What to do with vacant and abandoned residential structures? The effects of teardowns and rehabilitations on nearby properties

In the presented paper, we estimate the impacts of three distinct housing policy interventions to deal with distressed and abandoned residential properties: leaving vacant buildings in their current state, remodeling/rebuilding residential structures, and razing vacant structures. We show that vacant structures negatively impact nearby housing up to 4.1%, but when demolition is followed by complete reconstruction, neighboring housing can be appreciated by as much as 14.1%. In addition, negative spillover effects from foreclosures and vacant buildings are primarily observed in low‐income and middle‐income Census tracts, whereas positive spillover effects generated by remodeling are seen in high‐income Census tracts.     

Why do people stay in or leave Fukushima?

From the originally constructed survey data from 2011 Fukushima incident, this paper empirically assessed the sources of failures in disaster risk mitigation in short run. Although residential relocation from the cites at risk is one of the effective risk reduction measures, the relocation incurs mobility costs of developing social capital such as communities or searching public services such as education and medical institutions. The estimation results showed that the residents in the disaster cites of 2011 Fukushima incident can tolerate higher risks of radiation exposure when they have attachment to the original residence or higher demands for the public services, and can stay in the cites at risks consequently. Because the tolerance level can depend on the information associated with the risks, the results imply that the authorities’ providing the correct information is one of the keys for the disaster risk reduction in short run.     

From the familiar to the extraordinary: local residents' perceptions of risk when living with nuclear power in the UK

Nearly two decades since the last nuclear power station was built and began operating in the UK, nuclear energy is firmly back on the political agenda domestically and elsewhere in the world. Yet since the 1980s, little research has investigated perceptions of nuclear power in the UK, particularly those of communities living in very close proximity to such facilities. Using biographical narrative interviews (n = 61), we explore how local residents living close to two nuclear power stations in the UK (Bradwell, Essex and Oldbury, South Gloucestershire) have come to view their local facility. We reveal how the power station is constructed through processes of familiarisation and/or the normalisation/normification of risk as part of everyday life; how this ordinariness is juxtaposed with moments of extraordinariness in which, due to direct and mediated events, the power station is reframed as a risk issue; and how risk awareness is associated with moments of anxiety which ebb and flow through our interviewees' lives. We conclude that biographical experiences dynamically unfolding through space and time can be interrupted by risk events (mediated and direct, real and symbolic, nuclear and non-nuclear) to disrupt the usually taken-for-granted ordinariness of a power station's presence in a particular locality. Our findings suggest that those involved in debate about new nuclear build must be sensitive to the heterogeneity of the extraordinary in nuclear affairs and the importance of socio-cultural histories of place.     

RESEARCH IN PROGRESS IN SCANDINAVIA

The authors quantitatively analyze the effect of railroad construction on agricultural land values in the often overlooked, agriculturally oriented, trans-Mississippi West. This region is unique in American history in that, at the end of the nineteenth century, the railroad itself preceded widespread settlement. Using a hedonic model, they show that railroad transport increased agricultural land values in this region by more than 20 percent, which had a larger impact than recent studies have found for other regions. Moreover, the authors found that the addition of a railroad to a county significantly increased its growth in land values. This finding is contrary to that of existing studies. Finally, the authors show statistically that the railroad and land values were not endogenously determined, lending credibility to the causality of the results presented in their hedonic and growth models. These results indicate a valuable alternative approach to use in the historical analysis of transportation infrastructure and its impact on land prices.     

Iran as a ‘pariah’ nuclear aspirant

This article demonstrates that Iran conforms to Richard K. Betts' model of a ‘pariah’ nuclear aspirant, as its nuclear program is driven by a potent combination of security, normative and domestic political motivations. The regime's commitment to its nuclear program is influenced by Iran's long-standing sense of vulnerability to both regional and international adversaries, and an enduring sense of national humiliation at the hands of foreign powers, in parallel with a powerful belief in the superiority of Persian civilisation. This has resulted in the development of a narrative of ‘hyper-independence’ in Iran's foreign policy that simultaneously rejects political, cultural or economic dependence and emphasises ‘self-reliance’. The presumed security benefits that a nuclear weapons option provides are seen as ensuring Iranian ‘self-reliance’ and ‘independence’. This suggests that current strategies that focus exclusively on Iran's security motivations or on a heightened regime of sanctions are fundamentally flawed, as they fail to recognise the mutually reinforcing dynamic between Iran's security and normative/status-derived nuclear motivations.     

South African Nuclear Development in the 1970s: A Non-Proliferation Conundrum?

ABSTRACT

The 1970s is often argued to be the era marking the beginning of the overall transformation of the international system and the nuclear order, following the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) entering into force in 1970. South Africa challenged this nuclear order from the outset. In addition to regarding the NPT as inherently discriminatory and hypocritical in allowing a difference between nuclear weapon ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’, the South African apartheid regime felt threatened by Soviet expansionism into Southern Africa. Facing international condemnation and isolation due to its repressive domestic politics of racial segregation, and gripped in a war against Soviet- and Cuban-backed forces in Angola, the apartheid regime was quick to move from a decision to build one peaceful nuclear explosive device in 1974, to a formal decision in 1978 to design and develop a secret strategic nuclear deterrent. Using knowledge and skills acquired during a period of techno-nationalism and Western collaboration during the 1960s, South Africa was able to cross this threshold in a relatively short space of time, thereby signaling a clear departure from the nuclear non-proliferation regime that the five nuclear powers of the NPT were trying to establish.     

