About

Roberto Gallardo is the Vice President for Engagement and an Associate Professor in the Agricultural Economics Department. He holds an electronics engineering undergraduate degree, a master’s in economic development, and a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Administration. Gallardo has worked with rural communities over the past decade conducting local and regional community economic development, including the use of technology for development. He has authored more than 100 articles, including peer-reviewed and news-related pieces, focusing on rural trends, socioeconomic analysis, industrial clusters, the digital divide, and leveraging broadband applications for community economic development. Additionally, he is the author of the books “Responsive Countryside: The Digital Age & Rural Communities,” which highlights a 21st-century community development model for rural areas in the digital age, and “Indiana at a Glance: Edition 2025,” which analyzes various variables related to population, workforce development, economic development, income, housing, and digital opportunities. Dr. Gallardo is a TEDx speaker and currently serves on the Federal Reserve Board Community Advisory Council.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Sociology
• Business
• Economics
• Political Science
• Economic growth
• Statistics
• Telecommunications
• Social Science
• Demographic economics
• World Wide Web
• Econometrics
• Engineering
• Mathematics
• Public economics

Selected publications

• County-Level Drivers of Prime-Age Population Growth or Decline in the United States

  Research Square · 2026-04-08

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Outreach and Education Responses to the Digital Divide

  2025-07-10

  book-chapterOpen access

  There are multiple dimensions to the digital divide, including social, economic, and geographic differences in access, skills, and use. Understanding these complexities will be critical for more effective policies and practices to reduce disparities. Integrating the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach, Community Capitals Framework, and Digital Access Continuum to form the “Digital Capital Framework,” this chapter focuses on ways members of the Cooperative Extension System have researched and developed outreach and educational tools for advancing digital skills and utilization. Synthesizing multiple sources of information, including a digital capital survey combined with analysis of programmatic efforts to respond to the needs and interests of people in underserved areas, insights can be used to inform community empowerment intermediaries in the digital age.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Evolving Landscape of Urban Policing: Challenges and Solutions in Densely Populated Cities

  2025-01-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• An unexpected digital divide? A look at internet speeds and socioeconomic groups

  Telecommunications Policy · 2024-04-24 · 21 citations

  articleOpen access1st author

  As societies and economies continue to digitize, the need to understand the digital divide beyond binary availability or adoption metrics is increasing. Understanding the quality and performance of home internet—measured by internet speeds—among different socioeconomic groups contributes to the complex digital equity landscape at a time when all U.S. states and territories are completing digital equity plans. Using 2021 speed test data from Ookla, this study conducts spatial regressions at the census tract level to find that most of the sociodemographic factors associated with lower home internet adoption rates (e.g., rural, poor, older) remain when looking at actual internet speeds. However, an unexpected finding—supported by emerging research—that White non-Hispanic residents are using the internet at slower speeds compared to the two largest minority groups of Blacks and Hispanics suggests a need to potentially reassess the design of digital equity programs and policy interventions.

  PublisherDOI

• COVID-19-Induced Automation: An Exploratory Study of Critical Occupations

  Economic Development Quarterly · 2023-03-20 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The COVID-19 pandemic may have spurred automation, especially in critical occupations. This article explores the potential of each detailed Standard Occupational Classification System (SOC) occupation being automated due to COVID-19. The authors explore two key elements of each occupation: its exposure to diseases such as COVID-19 and the probability of that occupation being automated. The results reveal that food preparation, service, and cleaning-related occupations have a higher chance of pandemic-induced automation. Using monthly U.S. job postings from 2016 to 2021, the estimates show that the potential pandemic-induced automation is associated with a statistically significant decrease in job postings. A higher Automation Index is associated with fewer job postings since the pandemic. Such trends remain robust after accounting for posting duration and excluding health-related occupations. These findings contribute to the early assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on the potential integration of automation in the labor force and offer insights into building a resilient and labor-centric post-pandemic labor market.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Do ‘dig once’ and permitting policies improve fiber availability?

  Telecommunications Policy · 2022-01-07 · 4 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Small Farmers’ Use of Social Media and Other Channels for Marketing their Agricultural Products

  Journal of Extension · 2021-12-10 · 9 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  We examined small farmers’ use of and preference for different channels for marketing agricultural products and explored differences by gender, age group, and education level. Farmers markets and social media were preferred channels, with participants under age 55 being more likely than those 55 and over to prefer and use social media and agree that social media would be useful for promoting products and increasing sales. While selling via social media could provide a larger market, one challenge is that the average age of Mississippi farm operators is 59. Therefore, Extension must consider multiple approaches for delivering training on marketing.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Broadband metrics and job productivity: a look at county-level data

  The Annals of Regional Science · 2020 · 61 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Sociology
  • Business
  PublisherDOI

• COVID-19 lockdowns expose the digital have-nots in rural areas – here’s which policies can get them connected

  2020-09-02 · 1 citations

  preprintSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Digital inclusion and parity: Implications for community development

  Community Development · 2020 · 36 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Computer Science

  This paper introduces the concept of digital parity – similar levels of connectivity, devices, and skills between groups – that can lead to more digital inclusive communities. Utilizing a household survey measuring digital inclusiveness and ANOVA analysis, findings suggest that there are different levels of digital inclusiveness between groups. Differences in internet use and benefits are larger between younger and older groups. There are also differences between urban and rural areas. A statistically modeled digital parity scenario still finds uneven levels of digital inclusiveness, though urban and rural differences disappear, implying deeper and more complex inequality issues are at play. Future research should gather nationally representative survey data and see if findings hold. Regardless and as shown by COVID-19, community development practitioners need to incorporate digital inclusion strategies to ensure their communities transition to, adapt, and prosper in a sustainable way in this unfolding digital age.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Brian E. Whitacre

  Oklahoma State University

  12 shared

• Sharon Strover

  The University of Texas at Austin

  6 shared

• James N. Barnes

  University of the Incarnate Word

  2 shared

• Ken Hood

  2 shared

• Indraneel Kumar

  Purdue University West Lafayette

  2 shared

• Yessica Rivas

  Universidad Adventista de Chile

  1 shared

• Carlos Toranzo Roca

  1 shared

• Francisco Matus

  Universidad de La Frontera

  1 shared

Education

• Ph.D. Public Policy and Administration, Political Science

  Mississippi State University