Browsing by Author "Ferris, William N."
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- Advanced Manufacturing and IT in the New River Valley: Impacts of COVID-19 and Supply Chain ShocksFerris, William N.; Travis, Elli; Tate, Scott; Boswell, Katie (Virginia Tech, 2022-08)In 2020, Onward NRV partnered with the Virginia Tech Center for Economic and Community Engagement (CECE) to determine how Advanced Manufacturing and IT firms in the region were affected by COVID-19 and how these firms felt about their prognosis regarding the next year. To accomplish this, CECE developed surveys designed to generate insight into how businesses were faring. There were 21 manufacturing survey responses and 24 information technology survey responses. CECE also conducted interviews with representatives from two Advanced Manufacturing and two IT firms to generate additional insight. At that time, close to two-thirds of Advanced Manufacturing and IT firms expected to retain their employees. Sixty-two percent of manufacturers had unfilled production worker and engineer positions, and thirty-eight percent of tech companies needed software engineers, account executives, and production schedulers. Businesses in both sectors generally maintained positive outlooks for the following year. The most significant concern among companies at the end of 2020 was the health and safety of employees. In 2022, two years after the initial survey, CECE followed up with Advanced Manufacturing and IT firms to see how these businesses were faring. Follow-up survey responses suggest that regional Advanced Manufacturing and IT companies have performed strongly since the onset of the pandemic. Relative to pre-pandemic levels, most firms—83% of technology firms and 75% of manufacturing firms — report maintaining or increasing the number of employees at their firm; payrolls have held steady or increased for approximately 90% of firms in both sectors, and firms report similar or increased revenues. Manufacturing and technology firms correspondingly report positive outlooks. Onward NRV and CECE also conducted semi-structured interviews with firms from each sector to shed additional light on business prognoses and experiences doing business in the New River Valley. Findings from interviews paralleled those expressed in surveys.
- Controlled Environment Agriculture Strategy and Roadmap in GO Virginia Region 3Ferris, William N.; Tate, Scott; Travis, Elli; Ulaky, Allison (Virginia Tech, 2023)On behalf of the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, and with support from an Enhanced Capacity Building award from GO Virginia Region 3, the Virginia Tech Center for Economic and Community Engagement (CECE) conducted a study to assess the economic growth potential for the controlled environmental agriculture (CEA) industry in Region 3, and the state of Virginia. CEA, as a sector, is poised for additional growth. CEA refers to the utilization of technology and automation to enhance the indoor growing conditions for crops, fish, and related products. The industry is projected to grow 10.32% annually, reaching $239.8 billion by 2027.
- IT and Emerging Technology in GO Virginia Region 2: Situation, Challenges, and the Road ForwardFerris, William N.; Travis, Elli; Quina Weber-Shirk (Virginia Tech, 2022)In this short whitepaper, we discuss the present conditions and performance of the IT and emerging technology industries in Region 2. We begin with an overview of the sector, discussing both IT occupations, and IT companies. In section two, we present two key issues: capital and talent, before concluding with a discussion of talent attraction and retention and higher education-based solutions. This document is meant to guide the IT and Emerging Technology GO Virginia Region 2 working group in the identification of additional strategies and programs to improve high wage jobs in that sector.
