - fedgazette
OPEBs: What lies beneath the balance sheet
April 2011 - fedgazette
Some interesting OPEB patterns
April 2011 - fedgazette
Where OPEBs come from
April 2011 - fedgazette
Unemployment insurance: Employers shoveling in a deep hole
April 2011 - fedgazette
Playing catch-up, badly
January 2011 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Public pension benefits & the law
January 2011 - fedgazette
Public pensions: Feeding, and fixing, the sausage machine
January 2011 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
The pension bill. Ouch
January 2011 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Top of the pension class
January 2011 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
One order of confidence, please
December 2010 - fedgazette
Green: What role government?
October 2010 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Small talk: An interview with three small-town advocates
October 2010 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
The great green hope
October 2010 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
The many shades of green
October 2010 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Help wanted for the economic helpers
August 2010 - fedgazette
Recession and the Ninth District: Slide presentation
July 2010 - fedgazette
Come and get it—please
July 2010 - fedgazette
When half-full feels more like three-quarters
July 2010 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
North Dakota: The little economic engine that could
July 2010 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Sing sweetly (please), employment canary
June 2010 - fedgazette
Is the housing market awakening?
June 2010 - fedgazette
Home mortgage modifications bypassing much of the district, so far
April 2010 - fedgazette
Tax credits for first-time castles
April 2010 - fedgazette
A rear-view mirror on cash for clunkers
April 2010 - fedgazette
Higher education's melting pot
April 2010 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
No shortage of credit here
April 2010 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
A close look at the Big Drink
January 2010 - fedgazette
A top 10 list to regret
January 2010 - fedgazette
Another renewable on the energy menu
January 2010 - fedgazette
Bound for (out of state) college
January 2010 - fedgazette
CRE: The cracked glass slipper?
January 2010 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Cash for guzzlers
January 2010 - fedgazette
Checks in the mail (next month)
January 2010 - fedgazette
Collateral damage
January 2010 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Harvests good, but don't hold your breath
January 2010 - fedgazette
Putting a lasso around carbon emissions
January 2010 - fedgazette
The sound of hammer silence
January 2010 - fedgazette
A job, any job
November 2009 - fedgazette
A sick program
November 2009 - fedgazette
Campus of dreams: Bill it, and they will come?
November 2009 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Clean up your mess ... later
November 2009 - fedgazette
College finance 101: A history lesson
November 2009 - fedgazette
Don't bet against it
November 2009 - fedgazette
Economic un-development
November 2009 - fedgazette
Have work, will pay
November 2009 - fedgazette
Newest big export: Pain
November 2009 - fedgazette
Press the button for pull tab
November 2009 - fedgazette
Silicon Elk's Club
November 2009 - fedgazette
Swap meet: Sheepskin for a building
November 2009 - fedgazette
A bumpy road for transportation
September 2009 - fedgazette
A sunny day for farm insurance
September 2009 - fedgazette
Bismarck Island
September 2009 - fedgazette
Crying wolf—no joke this time, really
September 2009 - fedgazette
Dropping all the way to #1
September 2009 - fedgazette
Go ahead, hit me
September 2009 - fedgazette
OMG! Like, where are all the teen workers?
September 2009 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
State sales tax: Running on empty?
September 2009 - fedgazette
The hollow sound of vacancy
September 2009 - fedgazette
This one's for all those with hammers
September 2009 - fedgazette
A cheap foot in the biofuels door
July 2009 - fedgazette
A spanking in banking
July 2009 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
A spanking in banking: Slide presentation
July 2009 - fedgazette
A terrible-fitting cap
July 2009 - fedgazette
A trip around the capital
July 2009 - fedgazette
Come, give us your money
July 2009 - fedgazette
Credit Conditions: Some snap and crackle, but no pop
July 2009 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Fair crier: Do I hear $1?
July 2009 - fedgazette
Gotta light (up outside)?
July 2009 - fedgazette
How do I get out of reverse?
July 2009 - fedgazette
Shovel ready, and waiting
July 2009 - fedgazette
That's no ordinary brook trout
July 2009 - fedgazette
With a stroke of the pen
July 2009 - fedgazette
Public-Private Partnerships: For Whom the Road Tolls?
June 2009 - The Region
Additional Files [pdf]
Wait for us
May 2009 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Raising the credit bar, or getting clubbed by it?
