Book reviews

“THE SOUTH SEAS IN TRANSITION” by W. E. H. Stanner. Issued under the auspices of the Australian Institute of International Affairs and the International Secretariat, Institute of Pacific Affairs and published by the Australasian Publishing Company. 1953. Pp. viii and 448. Three maps. Australian Published price, 50/‐ net.

SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY EN MELANESIA: A REVIEW OF RESEARCH, by A. P. Elkin. Published under the auspices of the South Pacific Commission. Oxford University Press, London, Melbourne, New York, 1953. Pp. xiii, 166 Maps. Price 27/6.

“THE AUSTRALIAN WAY OF LIFE.” Edited by George Caiger, under the auspices of the Australian Institute of International Affairs. Pp. xvi and 158. Published by William Heinemann Ltd., 1953. Australian price, 15/6.     

Book reviews

DIPLOMACY IN A WHIRLPOOL — Hungary between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. By Dr. S. D. Kertesz, University Of Notre Dame Press. Notre Dame, Indiana, 1953.

DOCUMENTS AND SPEECHES ON BRITISH COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS, 1931–52, Vols. I and II. By Nicholas Mansergh, R.I.I.A. Oxford University Press, 1953. Pp. xii, 1308 Price 131/‐

THE PROMISE THAT IS NEW CHINA. By K. T. Shah, Vora & Co. Bombay, 1953. 342pp.

APPROACHES TO COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: A Symposium introductory to Problems and Methods of Village Welfare in undeveloped Areas. Edited by Phillips Ruopp. W. Van Hoeve Ltd., The Hague, 1953: pp. xvi‐352.

HOW RUSSIA IS RULED. By Merle Fainsod. Published by Harvard University Press, 1953. pp. 574. Price 78s. 9d. (Aust.).

SOVIET POLICY IN THE FAR EAST; 1944–1951. By Max Beloff. Oxford University Press. 278 pp. 34/9.

THE STRUGGLE FOR KASHMIR. By Michael Brecher. Issued under the auspices of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs and the Institute of Pacific Relations. Ryerson Press, Toronto, 1953. 211 and xii pp.

THE WORLD AND THE WEST. By Arnold Toynbee, pp vi and 99. The B.B.C. Reith Lectures 1952 (Oxford University Press 1953).

THE DEPRIVED AND THE PRIVILEGED. By B. M. Spinley (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1953, pp. viii and 208, 18s.).

RUSSIA, PAST AND PRESENT. By Anatole G. Mazour, Professor of History, Stanford University, U.S.A. Third Printing. Macmillan & Co Ltd., London. Printed in U.S.A. Preface. Selected Readings for Chapters. Chronological Table. Index. Maps. Pp. vi and 785. Price 40/: Copy from publishers.     

Urban bound migration and rural investment: the case of Mexico

The authors investigate an agriculturally based policy for improving rural incomes and for retarding the rural-urban migration flow. The production of agricultural goods is characterized by a production function in which output increases with increases in agricultural labor inputs, capital, public infrastructure, land, and technology. Differences among regions in agricultural technology will reflect regional differences in education, the institutionalized form of productive organization, and differences in access to technological information channeled through more technically advanced cities. To pick up the effect of out-migration changes in state agricultural labor supply and upon agricultural output, the state's agricultural out-migration rate is included together with the agricultural labor force. The gross migrant flow between 2 locations is hypothesized to depend upon a set of variables influencing the individual's perception of the economic rate of return to be gained by moving, a set of variables reflecting the individual's propensity to relocate, the labor displacement effects of investments, and the at risk population at 1 location available to migrate. It is also taken into account that individuals differ in their response to information about origin and destination wage differentials and that individuals may or may not perceive a new ecnomic gain from migration but may base the decision on other considerations. Results of a statistical analysis using data from the Mexican census of population for 1960 and 1970 are: 1) size of the rural labor force was negatively associated with agricultural wages, contrary to expectations; 2) small farmers have benefited from the expansion of irrigation in Mexico; and 3) higher urban wages attract migration, and higher growth rate of agricultural income retards rural-urban migration. With respect to the 1950-60 decade both agricultural income and rural out-migration impacts could have been substantial but both the impact on local urban growth and on the rate of in-migration to the primate city would have been slight.