EXPLORING THE ECONOMIC IMPACT AND DRIVERS OF RURAL VETERINARY BUSINESSES THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES

The major goals of the project are as follows:1. Evaluate the economic activity supported by rural veterinarians through Industry Contribution Analysis (ICA).Determine the county-level industry contribution of the veterinarian industry.Analyze differences in total veterinarian industry contribution between rural andurban/suburban areas to assess magnitude of total contribution.2. Analyze the competitiveness, areas of shortage, and labor/employment of rural veterinary businesses.Examine the spatial concentration of veterinary firms and the extent of local market power via spatial industrial organization methods.Determine the human/animal population to veterinarian ratio in rural versus urban/suburban areas and identify potential veterinary business shortage areas through geographic mapping tools.Analyze changes in veterinary business entry/exit and evaluate the effectiveness of state/national policies to incentivize veterinarians to practice in rural areas.3. Survey the impacts of adoption of veterinary informatics and broadband technologies on individual firm's market competitiveness.Conduct a veterinary business survey to observe the use of technology as related to business success.Examine the availability of broadband infrastructure in rural veterinarian areas using FCC Form 477 data.4. Survey of prices and consumer willingness-to-pay for companion animal veterinary services in rural versus urban areas.Conduct a survey of veterinary businesses to extract prices for various veterinary services.Perform an online conjoint experiment of pet owners to extract stated preferences anddetermine differences in price and willingness-to-pay.