Assessing the growth-inducing impact of the Appalachian Development Highway System in southern Ohio: Did policy promote change?

The concept of “inducing growth” is typically considered an adverse consequence of a project on the land use system. In certain instances, however, the desire to induce growth and foster land use change is a focus of land use policy. Such is the example of the Appalachian Highway Development System (AHDS) program initiated by the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) during the late 1960s. With the goal of providing highway infrastructure to improve assess to a geographically isolated and historically impoverished region, the ADHS has added nearly 3000 miles of highway to the Appalachian landscape. The degree to which highway investment has contributed to regional growth remains a controversial point and tractable methods to quickly assess landscape change given a project of this magnitude are elusive. In this paper a portion of the AHDS trending through southern Ohio is examined using data acquired from the Landsat series of satellites. Beginning with a pre-highway condition in 1976, a 26 year time horizon, concluding in 2002, was analyzed based on a post-classification change detection methodology. Results of this investigation revealed slight, yet significant, levels of urban expansion within a 10 km corridor along the path of AHDS Corridor D/State Route 32. Beyond this buffer zone the land use system evidenced more stability, suggesting that as distance increased from Corridor D/State Route 32, reduced accessibility also reduced the attractiveness of land for urban uses. Relating these results back to the infrastructure investment policies of the ARC demonstrates that growth did result from the construction of Corridor D and supports previous findings that land development based on highway construction is extremely time-sensitive.     

The economics of land transfer and title insurance

In the presence of uncertainty over the title of land (due to fraud or error), a legal system can protect either the current (innocent) owner, or a previous owner who claims title. The predominant system in the United States generally awards title to the latter in the event of legitimate claim. Thus, current owners frequently purchase title insurance to provide indemnification in the event of a loss. In contrast, the Torrens system awards title to the current owner, but provides for indemnification of any legitimate claimants. We evaluate these two systems and argue that if transaction costs are low, both promote efficient assignment of title (according to the Coase Theorem), but if transaction costs are high, the Torrens system is more likely to award title to the party that values it the most (namely, the current possessor).     

The role of planning in achieving indigenous land justice and community goals

This paper suggests that the capacity of indigenous groups to engage effectively in a range of planning activities is crucial to achieving land justice and community goals. This argument is relevant in the face of long-standing tensions between indigenous peoples residing in post-settler societies and nation-states such as Australia, Canada, and New Zealand over questions of land and natural resource use. The paper argues that effective planning is crucial for (i) protecting indigenous interests by engaging the planning activities of the state, (ii) the successful acquisition of lands through legal land claim processes, and (iii) helping indigenous communities achieve their goals by implementing effective community-based planning processes.     

The division of labour and market structure

Most firms produce most of the time under conditions of substantial economies of scale. The division of labour, according to Adam Smith the mainspring of wealth, is intrinsically an economies of scale phenomenon. Market structure in most industries in characterized by a small number of suppliers and a larger number of customers. I explain this law of small numbers as the equilibrium of two forces: the deconcentration effect of imitation and the market spliting effect of further refinements in the division of labour by innovation. A deconcentrated market creates larger incentives for market splitting (product differentiation) by innovation than a concentrated market. But market splitting raises concentration in the market and it raises the number of different markets in the economy. Before the economies of scale of old products are fully exploited, new products are being offered which again are produced under conditions of economies of scale.     

甘肃省土地利用结构动态演变及其驱动力分析

在GIS技术支持下,以甘肃省1997--2006年土地利用变更调查数据及相关经济社会统计数据为基础,借助系统论中的信息熵原理,揭示了甘肃省用地结构动态演变特征,阐述了影响土地利用结构动态演变的主要自然、政策等驱动力,最后利用主成分分析方法,对该区用地结构动态演变的经济社会主要驱动因子进行了分析与探讨。     

Land use externalities, open space preservation, and urban sprawl

Parcel data on residential land conversion are used to investigate how land use externalities influence the rate of development and modify policies designed to manage urban growth and preserve open space. Several “smart growth” policies are found to significantly influence land conversion, including a development clustering policy that concentrates development and generates preserved open space. In addition to directly affecting a parcel's hazard rate of conversion, this policy is found to affect neighboring parcels' conversion by generating a positive open space externality that hastens their development. The implication that the clustering policy could generate a more sprawled pattern of development is explored using spatial simulation.     

The housing question in Japan

This article first examines how bad housing conditions are in Japan based on international comparisons. The next question is whether the extremely high land prices in Japan can be explained by economic logic. We then turn to more specific housing policy questions that are peculiar to or important in Japan, such as the tax advantages of owning land that have caused under-utilization of land and the reasons why the average size of Japanese rental housing is so small.     

产业集群的演进:一个基于专业化分工视角的解释

产业集群的形成是专业化分工产业的报酬递增的一种空间表现形式,是一个劳动分工深化、交易效率提高的过程.如果从分工角度考察,产业集群是形成专业化分工的产物;同时,分工和专业化的发展与产业集群之间表现出高度的一致性.     

论凯恩斯的萧条经济学理论的创新性与局限性

面对资本主义制度下具有严重威胁性的失业问题，凯恩斯把如何解决失业问题作为他写《就业、利息和货币通论》的目的。凯恩斯由就业不足引到有效需求不足，再引到投资不足与消费不足乃至货币不足，构成了被人们称之为“萧条经济学体系”的经济学理论体系。在资本主义出现有效需求不足、经济萧条和严重失业的现象时，凯恩斯主张采取积极财政政策，直接增加政府的支出和公共投资，以刺激经济增长、解决失业问题。因为消费倾向在短期内是相对稳定的，因而，要实现充分就业，必须从增加投资需求着手。凯恩斯的经济理论和政策观点至今仍在资本主义国家发生着作用，对我国当前正在进行的宏观经济调控也有某种借鉴的价值。     

长三角城市群产业一体化发展研究——城际战略产业链的视角

伴随着城市群的发展,城市间产业分工开始向产业链分工方向发展。各城市按照产业链的不同环节进行专业化分工,形成不同类型和层次的城际产业链,城市间基于城际产业链尤其是城际战略产业链的分工协作关系加快了城市群产业一体化的进程。本文构建由产业战略力维度和城际链接力维度构成的城市群产业一体化发展模型,利用该模型确定长三角城市群三大城际战略产业链,依据产业链各环节的优区位要求,对三大城际战略产业链在城市群地区进行空间布局。最后指出,加快城市群产业一体化的关键是,城市群城际战略产业链类型的正确选择和城际战略产业链环节的合理布局和优化组合。