TRANSPORTATION RATES AND LOCATION OF THE FIRM: A COMPARATIVE STATIC ANALYSIS*

ABSTRACT This paper examines the role of the structure of transportation rates in the Weber-Moses triangle model. It shows that, in Zeigler's analysis, the appearance of the price elasticities of demand for inputs actually vanish by a simple application of the envelope theorem. Applying comparative statics analysis, we show when transportation rates are a function of quantity and distance, the assumptions that the production function is homogeneous of degree one and the transportation rates elasticities with respect to quantity and distance are constant are not sufficient to insure that the optimum location is independent of the level of output. This result is significantly different from that obtained by either Miller and Jensen or Zeigler.     

Evaluating Tobler's Migration Vector Fields

In the past decade Tobler has provided an innovative cartographic presentation of migration flows. The central theme of this research has been to utilize detailed migration data to reveal the underlying structures of migration flows. Even though the analyses are not explanatory models of migration exchanges, the application of these techniques to migration flows over time and across different spatial scales provides a visual generalization of often extremely complex flows. The application of his techniques at two spatial scales for the Netherlands illustrates both the strengths and weaknesses of migration force fields for the analysis of migration.     

Book review

Oriental Carpet and Textile Studies

vol. III, no. 2., ed. Robert Pinner and Walter B. Denny. Published by the Islamic Department of Sotheby’ s and OCTS, Ltd., London (n.d., 1990?). 262 pages, with 12 colour plates and many black and white illus. and diagrams; soft‐bound with colour cover.

Textile Conservation and Research

by Mechtilde Fleury‐Lemburg. Bern, Switzerland: Abegg Stiftung. 1988, 532 pp.

An Introduction to Kurdish Rugs and Other Weavings

William Eagleton. New York, Interlink Books. 1988. 144 pp., 124 full‐page color plates.

Kordi: Lives, Rugs, Flatweaves of the Kurds in Khorasan

Wilfried Stanzer, Vienna, Adil Besim. 1988. 220 pp., 78 full‐page color plates, 48 color figures in text.

Carpets in the Baluch Tradition

by Siawosch Azadi. English trans. by Maria Schlatter and Robert Pinner. Klinkhardt and Biermann, Munich, 1986.

Armenian Rugs: Fabric of a Culture. An Exhibition at the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies

August 17‐October 29, 1988. Co‐sponsored by the Armenian Rug Society. Ed. Pamela B. Nelson. 40 pp; colour and black and white photographs, maps and “selected bibliography”. Philadelphia: Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, 1988.

Women's Costume of the Near and Middle East

by Jennifer Scarce, London and Sydney: Unwin Hyman Publishers, 1987. pp. 192     

COMPACTNESS AND ELECTORAL BOUNDARY ADJUSTMENT: AN ASSESSMENT OF ALTERNATIVE MEASURES

Spatial compactness has been proposed as a suitable criterion for assessing whether electoral boundaries reflect partisan interests. Although several different measures of spatial compactness have been developed, only limited efforts have been made to compare and evaluate them in the context of electoral redistricting. This paper assesses alternative spatial compactness measures and applies conceptually appealing measures to the provincial ridings proposed by British Columbia's Royal Commission on Electoral Boundaries (1988).