Heterogeneity of Attribute Sampling Error in Spatial Data Sets

This paper considers the standard error of the estimate of the mean of a spatially correlated variable in the case where data are obtained by a process of random sampling. Two distinct mean estimation problems are identified: estimating the area mean and estimating the population mean. Methods are described for obtaining standard error estimates in the two cases and, within the limits of publicly available information, the methods are implemented on average household income data at the census tract scale for Syracuse, New York. The purpose of the paper is to draw attention to issues of data precision in relation to sampled geographic information on averages and in particular to consider the problems of estimating standard errors using such data. The paper also examines the extent to which standard errors vary between census tracts.     

The tragedy of the commodity and the farce of AquAdvantage Salmon

The US Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve AquAdvantage Salmon as the first genetically modified animal for human consumption. The genetic modifications allow the proprietary fish to grow at a rate twice as fast as a wild salmon, leading to greater ‘efficiency’ in terms of reduced costs and reduced time to market. This article provides an analysis of the ways in which AquAdvantage Salmon exemplifies capitalist market forces controlling and guiding the terms of salmon recovery and conservation. The authors trace historical developments within the salmon industry to demonstrate how capitalist commodity production has impacted fishing communities. They reject the oft-cited ‘tragedy of the commons’ hypothesis offered to explain fisheries crises. In its place, they offer the conceptual framework of the ‘tragedy of the commodity’ to explore how capitalist market forces and complicit state regulations amplify rather than resolve global environmental problems.     

Growth and Convergence in a Multiregional Model with Space–Time Dynamics. 多区域时空动态模型的增长与收敛

The goal of this article is to test four distinct hypotheses about whether the relative location of an economy affects economic growth and economic well‐being using an extended Solow–Swan neoclassical growth model that incorporates both space and time dynamics. We show that the econometric specification takes the form of an unconstrained spatial Durbin model, and we investigate whether the results depend on some methodological issues, such as the choice of the time span and the inclusion of fixed effects. To estimate the fixed effects spatial Solow–Swan model, we adjust the Arrelano and Bond (1991) generalized method‐of‐moments (GMM) estimator to deal with endogeneity not only arising from the initial income level, as in the basic model, but also from the initial income levels and economic growth rates observed in neighboring economies.     

Rosario Romeo ( 1924–1987)

Abstract

Rosario Romeo (1924–87) made an original and outstanding contribution to the study of modern Italian history. He wrote extensively on the development of Italian capitalism and industrialization, developing his own concept of the ‘primitive accumulation of capital’ and drawing on theories of underdevelopment that became current after the Second World War to underline the particularities, the speed and breadth but also the limitations of Italy's economic growth. In his masterly biography of Cavour, as well as in numerous other essays, he confronted the questions of the birth of the Italian nation state, its origins, its political and moral tradition and its social life in the context of a deeply informed and penetrating vision of contemporary European history. The Risorgimento and Fascism, the nation and the nation state, liberal‐democratic values and class struggle, modernization and secularization are the essential themes in his historical writings that were marked by deep erudition and methodological rigour, and inspired by great conceptual and moral breadth. Through his work Italy became a paradigm of the fundamental dimensions of the modern world thanks to that passion for liberty which for Romeo (he was also a member of the European Parliament) was rekindled by the events of the twentieth century, among whose major historians he ranks.     

Biagio Bartalini's "Catalogo dei corpi marini fossili che se trovano intorno a Siena" (1776)

In 1776, the Sienese botanist Biagio Bartalini (1750-1822) published a catalogue of wild plants growing around Siena, adding an appendix on fossils found in the same area, that is the first monograph on Sienese fossils and one of the first works of its kind in Italy. This paper provides tentative identifications of the species and an analysis of the value and meaning of Bartalini's work. The catalogue reports 72 species, each denoted by a list of names applied to analogous living taxa. Identification of single entities is extremely problematical because it can only be attempted through analysis of the literature, since the original material cannot be traced. The most interesting report is the first record of a Euro-Mediterranean Pliocene species of Sthenorytis (Gastropoda, Epitoniidae). Though important, the catalogue is incomplete, with oversights and mistakes, suggesting little familiarity with the subject. Shortcomings include some inconsistencies in the species sequence, the report of giant clams and the absence of molluscs ubiquitous in the Sienese Pliocene and sharks. Nor is it true that it is the first Italian palaeontological work in which binomial nomenclature was used, as sometimes claimed.     

A new phoenix? Large plants regeneration policies in Italy

The fall of employment in manufacturing that the world's most advanced economies have been experiencing in the past 40 years has triggered a number of policies, undertaken in several countries. In this paper, we evaluate the effectiveness of a place-based policy, carried out in Italy, aimed at both generating private investments and increasing employment in areas affected by deep industrial decline. By means of an instrumental variable identification strategy, we show that the program has been largely unsuccessful.