Cost Efficiency,Urban Patterns and Population Density When Providing Public Infrastructure: A Stochastic Frontier Approach

Relying on stochastic frontier analysis we propose a methodology to study the technological characteristics and cost efficiency levels related to the provision of public infrastructure for basic utilities. The methodology assumes a cost minimizing behaviour on the part of public officials when planning the construction of local infrastructure, which is represented by way of a flexible translog cost function. Introducing relevant definitions of scale economies, associated with larger numbers of inhabitants and dwellings, as well as economies of density, brought about by reductions in urban dispersion, we analytically determine the optimal population densities for which average cost is minimized. We illustrate our model with the water cycle sector, including water distribution, sewage collection and cleansing of wastewater, and considering data at the municipality level for the Spanish region of Castilla y León. The obtained results indicate potential cost savings in the form of decreasing average costs, as relevant scale and density economies are present, along with large inefficiency levels. Relevant policy guidelines favouring larger and denser urban sizes are drawn, as the observed cost excess is the result of a general suboptimal urban size in terms of population density, and the negative effects of dispersed settlement patterns.     

External Ties and the Reduction of Knowledge Asymmetries among Clusters within Global Value Chains: The Case of the Ceramic Tile District of Castellon

Classical industrial districts' literature is not focused on the role played by external ties but gives more importance to the local districts' endogenous development. Global value chains connect clusters to other external agents through external linkages and constitute a framework to analyse the complex inter-linkages between clusters and other external agents. In the field of the external ties and the global value chain approach Academia is primarily focused on the ties which link clusters in developing nations to global markets, although global value chains also consider connections between clusters in similar activities and even when both are located in developed nations. Thus, external linkages are mainly performed by multinational enterprise (MNE) affiliates which play fundamental role of knowledge diffusers and absorbers in the process of knowledge exchange throughout global value chains. The work examines the process of knowledge exchange between clusters through external ties using the global value chain approach. For this purpose, empirical work is conducted with 22 face-to-face interviews to provide a case study about a leading cluster in the global ceramic tile industry. Results show that the basic knowledge to successfully compete is locally originated, although it can be complemented with global knowledge learnt or generated in other territories. MNE affiliates bridge structural holes through external ties and reduce knowledge asymmetries within global value chains. External ties on network-based governance chains exist, matter and affect clusters allowing upgrading even between developed nations.     

Taphonomy of ungulate ribs and the consumption of meat and bone by 1.2-million-year-old hominins at Olduvai Gorge,Tanzania

The phenomenon of equifinality complicates behavioral interpretations of faunal assemblages from contexts in which Pleistocene hominins are suspected bone accumulators. Stone tool butchery marks on ungulate fossils are diagnostic of hominin activities, but debate continues over the higher-order implications of butchered bones for the foraging capabilities of hominins. Additionally, tooth marks imparted on bones by hominins overlap in morphology and dimensions with those created by some non-hominin carnivores, further confounding our view of early hominins as meat-eating hunters, scavengers or both. We report on the manual/oral peeling of cortical layers of ungulate ribs as taphonomically diagnostic of hominoid/hominin meat- and bone-eating behavior that indicates access to large herbivore carcasses by hominins at the site of BK, Olduvai. Supporting these inferences, we show that certain types of rib peeling damage are very rare or completely unknown in faunas created by modern carnivores and African porcupines, but common in faunas modified by the butchery and/or consumption activities of modern humans and chimpanzees, during which these hominoids often grasp ribs with their hands, and then used their teeth to peel strips of cortex from raggedly chewed ends of the ribs. Carnivores consume ungulate ribcage tissues soon after kills, so diagnostic traces of hominin butchery/consumption on ribs (i.e., peeling and butchery marks) indicate early access to ungulate carcasses by BK hominins. Tooth marks associated with the peeling and butchery marks are probably hominin-derived, and may indicate that it was not uncommon for our ancestors to use their teeth to strip meat from and to consume portions of ribs. Recognition of rib peeling as a diagnostic signature of hominoid/hominin behavior may also aid the search for pre-archaeological traces of hominin meat-eating.     

Reviews

Shi^cite Islam: Polity, Ideology, and Creed , Yann Richard, trans. Antonia Nevill, Oxford, U.K. and Cambridge, U.S.A.: Blackwell, 1995, pp. 217, chronology, glossary, bibliography, index.

Mongols and Mamluks: The Mamluk‐Ilkhanid War, 1260–1281 , Reuven Amitai‐Preiss, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, xv + 272 pp.

The Bukharans: A Dynastic, Diplomatic and Commercial History 1550–1702 , Audrey Burton, Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 1997, 664 pp.

