THE DETERMINANTS OF THE RECENT INTERREGIONAL MIGRATION FLOWS IN ITALY: A PANEL DATA ANALYSIS*

ABSTRACT This study investigates the determinants of interregional migration flows in Italy in the light of the upsurge occurred in 1996, after two decades of decreasing internal migration rates. The fixed‐effect vector decomposition estimator (FEVD) is applied to a gravity model using bilateral migration flows for the period 1996–2005. It is shown that the FEVD improves the estimates with respect to the traditional panel data estimators. The GDP per capita and the unemployment rate appear to be the key determinants whose changes push migrants out from their regions and direct them to “better off” destinations. Migrants leaving the regions in the Center‐North respond differently to the push and pull forces compared to southern migrants. The dynamic model provides evidence for the presence of social networks, which in this analysis take place for each pair of regions.     

Artificial cranial deformation in South America: a geometric morphometrics approximation

The bioarchaeological record of South America is characterized by the high frequency of individuals with a variety of cranial deformations concentrated in three areas (North-West, Central-West and South) of this subcontinent. The general purpose of this paper is to study the variation in artificial cranial deformation in several regions of Central-West and South of South America. Cranial variation related to artificial deformation of human cranial remains is analyzed by means of geometric morphometrics and multivariate statistic methods. The results of this work show that there are no large differences in variation among states, chiefdoms and bands of hunter-gatherers. The pattern of variation observed in cranial deformation among regions can be interpreted principally according to the chronological and spatial distribution of the cranial samples analyzed.     

Stable isotope dietary analysis of prehistoric populations from the Minusinsk Basin,Southern Siberia,Russia: a new chronological framework for the introduction of millet to the eastern Eurasian steppe

We report the results of stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of 354 human and faunal samples from five archaeological cultures of the Minusinsk Basin, Southern Siberia – Afanasyevo, Okunevo, Andronovo, Karasuk and Tagar (ca. 2700–1 BC) – a key location in Eurasia due to its position on a northern corridor linking China and central Eurasia. The results indicate that the diet of Eneolithic to Middle Bronze Age (Afanasyevo to Andronovo) populations was primarily C₃-based, with C₄ plants only becoming an important component of the diet in the Late Bronze Age Karasuk and Early Iron Age Tagar cultures. Freshwater fish seems to have been an important constituent of the diets in all groups. The findings constitute the earliest concrete evidence for the substantial use of millet in the eastern Eurasian steppe. We propose that it was probably introduced from Northwestern China during the Karasuk culture at the start of the Late Bronze Age, ca. 1500 BC. We conclude with a discussion of the implications for the nature of pastoralist economies on the steppes.     

Mark as a Roman Document from the Year 69: Testing Martin Hengel's Thesis

This paper explores Martin Hengel's thesis that the Gospel of Mark was written in Rome in the year 69. Hengel was convinced that more should be made of the Year of Four Emperors, a period of civic chaos and warfare that ensued on the death of Nero. The paper analyses the role of the emperor as a potent force in the religious, civic, political, and military unity that is Rome and her gods; the all-pervasive Jerusalem Temple; and Josephus's return to Rome in 71 and the publication of The Jewish War. The paper shows that these themes overlap with this Gospel and are at least consistently supportive of the claim that Rome is the place of composition. The paper refers positively to a recent publication by Brian Incigneri that stresses the critical role of the Triumph of Vespasian and Titus in 71 as the catalytic event for Mark.     

The Diffusion of Voluntary International Management Standards: Responsible Care,ISO 9000, and ISO 14001 in the Chemical Industry

This article analyzes the factors that explain the international diffusion of voluntary international management standards. We argue that international management standards should not be analyzed in isolation but in conjunction with other standards and their institutional environment. We present two opposite views explaining how the previous diffusion of management standards facilitates or hampers the adoption of new management standards. We test a comprehensive model of diffusion of international environmental management standards within the chemical industry using a panel of 113 different countries during the period 2000 to 2003. Our results show that the previous experience of businesses in voluntary standards such as the Chemical Industry's Responsible Care Program or ISO 9000, government commitment toward Environmental Management Systems Standards, and the level of activity of international nongovernmental organizations in the country of adoption, impact positively on the adoption of ISO 14001 by chemical firms. Unlike previous studies that focused mostly on cross industry analyses, we do not find trade‐related factors significant while explaining adoption in the chemical industry. Our results differ, therefore, from previous research and highlight the need to isolate industry effects to understand the diffusion of international standards.     

Book reviews

Negotiating Development. P. Healey, M. Purdue and F. Ennis, London: E&FN Spon, 1995, 212 pp, £29.95 hb, ISBN 0 419 19410 X

The Rise of the Rustbelt. P. Cooke (Ed.), London, UCL Press, 1995, i‐x+272 pp, £40.00 hb, ISBN 1 85728 420 8; £14.95 pb, ISBN 1 85728 419 4

Urban Change and Renewal: The Paradox of Place. P. Garrahan and P. Stewart (Eds), Aldershot: Avebury, 1994, viii+200 pp, £32.50 hb, ISBN 1 85628 610 X

Territorial Competition in an Integrating Europe. P. Cheshire and I. Gordon (Eds), Aldershot: Avebury, 1995, 317 pp, £40.00 hb, ISBN 1 85972 112 5

Reconstituting Rurality: Class, Community and Power in the Development Process. Jonathan Murdoch and Terry Marsden, London: UCL Press, 1994, xv + 256 pp. ISBN 1 85728 041 5 hb     

Das Tocqueville Problem: Individualism and Equality between Democracy in America and Ancient Regime

This article argues that there is a major inconsistency between Tocqueville's arguments about individualism and equality of conditions as described in his books Ancient Regime and the Revolution and Democracy in America. In the latter, which is the basis for conventional analysis of Tocqueville in America, individualism is taken as a spontaneously emerging feature of the modern, enlightened society, heralding the European future. In the Ancient Regime, however, leveling individualism is conceptualized as a by-product of the centralizing political dynamic of the modern European state, crushing all intermediate sources of social authority. If we accept this theory, America would be the last place one would expect to find individualism or equality, because the American institutions of a modern, centralized state were much weaker than in Europe, yet Tocqueville does look to the United States as such an example. It is argued in this article that the different genealogies of individualism developed by the French thinker cannot be satisfactorily reconciled; the alternative approach suggested here is to combine Tocqueville's analysis from Ancient Regime with modern historical research about early England and America which confirm them, making the analysis of individualism from Democracy in America largely superfluous.