January 2009 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
A question of credit
November 2008 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Auction-rate fireworks: Ooh, aah, ouch
November 2008 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
CRP: Green if good, but more green is preferred
November 2008 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
The bonds of debt
November 2008 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Just what is the middle class, and other stuff
September 2008 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Say hello to the modest good life for me
September 2008 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Supersize me
September 2008 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
A man’s home is his unsold castle
July 2008 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Hedging their bets
July 2008 - fedgazette
Making hay off the land
July 2008 - fedgazette
Additional Files [pdf]
Outside the winner’s circle
July 2008 - fedgazette
Swap meet
July 2008 - fedgazette
This space for rent. Bring your wallet, unless I know you.
July 2008 - fedgazette
Wanted: Entrepreneurs
June 2008 - The Region
Additional Files [pdf]
Wanted: Entrepreneurs - In Brief
June 2008 - The Region
Both sides of the pork trough
March 2008 - fedgazette
Is there an animal doctor in the house?
March 2008 - fedgazette
Not for pet's sake, but yours
March 2008 - fedgazette
The Wal-Mart effect: Poison or antidote for local communities?
January 2008 - fedgazette
Wal-Mart data [xls]
The research literature on Wal-Mart: Some frowns, some smiley faces
January 2008 - fedgazette
Additional Files [xls]
Wal-Mart in the Ninth District: Who, when and how
January 2008 - fedgazette
Come and get it
November 2007 - fedgazette
Is there a consumer in the house?
November 2007 - fedgazette
The semantics of health care prices
November 2007 - fedgazette
Coming to a Web site near you
November 2007 - fedgazette
Through the maze, darkly
November 2007 - fedgazette
What is a small business? Inc(reasing)
July 2007 - fedgazette
Franchising like rabbits
September 2007 - fedgazette
Franchisors R Us
September 2007 - fedgazette
A word about do-it-yourselfers
July 2007 - fedgazette
It's a jungle out there
July 2007 - fedgazette
The state of small business: Small is tough, but still beautiful
July 2007 - fedgazette
Employee Ownership - In Brief
June 2007 - The Region
Employee Ownership: Economic Miracle or ESOPs Fable?
June 2007 - The Region
Made in the USA
June 2007 - The Region
The Many Forms of “Shared Capitalism”
June 2007 - The Region
Farmland valuation change plowed under
May 2007 - fedgazette
Foreign Trade Zones
May 2007 - fedgazette
Intensive care for rural hospitals
March 2007 - fedgazette
Rx for aging health care facilities
January 2007 - fedgazette
The next IT in health care
January 2007 - fedgazette
You are what you reimburse
January 2007 - fedgazette
Goldilocks in the Corner Office
December 2006 - The Region
Goldilocks in the Corner Office - In Brief
December 2006 - The Region
Book smart on poverty
November 2006 - fedgazette
One for the ages
November 2006 - fedgazette
Poor by what standard?
November 2006 - fedgazette
The gender-family poverty gap
November 2006 - fedgazette
The myriad, changing faces of poverty
November 2006 - fedgazette
Excuse me, which way is up?
November 2006 - fedgazette
Poverty by another definition
November 2006 - fedgazette
Circle, or square?
September 2006 - The Region
The Hidden Economy of Nonprofits
September 2006 - The Region
The Hidden Economy of Nonprofits - In Brief
September 2006 - The Region
Charity case: Trends in giving
July 2006 - fedgazette
Connecting the nonprofit growth dots
July 2006 - fedgazette
The economy’s middle child
July 2006 - fedgazette
The leader of the nonprofit pack
July 2006 - fedgazette
Tracking the elusive nonprofit economy
July 2006 - fedgazette
Actuarial Funding Ratios
May 2006 - fedgazette
An actuarial balancing act
May 2006 - fedgazette
And how about your pension, sir?
May 2006 - fedgazette
Covet thy neighbor’s -- pension? Public vs. private
May 2006 - fedgazette
Gasping over GASB
May 2006 - fedgazette
In case of pension emergency
May 2006 - fedgazette
Pension deficit disorder
May 2006 - fedgazette
Cash, check or third party?
January 2006 - fedgazette
Filling a prescription for more pharmacies
January 2006 - fedgazette
Special delivery?
January 2006 - fedgazette
The other pharm crisis
January 2006 - fedgazette
Is College Unaffordable?
December 2005 - The Region
Is College Unaffordable? - In Brief
December 2005 - The Region
A missing bogeyman
November 2005 - fedgazette
Company mass layoffs: The “other” job shock
November 2005 - fedgazette
Job shocks: Resuscitation or suffocation?
November 2005 - fedgazette
Methodology: A county slice in time
November 2005 - fedgazette
Does job training pay off?
