THE ECONOMICS OF SOCIAL SECURITY POLICY

Books reviewed in this articles:
Henry J. Aaron, Economic Effects of Social Security
Peter J. Ferrara, Social Security; Adverting the Crisis
Carolyn L. Weaver, The Crisis in Social Security; Economic and Political Origins     

THE TREATMENT OF MONEY IN REGIONAL ECONOMICS

ABSTRACT. A survey of regional monetary theory suggests a regional segmentation of financial markets on the basis of differences in portfolio preference, or market imperfections. These possibilities are explored here using post-Keynesian monetary theory. It is concluded that the availability of credit to a region depends more on the (potentially volatile) degree of confidence in the regional economy. The amount of liquidity thus generated depends on the propensity for capital flight due to liquidity preference. The resulting tendency for regions attracting low degrees of confidence to experience liquidity shortage will be greater the more integrated the national banking system.     

THE ECONOMICS OF AIR TRAVEL GRAVITY MODELS*

Starting with the aggregate demand model of economics, a model of demand for intercity air travel is developed which contains the gravity model as a less general submodel. The more general model is referred to as the alternative opportunities model since it takes account of alternative destinations open to travelers, not just origin and destination as does the gravity model. The demand model approach has the virtue of providing a theoretical basis for understanding and analyzing the gravity model. The gains from treating alternative locations and demand motivation variables are a substantial increase in explanatory power over that yielded by the gravity model, the identification of statistically significant determinants of air travel, and better measurement of the coefficients of population and distance by taking account of these other variables and somewhat better forecasts. A shortcoming of procedures used here is aggregation of air trips with different purposes and thus lack of clear specification of the size of effects of different variables on different types of travel. Overcoming this difficulty must await origin-destination data listed by trip purpose.     

THE LEGENDARY PRINCIPLE OF TIBET'S SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND

<正>Tibet's school for the blind was founded in 1999 by the blind German woman Sabriye Tenberken,who was not only the first person to establish a school especially for blind girls,but also the inventor of Tibetan braille.This institution nurtured the first educated blind people within all of Tibet,the first Tibetan group for the blind all being former students at this school.     

A GLIMPSE OF THE CENTRAL PRIMARY SCHOOL OF KYITOD TOWNSHIP

In the second half of July in 2008 I was conducting interviews on the housing project beginning in Geren Village of Kyitod Town in Riwoche County(Chamdo Prefecture).By chance Jampel Nyima,the town administrator,     

A GLIMPSE OF THE CENTRAL PRIMARY SCHOOL OF KYITOD TOWNSHIP

In the second half of July in 2008 I was conducting interviews on the housing project beginning in Geren Village of Kyitod Town in Riwoche County(Chamdo Prefecture).By chance Jampel Nyima,the town administrator,     

THE DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL SCHOOL TEACHERS IN THE TIBET AUTONOMOUS REGION

<正>People often say the best buildings in the Tibet Autonomous Region are school buildings.This is,in fact,true.The most beautiful view in schools is the smiling faces of children,and the most beautiful people are those school teachers who persist on living in a rural community to devote themselves to rural education.     

THE EMPIRICAL STRUCTURE OF URBAN SYSTEMS: THE LONDON, ONTARIO, EXAMPLE

S ince the early 1950s there have been numerous studies which have attempted to determine the hierarchical structure of urban-place systems. Although Harris and Ullman identified three general city-forming functions, namely central place, transportation, and specialized, most urban-place system studies since have been based on a measure of the central-place function. Pred emphasizes the problem in his recent work, City Systems in Advanced Economies. He used the term "city systems" because his study is of the complete system and not just the central-place portion of the system. I chose for this study the term "urban-place system" for the same reason, but used "urban-place" rather than "city" because the system contains towns, villages, and hamlets as well as cities.     

下一站，新伦敦

当2008年奥运会即将在北京落幕的时候,不妨将探寻的眼光投向伦敦——2012年的第30届奥运会将在这座城市举行。     

LOZANG BALDEN,THE FOUNDER OF LHASA GANXUAN LANGUAGE SCHOOL

正Lozang Balden,a legendary figure and also the founder and principal of the civilian-run Lhasa Ganxuan School,is widely well-known in the community of Lhasa City.The school is comprised of not only teenage students in preschool,elementary school,middle school,and high school,but