HEDONIC PRICES,IDENTIFICATION, AND THE DEMAND FOR PUBLIC SAFETY*

In this paper, we use a two-stage intercity hedonic model to estimate household demand for public safety. This approach is shown to readily address the identification problem inherent in the hedonic model. Data from the 1980 Public Use Microdata Sample are used to estimate a willingness-to-pay function for the public-safety good. Income is found to be the primary determinant of willingness to pay. Indeed, the influence of income outweighs the combined impact of family life-cycle considerations.     

SOCIETY–NATURE COEVOLUTION: INTERDISCIPLINARY CONCEPT FOR SUSTAINABILITY

A brief historical background to the currently ascending interest in evolutionary and coevolutionary theory is sketched, and the concept of society–nature coevolution is positioned in this broader field. The significance of society–nature coevolutionary pathways for transition to sustainability is highlighted with Schellnhuber's heuristic ‘theater world’ for representing paradigms of sustainable development. Geography's recent re‐engagement in the geographical experiment of keeping society and nature under one conceptual umbrella is exemplified in the works of Hägerstrand and Harvey. This special issue's four contributions to developing society–nature coevolutionary theory are presented. The outlook these articles provide suggests that research into society–nature coevolution should play a key role in identifying physically, biologically and socially accessible pathways to sustainability. In order to keep the future accessible and navigable, we will need enhanced understanding of society–nature coevolution.     

Behavioural implications of temporal change in cariogenesis

The understanding of process in the archaeological record can only be achieved through the use of a wide range of information. This paper utilizes data from biological anthropology by looking at change in frequency of dental caries with the shift to an agricultural based economy on the prehistoric Georgia coast after c. AD 1150. There is an increase in frequency of carious lesions which is more marked in the females, thus indicating a relatively greater impact of the dietary shift on them than on the males. Most likely, this disparity is due to subsistence role differences between the sexes: males maintained hunting responsibilities, while females were responsible for agricultural related activity, including food preparation.     

A method for chronological apportioning of ceramic assemblages

Artifact assemblages from long-inhabited sites may include ceramic types and wares from multiple time periods, making temporal comparisons between sites difficult. This is especially problematic in macro-regional data sets compiled from multiple sources with varying degrees of chronological control. We present a method for chronological apportioning of ceramic assemblages that considers site occupation dates, ceramic production dates, and popularity distribution curves. The chronological apportioning can also be adjusted to take into account different population sizes during the site occupation span. Our method is illustrated with ceramic data from late prehispanic sites in the San Pedro Valley and Tonto Basin, Arizona, U.S.A., compiled as part of the Southwest Social Networks Project. The accuracy of the apportioning method is evaluated by comparing apportioned assemblages with those from nearby contemporaneous single component sites.     

After ‘the collapse’: Strategic selectivity,Icelandic state elites and the management of European Union accession

Iceland’s 2008 financial crisis has received considerable scholarly attention from economics and business science perspectives. Far less consideration has been given to the political–administrative consequences of ‘the collapse’ in terms of its restructuring state-based projects and instituting new scalar strategies, and, specifically, the role played in this process by Icelandic political and policy elites. We focus on this issue by analyzing recent attempts to reconfigure Iceland’s sceptical position towards the EU by promulgating state narratives of ‘EUrope’ as a ‘safe haven’ for the shattered national economy as part of the country’s formal application for EU membership. We show within the Icelandic state there is, however, a highly fragmented and polarized position on EU accession. Drawing on Jessop’s strategic relational approach, we demonstrate that this derives from the actions of different elite fractions seeking to establish parameters for strategic selectivity on EU accession in ways that support their own interests. ‘EUrope’ emerges as a complex institutional category which is both shaped by, and shapes, the rhetorical interventions and actions of Icelandic state elites in often contradictory ways, demonstrating the fundamental political dynamics of what is emerging as a fraught, fiercely contested EU accession process. We conclude that times of conflicting elite narratives are also moments of potentially significant state change.     

Economic history and America's nineteenth‐century growth

The Cambridge Economic History of the United States, Vol.2: The Long Nineteenth Century, edited by Stanley L. Engerman and Robert E. Gallman