September 2005 - The Region
Getting Back on Your Feet
September 2005 - The Region
Getting Back on Your Feet - In Brief
September 2005 - The Region
What layoffs?
September 2005 - The Region
Come hither, biotech
September 2003 - fedgazette
Dealer, heal thyself
July 2005 - fedgazette
Ginnie Mae I buy a manufactured home?
July 2005 - fedgazette
Growing up mobile
July 2005 - fedgazette
Hello, have we met?
July 2005 - fedgazette
Home, sweet (manufactured?) home
July 2005 - fedgazette
M & M & Ms
July 2005 - fedgazette
A rising housing tide
May 2005 - fedgazette
Additional Files [xls]
Bureaucratic rent trends
May 2005 - fedgazette
Additional Files [xls]
Close-knit neighborhoods
May 2005 - fedgazette
Housing affordability: Catch me if you can
May 2005 - fedgazette
Additional Files [xls]
Community banks full of change
January 2005 - fedgazette
Help wanted, again
January 2005 - fedgazette
Job description: Track hiring demand
January 2005 - fedgazette
Nursing a shortage
January 2005 - fedgazette
Ready, set dance
January 2005 - fedgazette
The hard hat blues
January 2005 - fedgazette
Job Search
December 2004 - The Region
Consolidated brothers
November 2004 - fedgazette
In banking, less can equal more
November 2004 - fedgazette
Additional Files [xls]
Too much of a good thing?
November 2004 - fedgazette
Uniquely declining
November 2004 - fedgazette
Loosening the strings of regulation
November 2004 - fedgazette
A Fork in the Free-Trade Road
September 2004 - The Region
Behind the classroom doors
July 2004 - fedgazette
Change is good, if you know how
July 2004 - fedgazette
Graduation exam: Spell “matriculation”
July 2004 - fedgazette
Moving beyond the 13th grade
July 2004 - fedgazette
Opinions and poster boys
July 2004 - fedgazette
The state(s) of structure
July 2004 - fedgazette
Business is open on Venus
May 2004 - fedgazette
I am woman. Hear my business roar
May 2004 - fedgazette
Crop insurance turning dry fields into cash crop
March 2004 - fedgazette
After the fiscal gold rush
January 2004 - fedgazette
Additional Files [xls]
An acquired taste for public goodies
January 2004 - fedgazette
Additional Files [xls]
Put it on my ... er, his tab
January 2004 - fedgazette
Additional Files [xls]
Thanks for nothin', bro
January 2004 - fedgazette
Additional Files [xls]
Fido to the rescue
November 2003 - fedgazette
Looking ahead, and over your shoulder
November 2003 - fedgazette
Powering the assembly line
November 2003 - fedgazette
Love, pickup trucks and lost manufacturing jobs
November 2003 - fedgazette
Something, anything for the pain
November 2003 - fedgazette
Wrong side of the tracks?
November 2003 - fedgazette
Mining for Missing Links
September 2003 - The Region
Additional Files [pdf]
Big bang biotech?
September 2003 - fedgazette
Biotech by any other measure
September 2003 - fedgazette
The Ripley factor, believe it
September 2003 - fedgazette
The next biotech frontier: weights and measures
September 2003 - fedgazette
I dream of protective genies
July 2003 - fedgazette
Anti-Poverty Design: The Cash-Out Option
June 2003 - The Region
Buddy, can you spare an EITC?
June 2003 - The Region
All abroad
May 2003 - fedgazette
An unwanted rest for hustling exporters
May 2003 - fedgazette
Please pass the salt exports
May 2003 - fedgazette
Uncle Sam wants you to export
May 2003 - fedgazette
Shopping online for lucky 7s
March 2003 - fedgazette
Designing a brain drain plug
January 2003 - fedgazette
Patterns of the young and restless
January 2003 - fedgazette
Plugging the brain drain
January 2003 - fedgazette
Retention/out-migration of college graduates, by state
January 2003 - fedgazette
Exchange Roller Coasters: Where's the steering wheel, and does it work?
December 2002 - The Region
Exchange regimes: One hand, the other hand, both hands
December 2002 - The Region
More than just a pretty place?
November 2002 - fedgazette
A labor vacuum with no population suction
September 2002 - fedgazette
A trip through the data wringer
September 2002 - fedgazette
Data don't tell the whole story
September 2002 - fedgazette
Rural Census: Half full or half empty?
September 2002 - fedgazette
Additional Files [xls]
Stand by your county, man
September 2002 - fedgazette
What's Under the Performance Hood
September 2002 - fedgazette
A Snapshot of Labor Availability
July 2002 - fedgazette
A Snapshot of Labor Availability
July 2002 - fedgazette
New economy value meal, please
July 2002 - fedgazette
Shall we dance?