- Multipurpose Approaches to Regional Goals: Chapters in Environmental and Development EconomicsFerris, William N. (Virginia Tech, 2023-08-03)This dissertation presents three chapters of contemporary research in environmental and development economics. Each chapter echoes a common theme, in that achievement of regional goals constitute 'Wicked Problems' and that the approaches that parties may take to address these specific regional goals may have complex interactions with other regional goals. Decision-making, cost analysis, and multipurpose efficacy of the approaches that regional parties may take to achieve goals are evaluated in environmental and development contexts and implications for program analysis and policy design are discussed. The first chapter of this dissertation seeks to understand how regulated parties, i.e. Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4s), choose from the strategies at their disposal to achieve compliance with their Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) obligations. To address declining Chesapeake Bay water quality, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set extensive nutrient and sediment reduction goals under the 2010 Chesapeake Bay TMDL. Virginia has responded by passing along explicit nutrient and sediment reduction requirements to its MS4s, which can choose from a variety of urban stormwater, land use change, source control, and restoration practices to achieve reductions toward these requirements. MS4s in Virginia have also been granted flexibility to achieve reduction requirements through purchase of nutrient and sediment credits toward requirements through trade. In spite of the cost-savings that these credits provide, MS4s' interest in trading for these credits has been low. MS4s instead generally engage in onsite nutrient and sediment reduction themselves, in spite of the high costs of doing so. In response to low interest in trade, case analysis of MS4s' Bay TMDL compliance behavior and semi-structured interviews are conducted to better understand the role of trade in compliance strategy and the reasons for its non-use. Findings reveal that the Virginia MS4s studied typically choose to implement onsite urban stormwater practices, source control practices, and restoration practices in order to generate long-lasting local benefits, like erosion control, flood risk reduction, and progress toward local TMDL obligations, alongside reductions toward the Bay TMDL. MS4s refrain from term credit purchases out of concern over future availability and refrain from perpetual credit purchases because they have been able to use funding sources to achieve reductions from long-lasting onsite practices at similar per-pound costs, while also receiving local benefits. Implications are that supply-side efforts to support trade markets may not generate the level of activity expected, given that would-be buyers have generally limited interest in trade as a compliance strategy. The second chapter studies the degree to which the practices used to meet local TMDL water quality obligations contribute to Bay TMDL compliance for the Loudoun County MS4. Linear programming is used to estimate the minimal cost of achieving Bay compliance in addition to local obligations through representative nutrient and sediment reduction strategies. The model estimates that Loudoun County MS4 faces substantial costs just to meet local water quality goals ($11 million/yr). Since many of the actions taken to meet local water quality goals also generate pollutant reductions to the Chesapeake Bay, adding Bay TMDL obligations adds 0.2%, 3%, and 32.9% to these costs, depending on the water quality trading used to reach Bay TMDL compliance. Findings shed additional light on Chapter 1's goal of investigating the role of trade by explaining low interest in trade as stemming from heavy local water quality needs. Implications are that the burden imposed by the Bay TMDL may not be as high as generally thought. The third chapter shifts focus to the Opioid Crisis to evaluate the efficacy of Syringe Exchange Programs, best known for their efforts to prevent bloodborne illness transmission, at achieving their secondary intervention goal of preventing opioid overdose. While research has established that Syringe Exchange Programs, or SEPs, are effective at preventing bloodborne illness, little focus has been given to their ability to prevent fatal overdose, which they aim to do by engaging in intervention practices like naloxone and fentanyl test strip distribution. In response for need for understanding of Syringe Exchange Programming's impact on overdose, fixed effects analysis is used to empirically study the impact of county-level SEP in North Carolina following the state's 2016 SEP legalization. Need-based programming complicates analysis and likely biases findings of the impact of SEP on overdose upward. Regardless, findings consistently fail to find that SEP has a significant effect on fatal overdose from four categories of opioids, which should reduce concerns in recent literature that they may increase overdose death. Implications are that, since SEPs have a richly documented history of saving lives through the prevention of bloodborne illness and do not appear to increase overdose, contrary to findings in other work, policy makers should continue to incorporate SEP into their portfolio of strategies used to address the Opioid Crisis.
- Star Theatre Feasibility StudyFerris, William N.; Friedman, Kit; Schwartz, Jason; Seo, Hye-Jeong; Ulaky, Allison (Virginia Tech, 2023-02-28)Graduate assistants with the Virginia Tech Center for Economic and Community Engagement (CECE) worked with the Town of Stuart, Virginia to conduct a feasibility study regarding purchase and operation of the Historic Star Theatre. First opened in 1947, the Star Theatre screened films and hosted live entertainment, drawing in locals and out-of-town visitors to the historic venue. With the theater newly renovated, the purchase of the historic facility could provide the town with a cultural anchor that would serve as a community-oriented center for concerts, movies, town gatherings, and other events, while simultaneously supporting Stuart’s historic downtown redevelopment effort.
- West Piedmont Agritourism & Agribusiness Regional Economic Impact Study and Marketing StrategyPosthumus, Ashley; Ferris, William N.; Friedman, Kit (2023-05-31)In Fall 2022, the West Piedmont Planning District Commission hired a team of community and economic development consultants from The Virginia Tech Center for Economic and Community Engagement, Arnett Muldrow & Associates and Ramble Type Digital to assist with the development of an Agritourism, Agribusiness and Agricultural Products Regional Economic Impact Study and an Agribusiness Marketing Plan.