SERVICE NEEDS AND MUNICIPAL EXPENDITURES*

The difficulties involved in assessing the meaning of municipal expenditures are examined in view of the fact that dependency upon municipal services varies among and within jurisdictions. A cross-sectional analysis of spending in the five largest cities in Connecticut illustrates how considerations of human needs can affect the interpretation of spending (although they do not alter legal obligations or the financial reality of fiscal conditions). The possibilities and limitations associated with this approach to municipal expenditures are conveyed in terms of questions of public policy.     

FRIENDSHIP NETWORKS*

ABSTRACT This paper develops a model of social networks different from those presented in the recent literature. In contrast to existing models, the level of investment in link formation is a continuous decision variable, and links form stochastically rather than deterministically, with the probability depending on the noncooperative investment choices of both parties. Since the network structure is then stochastic rather than deterministic, the actual pattern of links cannot be specified, as in previous models, with the analysis focusing instead on which links are most likely to form. This alternate approach leads to a much simpler mathematical structure than in previous work. The analysis, which is couched in the context of friendship networks, shows that individual investment in friendship formation is too low. In addition, the analysis shows that, in an asymmetric setting where one individual has personal magnetism or a broad group of acquaintances, friendship links involving this attractive agent are most likely to form.     

UNEMPLOYMENT AND MENTAL HEALTH IMPLICATIONS FOR HUMAN SERVICE POLICY*

The psychiatric impact of involuntary job loss is evaluated in this paper in light of the attitude among some policy makers that contemporary unemployment is associated with minimal personal costs. Research bearing directly and indirectly on the mental health consequences of job loss is reviewed. Preliminary findings from an ongoing study of family and personal impacts of job loss in which this writer is engaged are also presented. The collective evidence of at least selective psychiatric effects of unemployment is then examined for its implications for human service policy especially in relation to the primary, secondary and tertiary prevention of mental illness.     

SERVICE EXPORTS AND REGIONAL GROWTH IN THE POSTINDUSTRIAL ERA*

ABSTRACT. The role of service industries in the regional growth process has been debated for decades. Although the importance of services in providing an essential framework for the development of exports has long been acknowledged, their ability to initiate growth has never been generally accepted. In this paper the change in composition of exports from Canada's four western provinces between 1974 and 1979 is analyzed. It was observed that service exports increased more rapidly than exports of goods on both a direct and a direct-plus-indirect basis in 88 percent of comparisons. In absolute terms, the gain in service exports was equal to 89 percent of that for goods exports.     

MUNICIPAL AMALGAMATION AND THE GROWTH OF THE LOCAL PUBLIC SECTOR IN SWEDEN*

ABSTRACT. The proposition that a decentralized structure of local governments can effectively constrain public sector growth is empirically investigated. Data on Swedish municipal sector size for the 1942–87 period are analyzed within the context of a median voter model. The results indicate that decentralization, measured by the number of units of local government serving a given population, constrains the influence of institutional factors (e.g., rent seeking, bureaucracy) on local budgets as long as these units exceed some minimal threshold size. The findings support the view that communities should be given the flexibility to determine their own ideal pattern of local governments.     

THE DISTRIBUTION OF SERVICE ESTABLISHMENTS*

ABSTRACT All previous theory and research have led to the expectation that the density of service establishments will be proportional to the 2/3 power of the density of the population served by them. Study of the distribution of over 400 nongovernmental establishments refutes this expectation for such cases. A previous derivation from time minimization theory is reformulated to encompass these new findings.     

SUBURBAN MUNICIPAL EXPENDITURES: THE EFFECTS OF BUSINESS ACTIVITY,FUNCTIONAL RESPONSIBILITY AND REGIONAL CONTEXT*

A wide variety of models exist seeking to explain variation in the level of suburban government activity. Alternative models stress concepts of local stratification and discrimination, the structure of local decision-making, ecological position, and public choice, each of which suggests varying hypotheses about which suburbs spend more and which less. In this paper we summarize and evaluate the relative strength of each of these alternative models, and propose major directions for future research.     

城市规模分布的分形和分维

研究城市规模分布的分形特征,修正了一些位序—规模模型,将历史上出现的有关城市规模分布的模型统一在分形形式之下,并给出了具有一般意义的三参数Ｚｉｐｆ模型：Ｐ（ｋ）＝Ａ（Ｋ－ａ）－ｑ。将Ｚｉｐｆ维数与大自然１／ｆβ起伏的β指数进行类比,认为分维Ｄ＝１／ｑ＝１是一种先验的优化维数,进而提出结构优化的１／ｒ型城市位序—规模分布,以此作为城市体系等级结构规划的依据之一。     

REGIONAL HETEROGENEITY IN WAGE DISTRIBUTIONS: EVIDENCE FROM SPAIN*

ABSTRACT Regional differences in real wages have been shown to be both large and persistent in the United States and the U.K., as well as in the economies of other countries. Empirical evidence suggests that wage differentials adjusted for the cost of living cannot only be explained by the unequal spatial distribution of characteristics determining earnings. Rather, average wage gap decomposition reveals the important contribution made by regional heterogeneity in the price assigned to these characteristics. This paper proposes a method for assessing regional disparities in the entire wage distribution and for decomposing the effect of differences across regions in the endowments and prices of the characteristics. The hypothesis forwarded is that the results from previous studies obtained by comparing average regional wages may be partial and nonrobust. Empirical evidence from a matched employer–employee dataset for Spain confirms marked differences in wage distributions between regions, which do not result from worker and firm characteristics but from the increasing role of regional differences in the return to human capital.     

WORKINGS OF THE MELTING POT: SOCIAL NETWORKS AND THE EVOLUTION OF POPULATION ATTRIBUTES*

ABSTRACT This paper links the two nascent economic literatures on social networks and cultural assimilation by investigating the evolution of population attributes in a simple model where agents are influenced by their acquaintances. The main conclusion of the analysis is that attributes converge to a melting‐pot equilibrium, where everyone is identical, provided the social network exhibits a sufficient degree of interconnectedness. When the model is extended to allow an expanding acquaintance set, convergence is guaranteed provided a weaker interconnectedness condition is satisfied, and convergence is rapid. If the intensity of interactions with acquaintances becomes endogenous, convergence (when it occurs) is slowed when agents prefer to interact with people like themselves and hastened when interaction with dissimilar agents is preferred.