Modeling Strategies for Categorical Data: Examples from Housing and Tenure Choice

Models to investigate categorical data can be divided into preprocessing, limited parameterization, and formal logit models. To illustrate the advantages of preprocessing and limited parameterization models they are applied to a data set of tenure and type of housing choice before the data are examined with hierarchical logit and nested logit models. The preprocessing approaches are useful in selecting optimal subsets of independent variables with respect to the dependent variable. The ease of application and interpretation of a limited parameterization approach extends the clarity of the results from the preprocessing approaches. Because some variables are only relevant at specific levels of other independent variables, nonstandard (nested) logit models are necessary to understand the nested relationships.     

Subprime Housing Goes South: Constructing Securitized Mortgages for the Poor in Mexico

Mexico represents the largest market for residential mortgage‐backed securitization (RMBS) in Latin America. Despite its significance to questions of development, there has been no critical analysis on the social implications and power dimensions of RMBS with regard to low‐income housing in Mexico. This essay fills this gap by demystifying the technical and thus apolitical nature of RMBS as well as by explaining how and why state‐sponsored securitization schemes subsidize financial and construction interests in the name of expanding home ownership for the poor. In so doing, the analysis employs a historical materialist approach that, first, places RMBS within the contradictory nature of capital accumulation processes in Mexico and relations of class‐based power therein, and second, views RMBS as an integral feature of housing policy that is inextricably linked to the nerve centre of capital accumulation, namely: the credit system.     

Connections between populism and nationalism: Evidence from Jair Bolsonaro's speeches

Recent studies have warned about the close relationship between populism and nationalism. This article offers an empirical contribution to the examination of this relationship by analysing the presence of populist and nationalist elements in the official speeches of the outgoing Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. We make two contributions to this expanding literature. First, we show that the supposed ambiguity between populism and nationalism can be resolved by an approach that clearly separates the two concepts. Second, we find that Bolsonaro is more populist than nationalist. His populism has elements in common with other European populist leaders (attacking political parties and the political class), but he distances himself from them by presenting authoritarian traits. Nativism is completely absent (unlike in Europe), but ‘sovereignism’ (‘us’ vs. ‘other nations or institutions’) and ‘civilisationism’ (‘us’ vs. ‘minorities’) sometimes overlap with populism. We conclude that a tension exists between populism and nationalism that can endanger the ‘good’ relationship between the populist leader and their supporters. This is something that future research on populism should consider.     

Community Pharmacies in the City Area: Evidence from an Italian Province

Pharmacy opening and pharmacy location are heavily regulated in Italy. This paper investigates how pharmacies are positioned in the city area and analyses the role of some factors relevant for gaining access to pharmacy services and competition. For this purpose, a probit regression model has been estimated. A main finding is that the spread of pharmacies all over the city area is unbalanced. The number of residents in the surroundings is not a main determinant of location. In spite of the availability of competing outlets nearby, pharmacies tend to be situated in areas attracting visitors as part of the working and travel circuits. This contributes to good access to the extent to which consumers can easily get to the pharmacy from the doctor's office as well as from work or shopping. However, while multiple outlets are available in the areas offering better business opportunities, the other parts of the municipal district are often unsupplied. As a result, accessibility within the city area is not the same for all residents. Several aspects of the overall pharmacy market regulation prove unsuited for opposing this pattern of location.     

Black and White Commuting Behavior in a Large Southern City: Evidence from Atlanta

Previous research has shown that households are sensitive to commuting distance. In particular, households beyond a threshold distance move closer to the job when they change residence. The questions that motivate this paper are: how does race affect the probability of moving closer to the job when households change residence, and is there a trade off between commuting distance and neighborhood composition? Using a specialized data set the research shows that the commuting behaviors of minority and white households are consistent with the overall hypothesis that households minimize their commuting distance whenever possible. The research also shows that there is a tendency for both white and black households to choose slightly more integrated settings after changing residences. Yet, black households have to juggle the trade‐off between neighborhoods with high socioeconomic status and commute distance and those who choose higher socioeconomic status neighborhoods have longer commutes.     

