RECENT DEMOGRAPHIC AND MIGRATORY TRENDS AMONG SOVIET JEWS: IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY

A prominent authority on the Jewish population of the former USSR focuses on demographic trends and migration behavior (both within the former USSR and abroad), while also addressing the effect of Soviet state policy toward the Jewish population. Among the factors whose effects on population dynamics are examined, emphasis is placed on the Jewish population's concentration in large urban areas, the effects of emigration on age structure of the remaining population, self-identification as a method in census enumeration, ethnic intermarriage and family characteristics, and the outlook and prospects for emigres in Israel and the United States.     

DEVELOPMENT POLICIES,URBAN UNEMPLOYMENT AND DEFORESTATION: THE ROLE OF INFRASTRUCTURE AND TAX POLICY IN A TWO-SECTOR MODEL*

ABSTRACT. We model an economy of a developing country that produces an exportable manufactured good in an urban sector and a nontradable rural good. Manufacturing faces a fixed wage, which encourages urban unemployment. Changes in cultivated area in the rural sector involve deforestation or reforestation at frontiers. Government taxes to pay for urban infrastructure that assists the manufacturing sector. Increases in urban infrastructure may relieve or exacerbate frontier deforestation but expands manufacturing employment and reduces urban unemployment. Rural transportation improvements exacerbate frontier deforestation but expand employment in the urban manufacturing sector. A larger population, ceteris paribus, widens the rural-urban wage gap and exacerbates deforestation, but may cause manufacturing employment to expand or contract.     

THE GEOGRAPHICAL ENVIRONMENT AND HUMAN HEALTH

The chairman of the Department of Biogeography at Moscow University offers a classification of diseases based on the impact of environmental hazards. All diseases may be broken down into two basic groups: hereditary diseases, some of which may be related to environmental influences of the past, and so-called exogenous diseases, related to contemporary environmental hazards, both natural and technogenic (related to human activity). Diseases related to the impact of the natural environment may be further subdivided into diseases linked to geophysical factors (heatstroke, frostbite), geochemical factors (endemic goiter, urinary calculus), nutrition (kwashiorkor), poisonous plants and animals, living pathogens, and physical injuries due to natural hazards. The subgroup of diseases (infections and infestations) caused by living pathogens is further subdivided in terms of anthroponoses (diseases peculiar to man) and zoonoses (those common to man and animals) and in terms of the existence of intermediate hosts and carriers.     

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.     

POLICY INNOVATION AND INSTITUTIONAL FRAGMENTATION*

This article argues that fragmented and decentralized policy making structures can generate major Policy innovation as well as can centralized structures. The fragmented committee structure of Congress is shown to facilitate innovation in the example of federal water pollution control legislation. Thorough consideration of four dimensions of costs and benefits strengthens the case for disjointed Innovation since it “promotes entrepreneurship, encourages competition, minimizes the costs of change, and promotes legitimacy….”     

PROPERTY VALUES AND MENTAL HEALTH FACILITIES IN METROPOLITAN TORONTO

Property value data reveal that markets in the vicinity of five mental health facilities in Toronto are essentially identical to those in control areas. The volume of sales activity and the sale price of transactions are generally comparable. The most important influences on sale price are the characteristics of the property itself. Controlling for these characteristics, the presence of a facility has a weak effect on sale price. Distance from facility, facility type, and the number offacilities had no significant effect on price.
La vente de la proprieté fait voir que les marchés à proximité de cinq centres de la santé mentale à Toronto sont essentiellement identiques aux ceux-làà proximité des cas temoins. Le nombre des ventes et le cours du marché sont comparables. Les plus importantes influences sur le cours du marché sont les traites de la propriété elle-même. Si l'on tient en équilibre ces traites, donc on découvre que la présence d'un centre de la santé mentale n'a qu'un effet faible sur le cours du marché. De plus les trois autres éléments (la distance d'un centre, le type du centre, et le nombre des centres) n'ont aucuns effets importants sur le cours du marché.     

POPULATION DISPERSAL AND HUMAN HEALTH AT MOUNDVILLE

Abstract

This article assesses the health of a sample of the Moundville population before and after population dispersal and resettlement from the paramount site of Moundville (1TU500). Patterns of chronic and acute infections, trauma, degenerative conditions, and generalized health stress are explored. As gauged by these paleopathological indicators, it seems that dispersal had little, if any, effect on health. These results throw doubt on the applicability of a generalizing model which predicted improved health and nutrition in the wake of population dispersal due to improved access to a more diverse diet and reduced exposure to pathogens and parasites. Instead, the conditions of material, social, and political negotiations regarding authority and action within and among the subgroups of the Moundville constituency appear to have mitigated modeled expectations.