AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF INTERREGIONAL PRICE LINKAGES*

ABSTRACT Vector autoregression models are used to analyze the relationships between Texas and Illinois corn prices, and the New Orleans export price. Decomposition of error variances suggests an increasing exogeneity in the recent years between the export market and the two U.S. markets. Impulse response functions indicate that the export price influences both the Illinois and Texas prices.     

INTERREGIONAL MIGRATION IN THE U.S.S.R., 1981–1985 AND 1971–1975

The publication in 1987 of a Soviet compendium of population statistics has made possible the calculation of net migration balances for the U.S.S.R.'s 20 large economic planning regions by the residual method for the first time since the middle of the 1970s. This paper compares the results for 1981–1985 and 1971–1975 and finds that Siberia has changed from a net loser to a net gainer of migrants, that the shift of population to the southern regions has been reversed, and that the traditional rural outflow from central-eastern European Russia has diminished. Nevertheless, the acclimatization of newcomers in the eastern regions, the stabilization of rural dwellers in the central regions, and the mobility of rural residents in Central Asia and the Transcaucasus all remain insufficient to overcome regional imbalances in labour.
La publication en 1987 d'un compendium Soviétique sur les statistiques de la population a rendu possible le calcul des balances migratoires pour les vingt grandes régions économiques de l'U.R.S.S. pour la premiere fois depuis le milieu des années 1970. Cet article compare les résultats de 1971–1975 et 1981–1985 et montre que la situation en Sibérie est passée d'une perte nette à un gain net de migrants, que le mouvement de la population vers les regions du Sud a été renversé, et que le traditionel exode rural observé dans les régions centrales et dans l'est de la Russie europeenne a diminue. Néanmoins l'adaptation des nouveaux arrivants dans les regions de l'est, la stabilite des ruraux dans les regions centrales, et leur mobilite en Asie Centrale et en Transcaucasie sont insuffisants pour surmonter les desequilibres regionaux en main-d'oeuvre.     

ECONOMETRIC MODELING OF INTERREGIONAL LABOR MARKET LINKAGES*

ABSTRACT. This paper presents a statistical procedure for empirically establishing linkages between regional economies. Using Granger's definition of causality and the final prediction error technique for lag-length specification suggested by Hsiao, a linked, multiregional employment model is developed. The forecast performance of the linked model is compared to models which do not include interregional linkages. It is shown that forecast error is reduced by taking into account employment interrelationships between regions.     

INTERREGIONAL WAGE DIFFERENTIALS: AN EQUILIBRIUM PERSPECTIVE*

ABSTRACT This paper empirically analyzes two competing explanations for observed interregional wage differentials among full-time U.S. workers: (1) differences in the average levels of market valued labor characteristics, and (2) differences in rates of return to the characteristics. Hedonic wage equations are estimated for broad U.S. regions using detailed measures of human capital, work environment, and personal attributes collected by a national random sample mail survey. Statistical tests reveal little tendency for interregional structural shifts in the wage equations estimated, an outcome which rests on the inclusion of important, but seldom measured, wage determining variables.