摘要：Over 60 percent of rural manufacturing establishments benefited from government business assistance programs (State and local tax breaks, training and technical assistance, loans, and industrial parks/enterprise zones), and 28 percent found these programs to be very important to their operations over the last 3 years. Manufacturers using advanced technologies benefited more than other manufacturers. However, some regional differences in program benefits suggest these programs may add to interregional economic disparities. Large businesses were more likely to benefit than small businesses, though small businesses appeared to face more problems and benefited more when they received assistance. Programs also were only slightly more likely to benefit manufacturers in distressed nonmetro areas than in nonmetro areas generally.
