THE IMPACT OF POLICIES TO CONTROL MOTOR VEHICLE EMISSIONS IN MUMBAI,INDIA*

ABSTRACT This paper examines the impacts of measures to reduce emissions from buses, cars, and two‐wheelers in Mumbai, India. We have considered three possible policies: conversion of diesel buses to CNG, an increase in the price of gasoline and a tax on vehicle ownership. Our results suggest that the most effective policy to reduce emissions from passenger vehicles—in terms of the total number of tons of PM10 reduced—is to convert diesel buses to CNG. The conversion of 3,391 diesel buses to CNG would result in an emissions reduction of 663 tons of PM10 per year, 14 percent of total emissions from transport.     

REGIONAL POLICIES IN DEVELOPED CAPITALIST STATES: THE IMPACT OF POLITICAL FORCES (THE WEST GERMAN EXAMPLE)

Using West Germany as an example, long-term trends contributing to the strengthening of regional socioeconomic inequalities are described. The role played by various factors in this process is analyzed: the relationship between “traditional” and “new” (high-technology) products, between the process and goals of regional policy formation, and between the spatial distribution of class and socio-political [i.e., political party] forces. These issues have clearly expressed political geographic and geoecological aspects (translated by Jay K. Mitchell, PlanEcon, Inc., Washington, DC 20005).     

THE IMPACT OF JUDICIAL IMPACT STATMENTS*

Judicial impact statements, if used indiscriminately, can do little either to protect federal and state judiciaries or assist legislatures. This conclusion emerges clearly from well documented case material available with respect to federal executive experience, the California experience with impact statements, as well as independent interview data which is summarized here. As a result, the broader issue of the reasons and the possible meaning of the currency of such a strategy emerges. Two such issues are addressed here: the behavioral assumptions and power relations that underlie judicial reform.     

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.     

ASSESSING THE PERFORMANCE OF AN ANCIENT BOAT—THE HASHOLME LOGBOAT

Summary. Several methods of assessing the performance of ancient boats are briefly described, including the experimental building and trials of replicas. It is considered that the method of using hydrostatic curves and speed-related coefficients is often the most cost-effective and this is used to assess the logboat from Hasholme, North Humberside of c 300 BC.     

THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF MINERAL INDUSTRIES

A research design for the study of environmental pollution by mineral industries is proposed, with particular reference to oil and gas extraction in the Volga region. In evaluating the environmental impact, three basic stages need to be distinguished: the impact proper, the environmental reaction and the longer-term consequences for the environment and for human activity. Pollution by mineral industries involves aspects common to most such industries and specific aspects associated with a particular mineral industry. Impacts may be examined from a quantitative and qualitative point of view and in the space-time perspective. Various productive facilities of a mineral industry (production wells, strip mines, deep mines, spoil banks, pipelines, railroads, highways) may have specific impacts on particular environmental components (land, air, water, biological communities). The specific impacts of the oil industry and the coal industry are compared.     

TAX AND FINANCIAL POLICIES FOR THE HOUSING MARKET OF THE 1980s

The imbalance in the age structure of the U.S. population has created conditions for heavy demand and consequently pressures for rising relative prices in the market for owner-occupied single family housing in the 1980s and 1990s. Working in reverse, the unbalanced demographics may well lead to the falling relative price of housing around 2010, the period in which the baby boom generation will be retiring and may wish to liquidate its housing investment. Changes in housing policies during the 1980s could help offset the anticipated costs associated with the swings in demand pressures in the housing market over the next forty years. Current favorable tax and financial policies toward homeownership encourage both the overconsumption of housing and the overinvestment in housing as a retirement asset. Tax and financial policies could be changed to neutralize the attractiveness of owner-occupied single family units relative to alternative types of housing units. To avoid overbuilding for the future, policies could encourage the efficient use of existing housing resources through intergenerational turnover, upgrading of units and neighborhood improvement, and condominium-style conversion of multiunit structures from rental to owner-occupancy. Finally, tax and financial policies toward investment could encourage the baby boom generation to diversify its retirement assets outside of housing.     

THE IMPACT OF THE SYSTEM OF MINOR CIVIL DIVISIONS ON AGRICULTURE

Mathematical techniques are used to test the hypothesis that Soviet farm efficiency, as reflected in farm profit rates, is higher in areas where the boundaries of collective and state farms coincide with the boundaries of rural soviets, the lowest local government areas. Conversely, farm performance suffers when farm territories are broken up among two or more rural soviets. The use of Karl Pearson's coefficient of contingency, which may be used to measure the strength of a relationship between qualitative variables, shows a positive relationship between farm profit rates and boundary coincidence. The authors therefore urge frequent review of local government areas to insure that they correspond to the boundaries of agricultural operating units.     

THE PROBLEM OF HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT: RESULT OF MUDDLED NATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICIES

During 1953 through 1979 estimated, the U.S. economy has exhibited a roller-coaster economic performance–six periods of inadequate upturn, stagnation, and recession, with a chronic rise in unemployment because each upturn at its peak has tended to leave us with more unemployment than the previous one. During the period as a whole, we have forfeited 7.1 trillion 1978 dollars in GNP and 80.8 million years of civilian employment opportunities, and consequently lost about 1.8 trillion dollars in public revenues at all levels, with severe neglect of national priorities, and chronically rising Federal Budget deficits. This sorry record is due primarily to reliance upon a “trade-off” between unemployment and inflation. But empirical evidence for more than a quarter century has demonstrated that inflation rises as unused capabilities increase and vice versa. The annual inflation rate during the first half of 1979 exceeded 13 percent despite recession; it ranged from 1.6–3.0 percent during periods close to full employment. We now need thorough reconstruction of national economic policies, including abandonment of (1) the unemployment-inflation “trade-off,” (2) attempts to balance the federal budget at the expense of the economy and the people, (3) the prevalent monetary policy with soaring interest rates, and (4) excessive reliance on tax reductions in lieu of increased public outlays or investment. These changes would replace improvised and frequently conflicting national economic policies with comprehensive and coherent efforts. All this is in accord with the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978