URBAN PRODUCTIVITY: CITY SIZE OR INDUSTRY SIZE*

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes the effect of city size and industry size on urban productivity in the food processing industry. Some formulations suggest productivity is associated with industry size rather than city size. However, when allowance is made for the tendency of food processing to locate near relevant raw materials and for regional dummies, there is no support for industry scale economies. Agglomeration effects, associated with city size, do exist. The central estimates are based on the Chan-Mountain version of the translog production function. The results provide information on some facets of the appropriate balance between industrial and agricultural production.     

TELECOMMUNICATION EXTERNAL ECONOMIES,CITY SIZE AND OPTIMAL PRICING FOR TELECOMMUNICATIONS*

ABSTRACT. In this paper I make use of a city systems model to examine how telecommunications may affect cities in urban systems. The model offers an explanation for the observation that the share of employment in the communication-intensive producer-service sector increases with city size in the U.S. I suggest that external scale economies associated with metropolitan employment size, telecommunication network size and total number of intrametropolitan telecommunication contacts are possible explanations for this observation. I go on to suggest that the presence of telecommunication size and contact level external scale economies at the metropolitan level affects the optimal price that should be charged for local telecommunication services.     

FAMILY IMPACT ANALYSIS: CONCEPTS AND METHODOLOGIES*

A brief introduction to the background, current concerns, and methodologies of Family Impact Analysis is presented. The concept of Family Impact Analysis will be delineated by a discussion of the background of Family Impact Analysis, its particular timeliness now, the relationship of Family Impact Analysis to other policy or program analyses, the nature of potential policy impacts on families, and different research strategies appropriate for Family Impact Analysis. The basic elements of a step-by-step methodology for engaging in family impact analysis is briefly outlined. These steps include: 1) identification of the policy for analysis; 2) identification of family impacts of concern; 3) specification of the relationship between policy components and hypothesized family impacts; 4) design and implementation of the research; 5) analysis of findings; and 6) evaluation of and presentation of findings. The current state of the art regarding family impact analysis as a methodology will be reviewed, and recommendations for further development and utilization of this methodology will be offered.     

BLOCK GRANTS AND URBAN POLICIES: IMPLETATION AND IMPACT

In the 1970's, the federal government has made greater use of block grants to encourage subnational units to pursue national goals. Using two jurisdictions—St. Louis City and St. Louis County—and two block grant programs—Community Development and Comprehensive Employment and Training—as case studies, this essay describes how differences in local polities affects policy implementation and policy impact. The tentative conclusion is that maintaining local autonomy and achieving national goals are far from mutually compatible.     

CONTEMPORARY URBANIZATION AND AN OPTIMAL SIZE FOR SOVIET CITIES

Three Leningrad geographers use a recent book by Yu. L. Pivovarov of Moscow as a point of departure to focus on two issues relating to urbanization in the Soviet Union: (1) the nature of the urbanization process; (2) optimal city size. The authors challenge Pivovarov's view that urbanization is a relatively independent socio-historical process in which places evolve on their own from lower forms to higher forms of settlement. They contend that urbanization is closely related to the characteristics of a given socio-economic system and that, in the Soviet Union, it involves not only city growth per se, but the relationship between urban and rural settlement and the penetration of urban life styles into the countryside. On the controversy surrounding optimal size, the writers say that the issue is not to find the ideal size for cities in general, but to set desirable limits for cities of different functional types and, most important, to insure that the infrastructure of cities keeps pace with industrial potential. If industrial development moves far ahead of infrastructure, the authors argue, it is desirable to constrain further growth, especially by keeping out industries that tend to have an agglomerative effect in attracting other industries. Once infrastructure catches up with industrial development, the constraints can be eased and the economies of size inherent in large cities can again come into play.     

A NOTE ON NEIGHBORHOOD SIZE AND THE MEASUREMENT OF SEGREGATION INDICES*

This note examines neighborhood segregation measures with respect to size and validity. Conventional measures, while related to within-neighborhood homogeneity, are not necessarily related to neighborhood size. An empirical test examines racial segregation for Baltimore in 1970 and 1980 using both census tract and specially formulated neighborhood aggregates. For both years, and for all measures of segregation, the values and trends are essentially unchanged by the level of aggregation.     

THE OPTIMAL PROVISION OF A CENTRAL PARK IN A CITY*

In this paper, I examine the conditions and decision rules pertaining to the efficient provision of a central park in a city (provision that must satisfy the Samuelson condition). An interesting finding is that an additional opportunity cost that results from competition with residential use must be included to determine the efficient size of a central park. An efficient central park is larger in a city with public landownership than in a city with absentee landownership. Profit maximization and population maximization can be used as decision rules to determine the efficient provision of a central park in both an open city with absentee landownership and one with public landownership. The net benefit of a central park in a closed city with absentee landownership is reflected not only in the land rent or profit, but also in the utility level, while that of a closed city with public landownership is fully reflected in the utility level. It is not feasible to determine the efficient size of a central park for a closed city with either absentee or public landownership solely based on observable market information.     

AGENCY FRACMENTATION AND ITS EFFECTS ON IMPACT: A BORDERLANDS CASE*

The US-Mexico border is both a line of potential separation and a span of contact and blending of cultures. National and local perceptions and intentions about this boundary often differ, and the formulation and implementation of border policy is thus subject to many conflicting pressures. Not the least are those generated by government agencies with border responsibilities. Perspectives as local, border, and field offices, combined with inter-agency rivalry and uncertain jurisdictions, lead to border management operations that are inconsistent with apparent national (central) policy, illustrated by the complex bureaucracy present in El Paso—the largest urban site on the border. Proposed solutions cluster around improvement of the existing structure (with better equipment, budgets, or staffing) or reorganization of the primary border agencies. Recent efforts by the federal government to introduce changes based on both of these approaches have been markedly unsuccessful, reflecting a continuing inability to resolve fundamental differences of opinion (both intracentral and central-border) on the goals of border policy.     

SUPPLY ARMS AND OPTIMAL SPATIAL STRUCTURE*

ABSTRACT. A multi-plant producer has sole access to a region, and each of the plants processes a raw material which is drawn from its own exclusive supply area. Under these conditions what spatial structure of production (in terms of plant scale, plant frequency, supply-area size and supply-area shape) will enable region-wide or multi-plant profit to be maximized? The form of this optimal structure is shown to vary with prevailing level of price, which is exogenously determined.