SPATIAL ASYMMETRIC DUOPOLY WITH AN APPLICATION TO BRUSSELS' AIRPORTS*

ABSTRACT In this paper, the problem of a city with access to two firms or facilities (shopping malls, airports, commercial districts) selling a differentiated product (shopping, flights) and/or offering a differentiated workplace is studied. Transport connections to one facility are congested. A model is presented for this asymmetric duopoly game that can be solved for a Nash equilibrium in prices and wages. A comparative statics analysis is used to illustrate the properties of the equilibrium. A numerical model is then applied to the two Brussels airports. Three stylized policies are implemented to address the congestion problem: expansion of transport capacity, congestion pricing, and a direct subsidy to the uncongested facility. Our results indicate that the degree of intrinsic differentiation between the two firms is crucial in determining the difference in profit and market share. Price and wage differences also depend on trip frequency and consumer preferences for diversity. Congestion pricing is the most effective policy tool but all three options are shown to have attractive attributes.     

Moves and Countermoves: Countermovement Diffusion of State Constitutional Amendments

Policy diffusion literature generally studies the adoption of similar policies across jurisdictions, but often overlooks how opposing policies or legal constraints may influence the enactment of rigid state constitutional amendments. The current study models the spread of state constitutional amendments designed to prevent future policy change. Using conditional event history analysis on all states from 1999 to 2011 the empirical models analyze the spread of same‐sex marriage prohibitive amendments across the United States. Findings suggest that the nearby adoption of opposing policies encourage state legislatures to introduce prohibitive amendments. The regional diffusion effect suggests that policymakers “protect” their jurisdiction from nearby diffusion forces or seek electoral gains by symbolic protection by committing an already existing policy into the rigid state constitutional framework. Regional policy diffusion may, therefore, be explained by a countermovement mechanism unique to the state constitutional amendment process. This protective strategy among state legislatures and citizens may explain why many policy areas are frequently codified in state constitutions.     

The impact of the school space on research methodology,child participation and safety: views from children in Zanzibar

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the impact of school environments as research spaces on participatory research methods, children’s agency and safety. The article draws on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork on children’s perceptions of protection programmes in state and Qur’anic schools in Zanzibar Town. Working with ‘draw & write’ and photovoice approaches disclosed issues with children’s safety in schools and highlighted limitations of participatory research in educational spaces. Drawing on Zanzibari children’s perspectives, I suggest that to improve fragile theoretical ideals about children’s participation in participatory approaches in educational settings, research processes need cultural sensitization and conceptualization in relation to the intersecting notions of place and personhood. This, as the paper shows, needs to guide and can help develop a respectful understanding of children’s lives. This paper contributes to discussions on childhood research ethics and constructions of ‘safe research spaces’.     

A stakeholder-based EU territorial cooperation: the example of European macro-regions

In the last decade, European regional policy has faced considerable changes typified by the introduction of the place-based approach with the Barca Report. One of the most prominent changes in European territorial cooperation (ETC), supposedly reflecting this shift, is the development of macro-regions, the dynamic of which are only just beginning to influence policy-making. This paper aims to analyse contemporary styles of ETC under the place-based narrative by identifying characteristics of macro-regional cooperation. Drawing on empirical studies in the Danube, Alpine and North Sea regions, the paper shows that stakeholders’ primary rationale for getting involved is the opportunity for agenda-setting, and the intention to evoke changes in debates and in other stakeholders’ influence. The main argument the paper follows is that macro-regional experiences reveal a crucial dependence on relatively strong stakeholders. With the term ‘stakeholder-based’, the paper draws attention to the importance of stakeholder settings in these new forms of ETC. The paper concludes that conceptualizations of approaches to European regional policies would need to acknowledge the regional differences of stakeholder settings more explicitly, and highlights the need to better acknowledge the implications for political transparency and relative power in agenda-setting.     

Political space and borderland practices in Abkhazia and Adjara: exploring the role of Ottoman legacies and contemporary Turkish influences

Abstract

The article provides a comparative exploration of the role of Ottoman legacies and contemporary Turkish influences in shaping political space in the Black Sea regions of Adjara and Abkhazia. Conceptualizing both as borderlands, the article focuses on borderland practices related to three kinds of transboundary flows between Turkey and Adjara and Abkhazia, respectively: flows of goods and capital, flows of people, and flows of ideas. The article draws on a wide range of secondary sources as well as on data from field research in Abkhazia, Adjara, and Turkey. It discloses how borderland practices have contributed to fragmented and convergent configurations of authority in both regions and underlines a threefold character of borderland practices which reflect and reproduce understandings of illegitimacy and illicitness, cosmopolitan sociability, and struggles over belonging.     

RURAL SUBSISTENCE,MIGRATION, AND URBANIZATION: THE PRODUCTION,DESTRUCTION, AND REPRODUCTION OF CHEAP LABOUR IN THE WORLD MARKET ECONOMY*

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