Multiple Outlets in a Duopoly: A First Entry Paradox

The strategic advantages of being the first entrant into a market have been discussed extensively. This paper presents examples of markets in which there is no first entry advantage. Rather, the later entrant always has an advantage even when both deploy equal resources. The necessary conditions for the occurrence of this first entry paradox are presented.     

THE MEDIAN VOTER,VOTING, AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYMENT*

ABSTRACT This paper provides an explanation for the level of local government employment by developing a median voter model that allows for migration into and out of the city, a local government balanced-budget constraint, and voting behavior by public employees that reflects their role as both demanders and suppliers of local government goods. Unlike previous research, the model developed here explicitly considers voting (for the incumbent) probability density functions which furthermore need not be stationary. The main conclusions of the model are that, ceteris paribus, it is plausible that the level of local government employment varies inversely with the public employee wage demand and with the elasticity of the privately employed voting population with respect to the local tax rate but directly with the voter participation rate of public employees. Contrary to previous theoretical research, there is no determinate relationship between the level of local government employment and the voter participation rate of privately employed citizens. Inferences concerning the structure of local government are also discussed.     

Norfolk livestock farming 1250–1740: a comparative study of manorial accounts and probate inventories

This paper examines developments in Norfolk livestock husbandry over a period of five centuries. It breaks new ground by combining evidence from manorial accounts and probate inventories and the methodological difficulties of using the two sources are examined in some detail. Despite these difficulties the evidence of accounts and inventories reveals the continuity of developed and dynamic pastoral farming systems in Norfolk. From an early date the distinctive feature of livestock farming was its close integration with arable farming, producing mixed-farming systems of remarkable productivity. By substituting horses for oxen and cultivating fodder crops, Norfolk farmers succeeded in maximizing the ratio of non-working to working animals, thereby permitting the development of specialized sheep farming, cattle-based dairying, and later, fattening. Sheep farming was transformed from a peasant to a landlord activity and dairying shifted in its spatial focus, gradually giving way to fattening, rendering Norfolk farmers increasingly dependent upon the import of young stock from outside the county. The most difficult comparison between accounts and inventories yields the most remarkable finding: between the fourteenth and the seventeenth centuries stocking densities approximately doubled. This implies significant gains in pastoral output per unit area, reinforcing the view that developments in livestock husbandry may well have been of greater importance in increasing agricultural production than the more heavily studied arable sector.     

ANALYZING THE COST OF DEBT FOR SMALL BUSINESS

The available empirical evidence provides mixed views of small businesses' relative bankruptcy risk. The difference between Churchill and Lewis' findings and SBA's and Kirchhoffs' may well lie in the difference in definition of firm “size” used. Risk is not evenly spread; the smallest businesses seem to be less risky than the intermediate size businesses. Yet, Churchill and Lewis' actual loss evidence suggests that small business risk is only marginally greater than for large businesses, the loss rate is still equivalent to less than one half of one percent. The assumptions that lenders will adjust the amount of debt they allow small business clients rather than the interest rate is not rejected by this evidence. In fact, the much higher profitability of the small business department reported by Churchill and Lewis suggests that the bank's loan interest rates are more than high enough to cover loss risk and fixed costs, and borrowers provide profitable deposits. Thus, the logic of my utility theory hypothesis provides a reasonable explanation for the relatively higher debt levels of small firms compared to large firms. But, then the Kirchhoffs' findings cast some doubt on whether small firms actually have higher debt levels. None of these findings justify the 2.75 percent interest rate spread allowed by SBA.     

Old World Traditions, New World Landscapes: Ethnicity and Archaeology of Swiss-Appenzellers in the Colonial South Carolina Backcountry

German-speaking Swiss immigrants from the Appenzell region of Switzerland settled in the South Carolina frontier township of New Windsor in 1737. After initially establishing an insular physical and social relationship with the dominant Anglophone population, the Swiss adopted strategies that increasingly integrated them into the greater regional society. Theory of ethnicity informs archaeological, testamentary, and landholding data concerning the symbolic action of the Swiss to assert and then transform their cultural identity. Evidence of competition, ethnocentrism, and differential power reflects the dynamic process of ethnogenesis that characterizes the South Carolina frontier.     