Evolution of the Labor Market in a Regional City:The Changing Economic Performance of Emigrants from Mexico City*

Abstract. This paper draws on micro‐level data to fully inform the debate on decentralization and regional development. Using labor‐income trajectories of emigrants from Mexico City, the paper analyzes how the labor market in a regional city, Leon, evolves. Results from the econometric model suggest that migrants’ labor‐income trajectories differ between the large agglomeration and the regional city in an early stage of the evolution of the labor market, but converge in a later stage. Specifically, the slope of the earning function for recent migrants is steeper and statistically different from the slope for early migrants. The findings presented in this paper enrich the existing theory by providing microfoundations to a typically macroeconomic area of research and enable policy makers to better understand the processes underpinning the evolution of regional labor markets.     

辽东满族和辽西满族民居的比较研究--以岫岩和北宁为例

岫岩和北宁两地满族在居住文化方面具有很大的差异,不仅仅在民居的外部特征、建筑方法上,而且在内部结构和居住习惯上都有很多不同。本文试通过两地满族民居的比较,探索两地民居的差异,并进而从历史、文化、地理等不同的侧面研究产生这种差异的主要原因。     

Technology Transfer between Technology Centres and SMEs: Evidence from the Basque Country

Public policies (often at the regional level) favouring pre-competitive research and cooperative research and development have played a decisive role in the development of technology centres in Europe and all over the world. The technology offer model gave priority to the creation of technology transfer organizations and structures, but there is increasing evidence that this model did not attach enough attention to the needs of small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs) and in particular, to their capacity to take in knowledge. In this paper, based on qualitative research, we show in detail some of the main issues involved in the relationships between technology centres and SMEs in the Basque Country, a region that has developed intensive policies favouring technology transfer organizations over the years.     

Housing and Public Services in a Medium-Sized Russian City: Case Study of Tomsk

A team of Russian and American urban specialists examines variations in living conditions across 26 microrayons of a medium-sized West Siberian city (Tomsk, 2002 population of 487,700) deemed to be fairly typical of urban settlements in that size class. Detailed information derived from the mapping of intra-urban variations in housing type and age, health facilities, schools and other educational institutions, and access to public transportation is used to construct three public service indices representing the relative level of deprivation of urban residents. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: D32, I32, O18. 9 figures, 2 tables, 17 references.     

Plasters from Different Buildings of the Sacred Precinct of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City): Characterization And Provenance

In this work, we present the results of the characterization of 20 lime plaster samples taken from the Sacred Precinct of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City), the ancient capital of the Aztec empire. The samples come from different buildings of this precinct (A, B and D) and from the west façade of phase VI of the Templo Mayor pyramid. The objective of the work is to characterize the plaster samples, to understand the raw materials used, and to evaluate the presence of similarities and differences among the samples in the building techniques and raw materials employed. All the samples were studied with OM, SEM–EDS and LA–ICP–MS. The study provided evidence of the plastering and replastering practice in the same constructive phases. The results of the analyses showed the existence of important similarities and differences among buildings and constructive phases in the Sacred Precinct. In order to understand the provenance of the limestone used in the plasters, the lumps and the binder of the samples were analysed. The results were compared with those of the limestone outcrops located in central Mexico. The provenance study showed that all the limestone used in the construction of the analysed buildings of Tenochtitlan's Sacred Precinct comes from the Tula region.     

The Robustness of Aboriginal Land Tenure Systems: Underlying and Proximate Customary Titles

While Aboriginal 1 1 I do not deal with Torres Strait Islander land relationships in this paper, although the arguments may well apply in that case. I have restricted myself to systems with which I am more familiar
land use patterns may have been fragile in the face of colonisation, and severe limits were consequently placed on Aboriginal people's capacity to physically enact local traditional entitlements on many lands, the basis and key content of traditional title to such lands is not fragile but has generally been maintained with considerable robustness. In this paper I suggest that this robustness arises in a critical sense from the pre-existing and widely continuing dual structure of traditional land tenure, which may be understood as consisting of an underlying title held within the relevant regional jural and cultural system, which underpins proximate entitlements enjoyed by small groups of individuals. There is scope within Australia's Native Title Act (1993) for the recognition of this system of customary law under the western legal concept of native title.