Contradictions of the Climate-Friendly City: New Perspectives on Eco-Gentrification and Housing Justice

As local governments and corporations promote ‘climate friendliness’, and a low-carbon lifestyle becomes increasingly desirable, more middle- and upper-income urban residents are choosing to live near public transit, on bike- and pedestrian-friendly streets, and in higher-density mixed-use areas. This rejection of classical forms of suburbanization has, in part, increased property values in neighborhoods offering these amenities, displacing lower-income, often non-white, residents. Increased prevalence of creative and technology workers appears to accelerate this trend. We argue that a significant and understudied socio-environmental contradiction also occurs where the actual environmental outcomes of neighborhood transformation may not be what we expect. New research on greenhouse gas emissions shows that more affluent residents have much larger carbon footprints because of their consumption, even when reductions in transportation or building energy emissions are included. We describe an area in Seattle, Washington, the location of Amazon's headquarters, experiencing this contradiction and show a distinct convergence of city investments in low-carbon infrastructure, significant rises in housing prices and decreases in lower-income and non-white residents. We conclude with a discussion of a range of issues that require more attention by scholars interested in housing justice and/or urban sustainability.     

The visible hand: the role of government in China’s long-awaited industrial revolution

China is undergoing its long-awaited industrial revolution. There is no shortage of commentary and opinion on this dramatic period, but few have attempted to provide a coherent, in-depth, political-economic framework that explains the fundamental mechanisms behind China’s rapid industrialization. This article reviews the Embryonic Economic Development theory put forth by Wen (2016a). This article reviews the Embryonic Economic Development theory put forth by Wen . It illuminates the critical sequence of developmental stages since the reforms enacted by Deng Xiaoping in 1978: namely, small-scale commercialized agricultural production, proto-industrialization in the countryside, a formal industrial revolution based on mass production of labor-intensive light consumer goods, a sustainable ‘industrial trinity’ boom in energy/motive power/infrastructure, and a second industrial revolution involving the mass production of heavy industrial goods. This developmental sequence follows essentially the same pattern as Great Britain’s Industrial Revolution, despite sharp differences in political and institutional conditions. One of the key conclusions exemplified by China’s economic rise is that the extent of industrialization is limited by the extent of the market. One of the key strategies behind the creation and nurturing of a continually growing market in China is based on this premise: The free market is a public good that is very costly for nations to create and support. Market creation requires a powerful ‘mercantilist’ state and the correct sequence of developmental stages; China has been successfully accomplishing its industrialization through these stages, backed by measured, targeted reforms and direct participation from its central and local governments.     

新自由主义思潮的全球化历程及其影响

新自由主义思潮在向全球扩张蔓延的过程中,对拉美、东欧和前苏联国家产生了巨大而深刻的影响。对新自由主义的危害,正处于改革发展关键阶段的中国应有清醒而足够的认识。     

Applying financial portfolio and multiple criteria approaches to product line decisions

This article describes the application of decision rules from financial portfolio theory to the evaluation of product lines. The focus is on the risk/return implications of an “add” decision to the total portfolio versus the individual product. Multiple criteria approaches that aid product line evaluations are also presented.     

Problems in Demand Estimation For a New Technology

It is difficult to estimate demand for a new product or service when a prelaunch test market is not practical. This is often the case for products that incorporate advanced technology. In this article, Robert Thomas reviews 29 different research methodologies used to measure demand for a new telecommunications service. He found several problems in how the research was designed and executed and offers a number of suggestions for improving the accuracy of demand estimates.     

Impact of internal and external environmental stability on the existence of determinant buying rules

The environment of the buying center is conceptualized as having two components. One is external to the buying center but internal organization. The other is external to both the buying center and the organization. The stability of these environments explains a significant amount of variation in the existence of organizational rules that determine the outcomes of organizational buying decisions. A comparison of global and attribute- specific measures of environmental stability indicates the environmental attributes that underlie respondents' global judgements about stability.     

Technological change in the military aircraft industry

This paper analyzes technological change in the U.S. military aircraft industry. It divides this technological change into two components, methods of production and product quality innovations. The basic findings of this paper are obtained from a comparison of the F-4 and F-15 technologies. The results show that new production technologies reduce the costs of manufacturing a weapon system, but that product improvements substantially increase costs.     

On the use of profit data to estimate the social cost of monopoly power in an oligopoly

Relatively high estimates of the welfare cost of monopoly power in U.S. manufacturing industries have been obtained by economists who use the Lerner equation to estimate this welfare cost from profit data. These Lerner equation loss estimates are appropriate for a monopoly with constant costs and linear demand. But if the industry is an oligopoly in a Nash-Cournot equilibrium, the Lerner equation loss estimates can be more than twice as large as the actual welfare gain that would result from the elimination of monopoly power. Partial and general equilibrium examples are presented to illustrate the nature of these estimation errors.