Book reviews

Australian politics

Paul R. Bartrop, Australia and the Holocaust 1933–45 (Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 1994) pp.304 $34.95 ISBN I 875606 12 2.

Ross Fitzgerald, ’Red Ted’ The Life of E.G. Theodore (St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1994) pp.474 $24.95 ISBN 0 7022 2649 1.

Ian Gray, Politics in Place: Social Power Relations in an Australian Country Town (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1991) pp.214 $45.00 ISBN 0 521 40426 6.

Mike Nahan and Tony Rutherford (eds), Reform and Recovery: An Agenda for the New Western Australian Government (Perth: Institute of Public Affairs, March 1993) pp.253 $21.50 ISBN 0 909536 39 2.

Dean Jaensch, The Liberals (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1994) pp.240 $19.95 ISBN 1 86373 361 2.

C.B. Schedvin, In Reserve: Central Banking in Australia, 1945–75 (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1992) pp.602. $49.95 ISBN 1 86373 371.

Susanna Short, Laurie Short: A Political Life (Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1992) pp.299 $29.95 ISBN 1 86373 188 I.

Julie P. Smith, Taxing Popularity: The Story of Taxation in Australia (Canberra: Federalism Research Centre, 1993) pp.172 $n.p. ISBN 0 7315 1508 0.

Jenny Stewart, The Lie of the Level Playing Field: Industry Policy and Australia's Future (Melbourne: Text Publishing Co., 1994) pp.305 $19.95 ISBN 1 86372 037 5.

Phillip Toyne, The Reluctant Nation: Environment, Law & Politics in Australia (Sydney: Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 1994) pp.228 $17.95 ISBN 0 7333 0375 7.

Ken Walker (ed.), Australian Environmental Policy (Kensington: New South Wales University Press, 1992) pp.306 $29.95 ISBN 0 86840 029 7.

Comparative and international politics

Gary D. Allinson and Yasunori Sone (eds), Political Dynamics in Contemporary Japan (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993) pp.311 SUS16.95 ISBN 0 8014 8096 5.

Barbara Callaway and Lucy Creevey, The Heritage of Islam: Women, Religion, & Politics in West Africa (Boulder, Co.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1994) pp.221 $US19.95 ISBN 1 55587 253 0.

Helena Catt and Elizabeth McLeay (eds), Women and Politics in New Zealand (Wellington: Political Science in association with Victoria University Press, 1993) pp.151 $n.p. ISBN 0 86473 260 0.

Ann Millar, Trust the Women: Women in the Federal Parliament (Canberra: Department of the Senate, 1993) pp.194 $29.95 ISBN 0 642 19523 4.

David F. Ericson, The Shaping of American Liberalism: The Debates Over Ratification, Nullification and Slavery (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1993) pp.238 $n.p. ISBN 0 226 21684 5.

John Francis, The Politics of Regulation: A Comparative Perspective (Oxford: Blackwell, 1993) pp.289 $45.00 ISBN 0 631 17467 2.

B.D. Graham, Representation and Party Politics: A Comparative Perspective (St Leonards NSW: Allen & Unwin/Oxford: Blackwell, 1993) pp.261 $45.00 ISBN 0 631 17396 X.

Carol Graham, Peru's APRA: Parties, Politics, and the Elusive Quest for Democracy (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner, 1992) pp.267 $US37.50 ISBN 1 55587 306 5.

Joseph Held (ed.), The Columbia History of Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992) pp.435 $29.95 ISBN 0 231 07696 7.

R.A. Herr and B.W. Davis (eds), Asia in Antarctica (Canberra: Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, Australian National University with Antarctic Cooperative Research Centre, 1994) pp.232 $n.p. ISBN 0 86740 426 4.

Michael Hill, Understanding Social Policy, 4th edn (Oxford UK and Cambridge USA: Blackwell, 1993) pp.230 $45.00 ISBN 0 631 18849 5.

Robin Jeffrey, What's Happening to India? Punjab, Ethnic Conflict and the Test for Federalism, 2nd edn (London: Macmillan, 1994) pp.252 $36.95 ISBN 0 333 59444 4.

