UNRAVELLING THE POPULATION TURNAROUND IN RURAL CANADA

This paper attempts to unravel the rural population turnaround in Canada through a disaggregation and analysis of rural growth rates by (1) two decades, 1961–71 and 1971–81, (2) the farm and non-farm components of rural population, (3) provincially based regions, and (4) area types based on proximity to urban centres. Following a discussion of the various definitional and boundary-matching issues arising from the use of the Census of Canada, results are presented in tabular and map form. Although rural growth rates did in all likelihood exceed urban rates in the 1970s, the extent of this turnaround is undoubtedly exaggerated in the census data, primarily because of definitional and reclassification effects. Moreover, setting aside data-related anomalies, there is strong evidence that much of this rural population growth was in fact ‘spillover’ from urban centres. Cet essai traite du virage pris par la population rurale au Canada au moyen d'une décomposition et d'une analyse des taux de croissance rurale où interviennent(1) les deux décennies 1961–71 et 197 1–81, (2) les com-posantes agricoles et non-agricoles de la population rurale, (3) les régions définies sur une base provinciale, et (4) les types de zones établies à partir de la proximité par rapport aux centres urbains. Les problèmes de définition et de démarcation d'aires comparables soulevés par I'utilisation des données du Recensement du Canada sont abordés en premier lieu. Puis, les résultats sont présentés sous forme de cartes et de tableaux. Bien que les taux de croissance rurale aient, selon toute vraisemblance, dépassé les taux urbains dans les années 70, I'ampleur de ce virage réulte sans doute d'exagérations dans les données du recensement, prin-cipalement attribuables aux effets de délimitation et de reclassification. De plus, mises à part les anomalies relatives aux données, il y ade bonnes raisons de croire que cette croissance de la population rurale provient en grande partie du décongestionnement des centres urbains.     

THE SOCIAL BENEFITS OF URBAN CULTURAL AMENITIES*

ABSTRACT. This paper uses a two-stage hedonic wage approach to derive the benefits from improvement of five cultural amenities. It is argued that the hedonic approach permits valuation of both private and local public aspects of cultural goods since access to the amenity is an essential input in the production of the final service flow. Empirical estimates of willingness to pay suggest price and income elasticities are approximately unity. Lower-bound estimates of marginal benefits for a representative city range from $0.85 million for an additional theater to $57.9 million for an additional zoo facility.     

NETWORK EQUILIBRIUM MODELS OF URBAN LOCATION AND TRAVEL CHOICES: A RETROSPECTIVE SURVEY*

ABSTRACT The origins and development of the network equilibrium problem are traced and interrelated. Two principal formulations are considered the network equilibrium problem with variable travel demand, and the combined model of trip distribution and traffic assignment. The relation of these models to subsequent developments concerning mode choice, residential location, estimation of origin-destination tables from link flows and stochastic route choice are then reviewed.