July 2002 - fedgazette
Strength in hidden numbers
July 2002 - fedgazette
A Snapshot of Labor Availability
July 2002 - fedgazette
Gross Domestic Product: Understanding News from Noise
June 2002 - The Region
Mr. Recession, meet Mr. Labor Shortage
May 2002 - fedgazette
A fair price for whom?
March 2002 - fedgazette
Farm safety at any speed
March 2002 - fedgazette
Green is good
March 2002 - fedgazette
Anti-dumping: The Free-Trade Antacid
December 2001 - The Region
Digital haves and have-nots
November 2001 - fedgazette
Lotsa cooks in the broadband kitchen
November 2001 - fedgazette
No strings attached: Bird Island telecom taking flight
November 2001 - fedgazette
The need for speed
November 2001 - fedgazette
Chasing the Tail of High-Tech
September 2001 - The Region
Public venture, public gain?
September 2001 - fedgazette
The granddaddy of VC
September 2001 - fedgazette
Fairy tales and venture capital
July 2001 - fedgazette
Nurturing the light bulb economy
July 2001 - fedgazette
The entrepreneurial stool
July 2001 - fedgazette
Icebergs and Government Productivity
June 2001 - The Region
Phone Home
May 2001 - fedgazette
Edifice Complex
March 2001 - fedgazette
Pitching for the minor leagues
March 2001 - fedgazette
Shall we gather?
March 2001 - fedgazette
Stadiums and convention centers as community loss leaders
March 2001 - fedgazette
Blowin' in the wind
January 2001 - fedgazette
Corn farmers not alone on the ethanol bandwagon
January 2001 - fedgazette
Ethanol in the Ninth District
January 2001 - fedgazette
Status of Electricity Deregulation in Ninth District States
January 2001 - fedgazette
Under the Influence
January 2001 - fedgazette
Putting a Finger on the Grand (Income) Canyon
December 2000 - The Region
Understanding the Cost of Free Lunch
December 2000 - The Region
A helping hand, or new age loan sharking?
October 2000 - fedgazette
Buyer beware
October 2000 - fedgazette
Will that be cash, check or debtor's hell?
October 2000 - fedgazette
Breaching the "Buckskin Curtain"
September 2000 - The Region
A little help from uncle sammy
July 2000 - fedgazette
A toolbox of favors
July 2000 - fedgazette
Backed by popular demand
July 2000 - fedgazette
Fully loaded
July 2000 - fedgazette
Owners Manual: A Glossary of Incentive Tools
July 2000 - fedgazette
The 'big drink' a few swallows short
July 2000 - fedgazette
The New (and Improved) Economy
June 2000 - The Region
Coming to a national forest near you
April 2000 - fedgazette
Critics say roadless initiative a hit-and-run on local communities
April 2000 - fedgazette
Local economic development: A recipe for stone soup
April 2000 - fedgazette
Local economic development: At your service
April 2000 - fedgazette
Roadless initiative is rounding first phase and headed for second
April 2000 - fedgazette
Semantics, lack of data create large gray area
April 2000 - fedgazette
The crowded field of local economic development
April 2000 - fedgazette
Shoestring budgets and Third World competition
April 2000 - fedgazette
Financial Evolution, Not Revolution
March 2000 - The Region
Concentrating on food concentration
January 2000 - fedgazette
Jobs wanted: Will work for (next to) nothing
January 2000 - fedgazette
The cousin of consolidation: contracting
January 2000 - fedgazette
The pig in the python
January 2000 - fedgazette
Tied to steel tracks
January 2000 - fedgazette
The Zen of Greenspan
December 1999 - The Region
Farm crisis: Here we go again?
October 1999 - fedgazette
Farming the government
October 1999 - fedgazette
Not your father's farm recession
October 1999 - fedgazette
Saving the family farm, but from what?
October 1999 - fedgazette
Whistling Dixie?
October 1999 - fedgazette
The Beauty (Pageant?) of Economics
September 1999 - The Region
Nimble small-town banks swatting Y2K bugs
July 1999 - fedgazette
Small-town community banks not bugged by Y2K
July 1999 - fedgazette
Linking rural America
April 1999 - fedgazette
Rural businesses are spurring much of the growth in telecommunications
April 1999 - fedgazette
Two Ninth District communities take lead in telecommunications
April 1999 - fedgazette
Econ 101: Is this the Best Way to Teach Economics?
December 1998 - The Region
The Economic Literacy Project [cfm]