Joel S. Kahn and Francis Lob. Kok Wah (eds), Fragmented Vision: Culture and Politics in Contemporary Malaysia (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1992) $24.95 pp.327 ISBN 1 86373 167 9.

Andrew Mack and John Ravenhill (eds), Pacific Cooperation: Building Economic and Security Regimes in the Asia‐Pacific Region (St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 1994) pp.269 $24.95 ISBN 1 86373 605 0.

Anne McElvoy, The Saddled Cow: East Germany's Life and Legacy (London: Faber and Faber, 1992), pp.258 £14.99 ISBN 0 671 16691 6.

Gaines Post, Jr, Dilemmas of Appeasement: British Deterrence and Defence 1934–37 (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1993) pp.363 $US53.35 ISBN 0 8013 27487.

David Remnick, Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire (London: Viking, 1993) pp.576 $45.00 ISBN 0 670 85236 8. Gale Stokes, The Walls Came Tumbling Down: The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993) pp.319 $n.p. ISBN 0 19 506645 6.

Brian Roper and Chris Rudd (eds), State and Economy in New Zealand (Auckland: Oxford University Press, 1993) pp.276 SNZ36.50 ISBN 0 19 558273 X.

Peter Self, Government by the Market? The Politics of Public Choice (London: Macmillan, 1993) pp.317 $29.95 ISBN 0 333 56972 3.

Mitchell A. Seligson and John T. Passé‐Smith (eds), Development and Underdevelopment: The Political Economy of Inequality (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1993) pp.456 $US22.00 ISBN 155587 400 2.

Martin Shaw, Post‐Military Society: Militarism, Demilitarization and War at the End of the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991) pp.229 $32.95 ISBN 0 7456 0199 5.

Hugh Smith (ed.), Peacekeeping: Challenges for the Future (Canberra: Australian Defence Studies Centre, Australian Defence Force Academy, 1993) pp.229 $20.00 ISBN 0 7317 0274 3.

Stephen John Stedman (ed.), Botswana: The Political Economy of Democratic Development (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1993) pp.214 $US35.00 ISBN 1 55587 305 7.

Stephen John Stedman (ed.), South Africa: The Political Economy of Transition (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner, 1994) pp.213 $US38.00 ISBN 1 55587 421 5.

Lionel Cliffe et al, The Transition to Independence in Namibia (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner, 1994) pp.293 $US38.50 ISBN 1 55587 420 7.

Dan Tschirgi (ed.), The Arab World Today (Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rlenner, 1994) pp.274 $US18.50 ISBN 1 55587 459 2.

Thomas G. Weiss (ed.), Collective Security in a Changing World (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner, 1993) pp.332 $US35.00 ISBN 1 5587 338 3.

Robert W. Gregg, About Face? The United States and the United Nations (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner, 1993). pp.180 $ US16.95 ISBN 1 55587 406 1.

Robert Zuzowski, Political Dissent and Opposition in Poland: The Workers’ Defense Committee ‘KOR’ (Praeger: Westport, 1992) pp.293 $US65.00 ISBN: 0 275 94138 8.

Political Theory and Methodology

Geoffrey Brennan and Loren Lomasky, Democracy and Decision: The Pure Theory of Electoral Preference (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993) pp.237 $99.00 ISBN 0 521 35043 3.

Alain Lipietz, Towards a New Economic Order: Post Fordism, Ecology Democracy (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992) pp.199 $34.95 ISBN 0 7456 0866 3.

Graham Little, Friendship. Being Ourselves with Others (Melbourne: Text Publishing, 1993) pp.272 $24.95 ISBN 1 86362 024 3.

John Locke, Political Writings (ed. David Wootton), (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1993) pp.479 $17.95 ISBN 0 14 043310 4.

Martin Loughlin, Public Law and Political Theory (Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1992) pp.292 $34.95 ISBN 0 19 876268 2.

Philippe Van Parijs (ed.), Arguing for Basic Income: Ethical Foundations for a Radical Reform (London and New York: Verso, 1992) pp.248 $39.95. ISBN 0 86091 586 7.