旅游危机事件与旅游业危机管理

\"非典\"再次提醒人们要重视危机事件对中国旅游业的冲击。正确认识中国旅游业面对的国内外危机事件的特点,根据危机发展过程的特征进行旅游业危机管理迫在眉睫。本文分析了危机事件对旅游业的影响及其类型,以及可能面临的危机的情势;根据危机发展过程和行为主体特征,分析了旅游业危机管理的构成体系以及在危机各阶段需要采取的主要应对措施;提出中国旅游业在当前进行危机管理急需完成的任务。     

Degrees of Engagement: Using Cultural Worldviews to Explain Variations in Public Preferences for Engagement in the Policy Process

Scholars have been studying the concept of public engagement and its role in the policy process for some time. Scholars have argued that understanding the interests and motivations of the public and engaging them in the decision‐making process can lead to better policy designs and, ultimately, better policy outcomes. However, studies of public engagement often assume that people have a desire to get involved in the policy process. This paper tests this key assumption using the case of nuclear facility siting in the United States to ask: what factors influence an individual's stated willingness to want to engage in the policy process? Using data from a national web survey fielded in 2013, we ask the public if and to what extent they would likely engage in the siting process if given the opportunity. Findings indicate that the likelihood of engagement varies rather substantially across individuals. We find that an individual's cultural belief system and existing level of political activity account for some of this variation. These findings suggest that public engagement programs may vary across groups and communities. In other words, the prospects of engagement are likely to appeal to some members of the population and not others.     

Between Principles and Pragmatism: India and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime in the Post-PNE Era, 1974–1980

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that even when India had posited its peaceful nuclear explosion (PNE) of May 1974 as a mark of resistance against a prejudiced nuclear order based upon the NPT, India's policies in the post-PNE period confirmed with many aspects of the emerging non-proliferation consensus. India's response was guided by two major factors. On one hand, were its long-held principles such as the right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy (including PNE's) and the right to nuclear technology cooperation for peaceful purposes. On the other hand, were the pragmatic policy choices it had to make as advanced nuclear states worked towards a stricter non-proliferation regime. In this struggle between India's principles and its necessities, India's nuclear behavior was guided much more by pragmatism rather than by its normative preferences. Yet, even when India made major compromises on its nuclear principles in private, in public India stuck to the rhetoric of its principled opposition to the NPT regime. These tensions between India's actual practice and its public policy are evident on three major non-proliferation issues: nuclear safeguards, export controls and the danger of nuclear proliferation in its neighborhood.     

粒子加速器建设与苏联核计划——核物理研究实验基础的构建(1932-1957)

粒子加速器是用人工方法提供各种高能粒子束或辐射线的现代化装备。粒子加速器是核物理研究的实验基础,而核物理则是核计划开展的科学理论基础。因此,粒子加速器建设对苏联核计划具有重要意义。1932—1957年,苏联在粒子加速器建设领域开展了大量工作。在镭研究所、列宁格勒技术物理研究所、2号实验室、水利工程实验室、物理研究所、电物理实验室等机构的领导下,建设工作大致经历了开端、恢复、强化、超越四个阶段。苏联建造了若干粒子加速器,构建了核物理研究的实验基础,促进了核物理研究的发展,保障了核计划的顺利开展,研制并改进了核武器、热核武器,从而增强了苏联的国防实力。     

租购同权”政策对学区房溢价的影响研究——基于空间特征价格模型的广州实证

在公共服务对住房市场的影响研究领域,学校质量的资本化效应一直是重要话题。本文借鉴边界固定效应思路,使用广州市2016和2019年136所重点小学周边学区房与相邻非学区房的配对面板数据,利用空间特征价格模型定量测度了不同质量等级教育资源的资本化效应,使用双重差分模型检验了“租购同权”政策对重点小学学区房房价和租金溢价的影响。研究结果表明：①广州市教育质量已部分资本化于住房价格和租金之中,且教育资源越优质,资本化程度越高。②“租购同权”政策的实施,并未带来学区房房价和租金溢价的显著变化。③“租购同权”政策对不同质量等级的重点小学学区房房价影响存在异质性,政策实施后省级重点小学的学区房溢价上升,区级重点小学的学区房溢价下降。④“租购同权”政策对于不同区域重点小学学区房房价和租金溢价的影响无显著差异。本文的研究结论可以为制定教育资源供给与配置的均衡化和公平性政策提供参考。     

美国对建立拉美无核区问题的立场与对策(1962—1968)

为了避免核武器、核军备竞赛再次在拉美出现,古巴导弹危机之后,一些拉美国家提出了建立拉美无核区的设想。对该提议,美国经过考察发现此举同样有助于满足其国家安全需求,这使得约翰逊政府原则同意支持按照美国标准建立。然而,由于美国政府不同部门之间对建立拉美无核区的细节问题存有分歧,使得美国虽然促成了拉美无核区条约的缔结,但它最终却没有签署该条约。     

基于系统动力学的我国旅游景区门票定价研究

已有景区门票定价研究大都从现实景区数据出发,建立门票价格、景区属性和社会经济指标的多元回归模型。然而这种计量研究,并没有从景区门票定价的多目标性出发,也忽视了影响门票定价各因素之间的相互影响关系。本文构建ISM模型分析影响景区门票定价的主要因素及其相互关系,根据因素相互作用关系建立景区门票定价系统因果关系图和系统流图,并设定系统动力学方程。仿真结果显示,成本票价逐年下降并于2022年降至最低,而最终票价将呈现先降低后升高的趋势。