REGIONAL CAPITAL FORMATION IN U. S. MANUFACTURING DURING THE 1970s

ABSTRACT The study quantifies the impact of changes in input prices on regional net investment in manufacturing. A neoclassical investment model is estimated for the nation and three regions: North, South, and West. The data base is pooled state observations for the period 1974-78. The regional elasticities of net investment with respect to both input prices and the technology index are computed. The results indicate that net investment is mare sensitive to changes in input prices in the South and West than in the North. The biased technical change affects capital formation the mast in the West.     

FERTILITY CHANGES IN CENTRAL ASIA SINCE 1980

Limited studies document the fertility changes in Central Asia. Using survey and official data, this study describes the fertility changes since 1980 in Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Uzbekistan. I first consider the swift decline in fertility in the 1980s and 1990s through the analysis of Synthetic Parity Progression Ratios (SPPRs). SPPRs show that women still have at least one child despite economic difficulties and that the end of communism affected more the transition to higher-order births. These results are however influenced by economic and demographic factors specific to each country. I investigate then the fertility upturn that is observed since the early 2000s—an issue neglected so far by demographers. Results from the analysis of official and household data show that in each country, the recent fertility increase resulted from the increase of distinct birth orders and was concentrated in specific ethnic groups.     

THE PHYSICAL FACTOR IN THE SYSTEM OF CONDITIONS DETERMINING THE LOCATION OF INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION IN THE USSR

The generally accepted view that material-intensive industries tend to gravitate toward raw-material sources is analyzed in the case of the USSR. Primary processing is found to gravitate toward raw-material sources mainly in underdeveloped parts of the country. In the developed zone (European USSR, Urals, Transcaucasia), a significant spatial gap has developed between primary processing activities and raw-material sources as the original local resources become depleted and the industry must draw increasingly on long-haul raw materials. Several industrial groups are distinguished in terms of the pull of resource sites. In view of the current trend toward greater concentration of production (for cost-benefit reasons) and the growing volumes of production per establishment, primary processing establishments are usually dependent on more than one resource site, and this also tends to increase the length of haul. At the same time, the distribution of fuels, energy and water resources is assuming greater significance and tends to pull such industries as iron and steel, nonferrous metals, pulp and paper as well as petroleum refining toward the eastern areas of the USSR. The controversy over the location of a new integrated iron and steel plant based on ore from the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly is recalled.     

THE LOCATION OF METAL-INTENSIVE AND LABOR-INTENSIVE INDUSTRIES IN THE EASTERN REGIONS

The author argues against the widespread view (stated in several articles in Soviet Geography) that labor-intensive industries should be kept out of Siberia because of the shortage of labor resources in that region. Taking the specific example of labor-intensive machinery industry such as instrument-making, as opposed to steel-intensive industry, he points out that labor-intensive plants, by virtue of their smaller size, usually have smaller labor requirements than large heavy-machinery manufacturing plants. Moreover, he argues, location must not be based on total population or total labor resources of a region, but on the availability of so-called free (nonemployed) labor resources, which consist largely of women and of young people just entering upon a career. This category of labor resources happens to be greater in the eastern regions than in the western regions of the Soviet Union. In fact, one reason for the net out-migration from Siberia, according to the author, is that second and third members of households find it difficult to obtain jobs in a regional economy that is largely oriented toward male employment (in extractive industry, timber felling, etc.). The introduction of labor-intensive industries into existing Siberian industrial complexes would thus help provide employment to other household members and eliminate one reason for out-migration.     

LOCATIONAL FACTORS OF MACHINE MANUFACTURING IN THE SOVIET NORTH

Arguments are marshaled against the location of machine manufacturing in the North. The location of suppliers and the location of the market are viewed as negligible factors because machinery plants generally are supplied from a large number of sources and serve a highly dispersed market. The crucial element is said to be the issue of labor resources, particularly skilled labor, and the associated infrastructure that would be needed in the North. It is also pointed out that machine manufacturing is traditionally most cost-effective in large urban centers and in older industrial areas where it benefits from the so-called agglomerative effect of locational factors. It is recommended that metal-fabricating activities in the North be restricted to essential equipment repairs and overhauls and occasional manufacture of nonstandard equipment, with greater use of centralized supplies of spare parts. (For an opposed view, see V. P. Yevstigneyev in Soviet Geography, May 1976.)     

THE HISTORIC TRANSFORMATION OF TIBET SINCE 1959 IN MY EYES

正The year marking the 70th anniversary since the founding of the People's Republic of China just so happens to be the 60th anniversary of the democratic reform of Tibet, during which over one million serfs were emancipated. Sixty years ago, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the various ethnicities living in Tibet were able to overthrow the armed     

改革开放以来我国人文地理学译看出版的特征、问题与建议

国外人文地理学著作和教材在我国的翻译出版主要是1990年代以来的事,商务印书馆作为出版大户在改革开放之初就出版了大规模的世界区域地理译著,其后所译著作多为受到好评的欧美论著或教材,但与原版书出版的时滞较长。相关译作缺乏规划、质量参差不齐、对教科书重视不够、学科分布不均衡等成为主要问题。加强有关译作的规划、提升翻译作品在学术评价中的地位、加强翻译队伍建设、重视教材的翻译和引进、加强薄弱学科著作和教材的引进和翻译等是今后发展的主要建议。     

THE LOCATION OF THE TREASURY OF ATREUS

Summary.   The Treasury of Atreus, the largest and most impressive of the nine tholos tombs found at Mycenae, stands by itself at the southern edge of a bowl in the east slope of the Panagia ridge. This paper argues that the tomb was constructed on this particular spot so that it would be seen from the trackways/roads that led to Mycenae from the east, south-east and south-west and from the main pathway to the palace. The view of the acropolis hill and Mt. Profitis Ilias from the space occupied by the earthen mound above the tholos also appears to have influenced the choice of location. It is suggested that the position of the Treasury of Atreus was, like the tomb itself, a political statement, calculated to show that the ruler who built the tomb succeeded in extending the territory of Mycenae across the central Argolid.