THE PUBLIC LIFE OF ECONOMIC INCENTIVES

Many current proposals for policy reform call for the use of economic incentives. The growing application of economic incentives in a number of policy areas necessitates continuing critical examination of the claims for and the criticisms of their use. Early empirical evidence on the implementation of incentive schemes serves to shed light on the validity of some of the supporting and opposing arguments. By continuing the assessment of the viability of economic incentives, this study reveals that incentive alternatives face obstacles to use stemming from implementation problems, but political and philosophical issues pose greater threats. Nevertheless, the use of incentives can best be defended on political and moral grounds. Political resistance can be overcome and incentives can be employed effectively, if incentive schemes are understood as fostering one form of social interaction in a mixed regime.     

SPATIAL COMPETITION WITH LOCATION-DEPENDENT COSTS*

This paper investigates the behavior of spatially-competitive firms whose costs depend on their locations. Necessary and sufficient conditions for optimum locations are derived. Comparative-statistics analysis of the equilibrium shows that the responses of firms to changes in input and output transport rates depend on the properties of consumer demand curves or are ambiguous in sign.     

In pursuit of grandeur: France,colonialism and nationalism in Africa and the South Pacific

Robert Aldrich. The French Presence in the South Pacific, 1842–1940. London, Macmillan, 1990. xii + 387 pp. A$49.95 (cloth).

Francis Terry McNamara. France in Black Africa. Washington, National Defence University, 1989. xx + 289 pp. US$8.00 (paper)

David Robie. Blood on their Banner. Nationalist Struggles in the South Pacific. Leichhardt, Pluto Press Australia, 1989. 310 pp. A$19.95 (paper).     

Recent Trends in the Internationalisation of the New Zealand Economy

Over the last decade, but particularly since 1984 when the fourth Labour Government came to power, New Zealand has become something of an experimental test bed for the implementation of monetarist ideas of political and economic management. A noticeable outcome of the policy regime recently put in place has been a dramatic ‘opening up’ of the economy as markets are deregulated, protection barriers lowered, and restrictions on movement of capital in and out of the country removed One consequence has been a quantitative and qualitative change in the internationalisation of the economy. This paper traces the nature and extent of this process, and speculates on some policy implications. Four key dimensions of the internationalisation process are surveyed: the expansion of New Zealand capital off-shore, increased levels of foreign investment in New Zealand, the impact of reductions in border protection, and closer economic relations between Australia and New Zealand.     

James Buchanan's normative theory of the state

This paper examines James Buchanan's normative theory of the state and in particular his attempt to establish a legitimating linkage between the individual and the state. It begins by outlining Buchanan's consent‐based theory of the state and the distinction he draws between the explanatory and justificatory roles of his theory. It proceeds to examine the role of his conceptual contract as a justificatory argument for existing and proposed political institutions. It finds that while the conceptual contract may provide an account of the contingent rationality of the state, it fails to have normative significance in terms of Buchanan's value individualism and subjectivism. Buchanan has also failed to address some of the problems associated with securing and enforcing contractual agreement. These conclusions point to wider problems with rational choice theories of the emergence of the state.