THE EFFECTS OF COURT INTERVENTION IN ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION

Books reviewed in this articles:
Laura M. Lake, Environmental Regulation; The Political Effects of Implementation
R. Shep Melnick, Regulation and the Courts; The Case of the Clean Air Act
Lettie M. Wenner, The Environmental Decade in Court     

SOCIAL-GEOGRAPHIC PROBLEMS IN THE REGULATION OF SETTLEMENT SYSTEMS IN A DEVELOPED SOCIALIST SOCIETY

An analysis of the impact of social development on forms of settlement and of the reverse impact of settlement forms on social processes. The author challenges the view that spatial forms have no bearing on social processes. The point is made by tabulating types of social contacts at various spatial levels and for different forms of settlement, from household to large urban agglomeration. The significance of information flows at different spatial levels is discussed. Large cities are found to have potential for the development of material and spiritual benefits that are lacking in smaller places. But since an integrated economy also requires smaller forms of settlement, ways must be found to provide a minimum set of material and cultural services at the lower level as well. Recommendations for raising the level of living in smaller Soviet populated places are offered.     

EVOLUTION OF URBAN SYSTEMS IN THE PARETO PLANE*

ABSTRACT Distributions of city sizes are usually characterized by their Pareto index. This, however, turns out to be a rather restrictive view, for the Pareto distribution is known to become singular whenever the Pareto index becomes smaller than one, a case which is fairly frequent in empirical distributions. We show that the introduction of finite Pareto distributions in which city sizes are bounded from above solves a number of difficulties encountered by the rank-size rule and by the unbounded Pareto distribution. Combined with the use of finite Pareto distributions, the green-belt model that has been introduced previously is reexamined. It implies definite constraints for the long-run evolution of urban systems; it is in the cases of countries experiencing a process of fast urbanization that these constraints are of greatest significance. The implications of the model are confronted with empirical evidence concerning the evolution of urban systems in major industrialized countries during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.     

THE MARKET VALUE OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENTS IN ALTERNATIVE FISCAL REGIMES*

ABSTRACT Land price differentials have long been used as a proxy for the value of environmental improvements in cost/benefit analysis. Both the empirical and theoretical literatures have largely ignored two important facts, however: Taxes financing local improvements are often distortionary, and amenities which influence property values in turn impact the fiscal budget, and hence the tax rate and final economic burden. Put another way, the economic cost of an improvement is endogenous to both the amenity level and the revenue structure. Extending the story in this direction for a system of open or closed spatial cities, the paper finds land rent measures to be a biased measure of the willingness to pay for amenities financed by either head taxes (benefit taxes), property taxes (excise taxes), or highway tolls (user fees). These results are used to correct the conventional specification of empirical property value regression models, which traditionally account for neither tax revenue effects nor the excess burden of distortionary taxation.     

PHOSPHATES IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL FINDS: IMPLICATIONS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS OF BURIAL*

The occurrence of coarse‐grained vivianite and mitridatite aggregates in a potsherd, a grand ring and a timber imprint from the Second Iron Age site of Adria (Rovigo, northeastern Italy) suggest contrasting environmental conditions of burial. In particular, bone fragments were replaced by vivianite at relatively low pH and Eh, due to the presence of deteriorating organic matter, together with slag and iron flakes. Subsequent interactions with Ca‐rich groundwater characterized by higher pH and Eh determined the growth of mitridatite after vivianite. Although phosphates crystallized after burial, the examined samples were not involved in pervasive chemical contamination.     

THE INCIDENCE AND REGULATION OF PLANT SHUTDOWNS*

This paper analyzes the proposed plant closing legislation, together with other complementary approaches to the orderly regulation of private capital disinvestment, especially as it occurs in the form of large-scale plant or store shutdowns. The authors also provide a review of the recent data on the incidence and employment impact of shutdowns during the 1970's, in particular industries, by region and by form of ownership.     

VALUES ANALYSIS IN ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

The consideration of values in environmental policy decisions requires attention not only to substantive matters of environmental quality, but also to balancing such broader social values as science, democracy and authority. Current methods for values analysis can be grouped according to their relative emphasis among these values in order to better illuminate the implications of adopting such methods.     

CLIENT GROUP ATTITUDES TOWARD ALTERNATIVE FORMS OF INDUSTRIAL SAFETY REGULATION*

A sample of local union officers was surveyed to determine the degree to which they supported the current approach to industrial safety regulation (the setting of safety standards under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970) as opposed to an alternative scheme (the imposition of an injury tax). Personal characteristics of the members of the sample were also obtained. These data were matched with the injury frequency rates of the industries in which the officers’ constituents were employed. Individuals surveyed tended to believe OSHA to have been an effective injury deterrent, although there were significant differences among groups within the sample. The establishment of safety standards was strongly supported as the “best” means to control industrial accidents.     

ALTERNATIVE MODELS FOR ORGANIZATION OF STATE COURT SYSTEMS*

The dominant theme in court reorganization has been to state judiciaries by consolidating trial courts and centralizing their administration in a state level office. This article suggests that the debate over the relative merits of a centralized vs. a decentralized (or fragmented) court system ignores the rich variety of organizational structures used in other fields. The potential judicial implications of three models-franchise, corporate, and federal-are examined in detail. Their underlying assumptions are compared with those of the centralization approach. The argument is made that none of the models is appropriate for all circumstances. Each approach to court organization emphasizes a particular set of objectives at the expense of another set. An effort is made to identify what each approach has to offer.     

ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS IN THE YEREVAN REGION

The articles describes the extent of environmental pollution in Greater Yerevan (pollution of air, water, and soil, noise pollution). Conflicts of nature management are revealed, the state of the environment is analyzed, and measures for resolving environmental protection are outlined. Among the interesting revelations are the fact that pollution from chloroprene rubber production in the city remains a major problem, in spite of the fact that production has switched from a calcium carbide-based to a butadiene-based technology and that nearly half of the basin's rayons (5 of 11) are reported to lack wastewater treatment facilities. Translated by Jay K. Mitchell, PlanEcon, Inc., Washington, DC 20005 from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, seriya geograficheskaya, 1990, No. 1, pp. 55-65.     

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN SOVIET FOREST MANAGEMENT

Exploitation of forest resources in the USSR requires choices among a set of uses which are at times mutually exclusive. Trees have predominantly been used in industry, often harvested by methods which have caused environmental damage and have not allowed for optimum utilization of the resource. It appears that increasing recognition is given to other functions of forest stands, including food supply, social recreation, and non-consumptive uses such as ecosystem preservation and environmental amelioration.