RECENT POPULATION TRENDS IN THE USSR

Pending the publication of new Soviet population data based on the 1979 census, to be hald next January, the author reviews population trends in the 1970's. After a steady decline through much of the Soviet period, birth rates and death rates have stabilized for the country as a whole, although marked regional differences continue. An unexplained rise in infant mortality and an apparent reduction of life expectancy have led to the suppression of data in these areas. No ready explanation is found for a recent increase in female fertility and age-specific death rates. Abnormalities in the age-sex structure, resulting from past population catastrophes, continue to persist and indicate future labor shortages. Geographical differences in population growth rates, resulting from differential rates of natural increase and migration, are analyzed. Urbanization, a typical phenomenon of the Soviet period, continues apace, with the biggest increases in large cities despite a policy designed to discourage big-city growth. A crucial question is the optimal disposition of the growing labor pool in the Central Asian region-whether to foster local employment or encourage migration from Central Asia to labor deficit areas elsewhere in the Soviet Union.     

SOME IMPLICATIONS OF RECENT TRENDS IN THE PROVINCIAL DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME AND INDUSTRIAL PRODUCT IN CANADA

The redistribution between 1961 and 1977 of shares in gross domestic product compels a reappraisal of traditional explanations for Canadian economic patterns. The main features of economic growth over this period confirm the explanatory value of the export base model of the development process. Traditional characterizations of core-periphery relationships are compromised by weakening interprovincial complementarities and the articulation of residentiary industries in western Canada. Compromised as well is the notion that there is in Canada a wide disparity in regional per capita income, a disparity that has persisted with little change for many years.
La redistribution des portions provinciales du produit intérieur brut entre 1961 et 1977 se demande qu'on examine de nouveau les explications traditionnelles pour les transformations de l'économie spatiale. Au cours des seize années derniéres les caractéristiques principales du croissance économique rafferment l'utilité explicative du modéle « export-base >>. Les caractérisations traditionnelles du type centre-périphérie sont compromises par l'affaiblissement des rapports complémentaires parrni les provinces et par l'articulation des structures provinciales économiques en Canada ouest. Compromise aussi est la notion qu'il existe au Canada de grandes disparités a l'échelle régionale dans le revenu par habitant, disparités qui ont persisté avec peu de variations depuis de nombreuses années.     

CONCEPTS OF THE INNER CITY AND RECENT TRENDS IN CANADA

This essay evaluates the explanatory power of two current models - ‘centrifugal’ and ‘centripetal’ - of the evolution of inner cities. This in done in the light of data on socioeconomic trends that affect residential areas in the cores of the nine major Canadian metropolitan regions. The centrifugal model focuses on the attraction of suburbs on central city residents; the centripetal concentrates on the lure of some inner-city neighbourhoods for certain middle- and upper-income households. While the Canadian trends support some propositions of the models, they seriously challenge others, us models seem unsuitable for explaining Canadian urban reality. They fail to account for the relative socioeconomic stability of core neighourboods in major Canadian cities and the dissociation between trends in their residents' incomes and in housing values. Cet article évalue le pouvoir d'explication démontré par les ébauches théoriques qui visent à faire comprendre l'évolution des quartiers situés à l'interieur des centres urbains. Cette évaluation se sert de données relatives aux tendances socio-économiques qui marquent les secteurs résidentiels situés au coeur des neuf plus grandes zones métropolitaines du Canada. Deux modèles dominent ce champ d'étude: il y a d'abord le modèle ‘centrifuge,’ qui postule une attraction des banlieues exercée sur les résidents de la ville centrale; puis le modèle ‘centripète,’ qui explique l'attrait qu'exercent ces quartiers sur certains manages a moyens et hauls revenus. Alors que les tendances observées dans les agglomérations canadiennes viennent donner du poids à certaines propositions de ces modèles, elles présentent également un défi de taille à certaines autres. Les difficultés ressenties dans l'application de ces deux modèles paraissent relever de l'inadaptation de modèles conçus aux Etats-Unis à la réalité urbaine canadienne. Ces modèles sont considérés particulièrement inaptes à expliquer la relative stabilité socio-économique des quartiers des grandes agglomérations canadiennes et à rendre compte d'un écart grandissant entre lesrevenus de leurs résidents et la valeur des unités de logement qui s'y trouvent.     

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.     

INDIAN RESOURCES AND THE NATIONAL ECONOMY: BUSINESS CYCLES AND POLICY CYCLES

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