The Business Economic Research Group (BERG) of ESU was created in 1999 to promote research opportunities for faculty. The group, consisting of Professor Todd Behr, Director, Dr. Constantinos Christofides and Dr. Pattabiraman Neelakantan, have been successful in procuring funded research projects ranging form Economic Impact Studies to Regional Economic Development. Most of the projects were funded by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, but other sponsors have included the Brookings Institution, The National Education Association and the United States Department of Justice. 

In 2006, the Center for Rural Pennsylvania commissioned BERG to research the growing income gap beetween rural and urban Pennsylvanians.  The researchers looked at 30 years of data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Pennsylvania Departments of Revenue, Labor & Industry, Education, Health, Welfare and Commmunity and Economic Development.  They concluded that Pennsylvania must focus efforts to increase educational attainent and rural labor force participation in order to close the rural income gap.

In 2009, the Center for Rural Pennsylvania commissioned BERG to study the export industry in Pennsylvania to determine the characteristics, spatial distribution and economic significance of rural exporters. The researchers used foreign trade statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau, from Dun and Bradstreet's Selectory Database and data from a survey of rural exporters. The research showed that roughly 25 percent of Pennsylvania's exporters reside in rural counties and 75 percent reside in urban counties, with most exports in the manufacturing industries, such as chemical manufacturing, fabricated and primary metals, machinery manufacturing, food product manufacturing, and transportation equipment.

Reports can be viewed in their entirety at http://www.ruralpa.org or by clicking on the PDF attached.

Income Gap Rural Exports