THE ROLE OF INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE SUPPLY OF HOUSING*

ABSTRACT As the housing stock in a city is duplicated, developers must devote greater amounts of resources to the provision of infrastructure. If the production of infrastructure is characterized by decreasing returns to scale, this will cause the price of developable land to increase. The conditions under which an upward-sloping supply curve for housing will result are discussed. Using cross-sectional data for U.S. cities from 1973 to 1982, it is shown that land prices fail to increase with the quantity of construction and that the price elasticity of the supply of housing is infinite.     

ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE UNIFIED STATE IN ANCIENT EGYPT

The annalist Manetho, a native Egyptian scholar-priest who lived in the 3^rd century BC during the reign of Ptolemy II （285-246 BC）, wrote a history of Egypt in Greek and divided the history of ancient Egypt into 30 （or 31） dynasties. He began with the unification of Egypt, making a Thinite king of Upper Egypt, whom he knows as Menes, the founder of the First Dynasty （ca.3100-2890 BC）. Menes is said to have built his capital at the junction of Upper and Lower Egypt, in a strategical key position. The new capital was called the ＂White Wall＂, it became later known as Memphis. There a great temple was built, dedicated to the god Ptah, who remained the patron deity of the city throughout its long history. Up to now no monuments of the First Dynasty have been found that would bear the name of Menes. Therefore, modem archaeologists hold that Menes should be identified with Narmer, the king whose relics have been unearthed at Hierakonpolis. Some scholars even doubt that Menes was a true historical figure, after all.     

THE PRESENT STATE AND TASKS OF COMPLEX MAPPING IN THE USSR

Recent developments in the Soviet Union's program of national thematic mapping and regional complex mapping are reviewed. A comprehensive mapping program along these lines, formulated in 1969 by GUGK, the government planning agency, has not been implemented. National thematic maps in the Soviet Union continue to be compiled by individual government agencies without coordination and without uniformity in legend and design, so that comparability is made difficult. The only thematic GUGK maps now being prepared are concerned with two long-term regional development programs in the Soviet Union–the rural development plan for the Nonchernozem zone of the European RSFSR and the construction of the Baykal-Amur Mainline (BAM) railroad in the Soviet Far East. The need for a comprehensive and coordinated program of national thematic maps and regional atlases or map series is once again stressed in connection with economic planning and environmental problems, and a program of continuously updated regional atlases, based on digital data banks, is proposed. Suggestions are also made for the coordination of thematic maps at the international level.     

SMALL STATE BEHAVIOUR: ON THE FORMATION OF A PALESTINIAN STATE IN THE WEST BANK AND GAZA STRIP

The current Israel-Palestine peace process is expected to result in a final territorial solution and the ultimate formation of a separate Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. By all definitions, such a state would be small in terms of its population size, its areal extent, and its economic capacity. Given existing conditions, a West Bank and Gaza state would suffer from problems of structural scarcity as experienced by many other small states. This would be exacerbated were the boundaries of the new state with Israel to be closed, thus severing existing economic links. Drawing on models of small state behaviour, this paper studies the possible ways in which a West Bank and Gaza state could overcome these structural deficiencies in both the short and long-terms, including full and independent control of the state's resources, investment in industrial and construction infrastructure, and through becoming an important regional and global gateway for the Arab world as a whole. Les pourparlers actuels visant la négotiation ?un traité de paix entre ?Israël et la Palestine mèneront vraisemblablement à une solution territoriale définitive qui sera manifestée par la création ?un état palestinien indépendant. Cet état comprendrait la Rive Gauche et le territoire de Gaza. Par définition, il s'agirait ?un état dont la population, la superficie et les moyens de production seraient modestes. Étant donné les conditions actuelles, le nouvel état comprenant la Rive Gauche et le territoire de Gaza, tout comme les autres états de petite taille, ferait face à des déficiences structure!les. Si la frontière entre le nouvel état et Israël était fermée, ce qui aurait pour effet de rompre les liens économiques actuels, ces déficiences se feraient davantage sentir. Ce travail se propose ?examiner, à?aide de modèles portant sur le fonctionnement des états de petite taille, les stratégies visant à pallier ces déficiences, à court terme comme à long terme. Les stratégies à?étude comprennent: (a) la prise de contrôle totale des ressources du nouvel état par son gouvernement indépendant, (b) ?aménagement ?infrastructures dans les domaines de ?industrie et de la construction par des investissements dans ces domaines et (c) la mise en valeur du nouvel état comme porte ?entrée régionale et globale vers ?ensemble du monde arabe.