Cahiers d'Asie Centrale, No. 1/2 (1996): Inde‐Asie centrale. Routes du commerce et des idées , Tashkent: l'Institut Français d'études sur l'Asie centrale/Aix‐en‐Provence: Editions Edisud, 1996, 366 pp.

The Diary of H.M. Shah of Persia during his tour through Europe in A.D. 1873 , trans. from the Persian by J.W. Redhouse, London, 1874, reprinted 1995, with a new introduction by Carole Hillenbrand, Bibliotheca Iranica. Reprint Series No. 2, Mazda Publishers, Costa Mesa, Calif., [xvi] + xi + 427 pp.

Presse und Öffentlichkeit im Nahen Osten , Christoph Herzog, Raoul Motika, and Anja Pistor‐Hatam, eds., Heidelberg: Heidelberger Orientverlag, 1995, viii + 183 pp.

The Army and the Creation of the Pahlavi State in Iran, 1910–1956 , Stephanie Cronin, London: Tauris Academic Studies, 1997, 296 pp., 3 appendices.

The Republic of Armenia, Volume III: From London to Sèvres, February‐August, 1920; Volume IV: Between Crescent and Sickle: Partition and Sovietization , Richard Hovannisian, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996, xx + 534 pp., xii + 496 pp.

Majlis va Intikhabat: az Mashrūtah ta Payan‐i Qajar , Mansoureh Ettehadieh (Nezam‐Mafi), Tehran: Nashr‐i Tarikh‐i Iran, 1375/1996–97, 368 pp.

L'Iran au XXe siècle , Jean‐Pierre Digard, Bernard Hourcade, Yann Richard, Paris: Fayard, 1996, 459 pp.

The Shi^cis of Iraq , Yitzhak Nakash, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994, xiv + 312 pp., cloth and paperback.

Debating Religion and Politics in Iran: The Political Thought of Abdolkarim Sorush , Valla Vakili, New York, N.Y.: Studies Department, Occasional Paper Series, no. 2, The Council on Foreign Relations, Inc., 1996, 56 pp.

Tanker Wars: The Assault on Merchant Shipping during the Iran‐Iraq Conflict, 1980–1988 , Martin S. Navias and E. R. Horton, London and New York: I.B. Tauris Publishers, 1996, ix + 244 pp., including appendix, notes, index of ships, and general index. Cloth.

The Turbulent Gulf: People, Politics and Power , 2nd ed., Liesl Graz, London and New York: I.B. Tauris Publishers, 1992. 311 pp., including notes, appendices, bibliography, and index. Paperback.

The Topkapi Scroll: Geometry and Ornament in Islamic Architecture , Gülru Necipo?lu, with an essay on the geometry of the muqarnas by Mohammad al‐Asad, Santa Monica: Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1995, xiii + 395, plates, plan, bibliography, index, $160.00.

Techniques et ressources en Iran du 7e au 19e siècle , Parviz Mohebbi, Tehran: Institut Français de Recherche en Iran, 1996.

Suppressed Persian: An Anthology of Forbidden Literature , Paul Sprachman, Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, lviii + 111 pp., $29.95.     

Renewable Electricity in the EU: Are We Meeting the Targets?

This paper analyses differences in the degree to which European Union countries have achieved the renewable electricity (RES-E) targets set by the European Commission for each Member State for 2010. After defining an RES-E target achievement (TA) indicator, both conventional and novel techniques are used to examine the main features of its distribution, including the degree of inequality, external shape and intra-distribution dynamics, for the 1996–2006 time period. The analysis demonstrates that disparities in TA have been strongly reduced and that intra-distribution mobility was very high.     

Regional Productivity Distribution in the European Union: Which are the Influencing Factors?

The aim of this paper is to analyse some relevant aspects on productivity distribution in the European Union at regional level. Firstly, the paper examines its external shape and intra-distribution dynamics. Subsequently, an analysis of the factors that might be behind the productivity distribution and its dynamics is carried out. The results, represented by means of a relatively new visualization tool, highlight the role played by factors such as geographical location, compensation per employee and investment per employee in explaining this issue.     

An Index of Social and Economic Development in the Community's Objective-1 Regions of Countries in Southern Europe

In this article we calculate an indicator of social and economic development using the DP₂ distance method to measure the disparities in Objective-1 regions of southern European countries for 2006. In addition to per capita income, socio-economic components such as health, education, employment, scientific and technological development and infrastructure provision have been incorporated into the index. We examine the issue of whether the Europe Union regions included in the Convergence Objective achieved a lower level of development than the regions no longer covered in this objective for the 2007–2013 programming period by establishing a territorial classification based on the value yielded by the variables of the DP₂. Our indicator constitutes a novel contribution insofar as it was constructed using a large number of variables. In essence, we show that not all the regions of the Convergence Objective presented a lower level of economic and social development than those that lost this consideration between 2007 and 2013 and the opposite.