The European union's support for new technology‐based firms: An assessment of the first three years of the European seed capital fund scheme

In 1988, the European Commission launched a pilot programme, the European Seed Capital Fund Scheme, designed to create 24 new seed capital funds in the 12 member states and to increase the availability of equity finance to innovative start‐up and early‐stage enterprises. The findings of a pan‐European assessment carried out in the spring of 1992 on 21 of the 22 supported funds and 40 of their investee companies are presented. The actions of the funds have allowed additional resources to be directed to young technology‐based firms. However, the research findings also suggest that the majority of supported funds are under‐capitalized which will result in major problems of financial viability in the medium term. The research also questions the sufficiency of supply side policies alone to address issues of regional ‘equity gaps’ particularly related to the support for NTBFs within Europe.     

‘Intersectionality’, Socialist Feminism and Contemporary Activism: Musings by a Second‐Wave Socialist Feminist

1970s socialist feminist theory in the USA, like older socialist feminisms, anticipated much of today's ‘intersectionality’ by recognising multiple forms of domination and refusing to rank them in importance. Today's intersectionality has gone further in incorporating LBGTQ values and in the term's use by many activist groups. That activist appropriation of an originally academic term, arising from critical legal feminism, illustrates a striking example of a feminist label moving outward, no doubt partly through women's studies programmes. At the same time, the concept, in both academic and activist usage, has drifted toward emphasising some aspects of domination while occluding others, especially economic inequality, and occasionally emphasising a pluralist, empiricist understanding of diversity that omits matters of power. This article proceeds by tracing the precursors to intersectionality in second‐wave feminism, notably its socialist feminist stream; then considering its development in academic women's/gender studies scholarship; and finally, surveying its use by activists in recent years.     

DOES ANYBODY STILL NEED JUDAISM?

Both of the books under review focus on the tradition of Jewish scholarship and debate. The Genius of Judaism is written from a religious perspective, whereas the authors of Jews and Words envision a future in which Jews live without Judaism; they see Jewishness as a culture that can be divorced from religion. For Lévy, a sense of the divine—including the concept of being a chosen people—is the source of Jewish identity and historical continuity. Lévy also argues that the Jews are chosen to serve non‐Jews. Inspired by the prophet Jonah, Lévy undertook diplomatic missions in the Ukraine and in Libya, and I consider the lessons he draws from these missions. I also discuss the relationship of Judaism to various concepts in the philosophy of history: revolution, progress, messianism, and utopianism, as well as the affinity between Judaism and skepticism.     

Migration and employment change: empirical evidence on the spatial and temporal dimensions of the linkage

"This paper uses a unique set of [U.S.] data to estimate the magnitude of the linkages between employment changes and net employment migration. A simple simultaneous system is specified and estimated for 17 consecutive years. In an average year two extra jobs attract about one additional net migrant, and one additional net migrant has a direct effect on area employment of almost 1.4 jobs." The data are from the One-Percent Social Security Continuous Work History Sample and are for the years 1958 to 1975. The changes in this relationship over time as the economic situation varies are analyzed.     

Price Variation in Spatial Oligopolies

The “geography of price” is being given renewed attention by geographers and economists. This paper examines spatial price variation in both unbounded (circular) and bounded (linear) one-dimensional markets. Firms compete for consumers in the short run by adjusting price until the Bertrand equilibrium is reached in the market. While firms act as spatial oligopolists in specific market segments, the profit-maximizing price of any given firm depends directly and indirectly upon the spatial-economic properties (locations, marginal costs) of all other firms in the market.