This book investigates the role of wealth in achieving sustainable rural economic development.

John L. Pender is an economist at the US Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service.

Bruce A. Weber is Professor of Applied Economics and Director of the Rural Studies Program at Oregon State University, USA.

Thomas G. Johnson is Professor of Applied Economics and Public Affairs at the University of Missouri, USA.

J. Matthew Fannin is Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness at Louisiana State University, USA.

1. Rural Wealth Creation: Introduction and overview John L. Pender, Thomas G. Johnson, Bruce A. Weber, and J. Matthew Fannin Part I: Conceptual Foundations 2. Wealth Concepts John L. Pender and Shanna Ratner 3. Comprehensive Wealth Accounting: Bridging place-based and people-based measures of wealth Thomas G. Johnson, Neus Raines, and John L. Pender Part II: Measuring Rural Wealth 4. Measuring Rural Wealth: Valuing human and built capital at the community level Alexander W. Marré and John L. Pender 5. The Net Worth of Households: Is there a rural difference? Alexander W. Marré 6. The Role of Wealth Measurements in Improving Practice: Lessons from the field Shanna Ratner and Melissa Levy 7. Defining and Measuring Public Sector Wealth: How much control does the public have over public wealth in a fiscally stressed world? J. Matthew Fannin and Beth Walter Honadle 8. Measuring the Wealth of Regions: Geospatial approaches to empirical capital estimation Hodjat Ghadimi, Trevor M. Harris, and Timothy A. Warner 9. Absentee Forest and Farm Land Ownership in Alabama: Capturing benefits from natural capital controlled by non-residents Conner Bailey and Mahua Majumdar Part III: Strategies for Rural Wealth Creation 10. Strategies for Rural Wealth Creation: A progression of thinking through ideas and concepts Steven C. Deller 11. Rural Wealth Creation and Emerging Energy Industries: Lease and royalty payments to farm households and businesses Jeremy G. Weber, Jason P. Brown, and John L. Pender 12. Natural Capital and Rural Wealth Creation: A case study of federal forest policy and community vitality in the Pacific Northwest Yong Chen and Bruce A. Weber 13. Entrepreneurship and Rural Wealth Creation Sarah A. Low 1 4. Evaluating the Impact of Farmers' Markets Using a Rural Wealth Creation Approach Becca B. R. Jablonski 15. Attracting Retirees as a Rural Wealth Creation Strategy Richard J. Reeder and Faqir S. Bagi 16. Casino Development as a Rural Wealth Creation Strategy John L. Pender Part IV: Synthesis and Conclusions 17. Developing a Typology of Wealth Creation Approaches and Contexts: Hypotheses and an example for the case of attracting retirees John L. Pender and Robert Dinterman 18. Rural Wealth Creation: Conclusions and implications John L. Pender, Bruce A. Weber, Thomas G. Johnson, and J. Matthew Fannin