The early Byzantine economy in context: aristocratic property and economic growth reconsidered

This article responds to recent primitivist claims with respect to the late antique economy of the early Byzantine period. It examines the archaeological and documentary evidence for economic sophistication in early Byzantine Egypt, and addresses the issue of economic growth in late antiquity as a whole by placing the evidence for early Byzantine economic expansion in a broader medieval context. In particular, the epiphenomena of economic growth in late antiquity are compared to the epiphenomena of statistically demonstrable economic growth in Anglo‐Norman England.     

The political economy of economic reform in North Korea

For over 10 years, North Korea has undergone a severe economic crisis, including food shortages, which has inflicted great suffering upon the North Korean people. Given such dire realities, it is beyond all doubt that the North Korean government should actively carry out comprehensive economic reforms as quickly as possible which aim to transform North Korea's present inefficient socialist planned economic system into a market economic system. Many argue that such reforms would give rise to successful economic growth in North Korea, which could enhance the legitimacy of the North Korean regime. Yet, the North Korean regime has consistently avoided implementing economic reforms, even though it has had a number of opportunities to do so. The July 1st reforms, which were introduced in 2002, have been half-hearted and inconsistently applied. This then raises an important question: Why has the North Korean government avoided adopting comprehensive economic reforms? In other words, what is the crucial barrier that has hindered North Korea's implementation of economic reforms? This article pinpoints North Korea's unique political system—i.e. its monolithic system of political control and policy making which exhibits the highest level of power concentration in one individual among all political systems—as the biggest barrier to economic reforms. No doubt North Korea desperately needs comprehensive economic reforms, in light of its economic crisis and food shortages. Nonetheless, the current North Korean regime has avoided adopting such reforms since they will undermine North Korea's monolithic system. In conclusion, North Korea's monolithic system has been the biggest obstacle to North Korea's economic reforms.     

An Andean regional economy in the world system

Winterhalder, Bruce, and Eric Alden Smith, eds. Hunter‐Gatherer Foraging Strategies: Ethnographic and Archaeological Analyses. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982. x + 268 pp. including bibliography and index. $18.00 cloth, $7.50 paper.     

The economic history of the regional problem in Britain, 1920–1938

This paper is intended to draw the attention of historical geographers to the regional problem of interwar Britain. Although unemployment measured at the aggregate national level is usually seen as the dominant characteristic of the period, the disparity in the experience of unemployment across different regions is equally striking. Yet the issue has received little attention from economic historians and virtually none from historical geographers, despite its being sufficiently important to promote the first attempts at regional policy. To consider why economic historians have neglected this matter the economic historiography is outlined using a classification that distinguishes between optimistic and pessimistic views of the period. This indicates that either the regional problem plays no part in such studies or it is considered only where it might cast doubt on, or lend support to, the hypothesis being proposed at the national level. The fascination of economic historians with the national experience, the relative shortage of complete and consistent data series and the mysteries of regional analysis make the study of regional issues uninviting for the economic historian. The historical geographer must have a role to play in giving us a better understanding of this important issue.     

Technology transfer agencies and regional economic development

Many regions in Western Europe have set up technology transfer agencies in order to support endogenous potential by encouraging the diffusion of new technologies from universities and large firms to small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). However, many studies have shown that business partners such as customers and suppliers are the most important partners for the stimulation of the innovativeness of SMEs. Universities and transfer agencies are given a very low rank in these studies. These results have led to doubts about the usefulness of these institutions for regional economic development. In order to increase transparency, streamlining of the agencies involved is necessary so that there are fewer actors and more cooperation between them. To be able to reach technology‐following SMEs, at least one transfer organization in every region should employ senior engineers with extensive business experience to visit firms frequently (proactive) to help them come up with some technological issues (demand‐oriented). These agencies need long‐term financial backing so as to provide free advice to technology‐following SMEs.     

Capital accumulation and regional economic performance: the Australian experience

The accumulation of capital is the driving force of the capitalist economy. Various conditions are necessary for accumulation to proceed and each has important spatial aspects. The paper demonstrates that an analysis of these aspects provides a potentially useful framework for understanding the relationship between regional development and economic growth, with particular reference to the Australian experience. Moreover, it is shown that spatial restructuring plays an important role during periods of economic recession in re-establishing the conditions for further growth. This analysis also illuminates some of the limitations of more conventional regional growth theories and debates on convergence versus divergence in regional economic performance.     

The mobile herding economy of Kebarah Cave,Mt carmel: An economic analysis of the faunal remains

The faunal remains from Kebarah Cave provide evidence of the economic activities of the cave's inhabitants during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. The variety of grazing resources around the cave is reflected in the proportions of the several species exploited, which changes gradually over time. A comparison of Bos remains indicates that locational factors appear to outweigh any chronological tendency towards size reduction. It is suggested that the same may be the case for animals not usually associated with human exploitation, in particular the hyaena. The data from an excavation conducted 40 years ago are inadequate to answer the questions posed by bioarchaeologists today, but the evidence from better known neighbouring sites has subsequently borne out much of what could be proposed here as hypothesis.     

The effects of public capital on private sector performance in Turkish regional manufacturing industries1

This article investigates the impact of public capital formation on private manufacturing sector performance in the seven geographical regions of Turkey and in aggregate. A vector autoregression (VAR) model has been employed to estimate long run accumulated elasticities of private sector variables with respect to public capital for the time period 1980–2000. The results show that public capital affects private output positively in aggregate and in all regions apart from the Black Sea and Mediterranean regions. The results also reveal that only in the Marmara region, the impact is positive both on input and output. The public capital crowds in private sector inputs in some regions.