The Effects of Data Aggregation in Statistical Analysis

The problem of ecological correlation is now widely recognized but detailed analyses of the effects of aggregation on correlation and regression coefficients are rare. A short review of the aggregation problem is followed by an analysis of the specific effect of proximity aggregation on the slope coefficient of a bivariate linear model using data drawn from the Los Angeles Metropolitan region. The evidence suggests that changes in the slope coefficient are best related to the manner in which the covariation between the independent and dependent variables changes with increased aggregation.     

Urban Neighborhoods as a National Resource: Irreversible Decisions and Their Equity Spillovers

The differential timing and pace of private versus public sector disinvestments in declining neighborhoods have some positive spillovers for their residents. Public services are not withdrawn or reduced as rapidly as private investments and the opportunity is preserved for future redevelopment or rehabilitation. This “public service bonus” is vulnerable, however, during periods of austerity and general retrenchment. During such crises, the pressures to rationalize service provision are able to overcome local political and bureaucratic resistance to service reallocations. The analysis is based upon the investment theory literature dealing with irreversible decisions and is exemplified by the reallocation of services in New York City's declining neighborhoods during the past decade.     

Dimensions of Spatial Price Dispersion Before and After the Crash of 1929

The spatial and temporal patterns of prices are analyzed over the 1919–40 period. Arguments are made for the distinctiveness of different economic episodes, including the crash of 1929, in terms of their local price effects. Nevertheless, it is also shown that the variability between cities and between components of their price series declined through the early 1940s. Alternative conceptions of spatial price systems are introduced, and due regard is also given to the structure and interpretation of city CPI data. Implications are drawn regarding the proper design of a theory that would explain the observed patterns of spatial price dispersion. This larger project is left, however, to another time.     

Reviews

EUROPEAN UNIFICATION IN THE SIXTIES. FROM THE VETO TO THE CRISIS. Miriam Camps. London, Oxford University Press, 1965. Pp. 257. $5.80.

CONTEMPORARY SOVIET GOVERNMENT. L. G. Churchward. London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1968. Pp. xix + 366. $2.50.

SOUTH WEST AFRICA AND ITS HUMAN ISSUES. J. H. Wellington. Oxford University Press, 1967. Pp. xriv + 461. $13.10.

ASIAN BUREAUCRATIC SYSTEMS EMERGENT FROM THE BRITISH IMPERIAL TRADITION. Ralph Braibanti (ed.). Duke University Press, 1966. Pp. xx + 733. U.S.$17.50.

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN NEWER NATIONS. Harold F. Alderfer. Praeger, 1967. Pp. xii + 206. U.S.$12.50.

ISSUES OF POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT. Charles W. Anderson, Fred R. von der Mehden, Crawford Young. Prentice‐Hall, 1967. Pp. viii ‐f 248. £Stg.1.12.0.

COMMUNISM IN MALAYSIA AND SINGAPORE. A CONTEMPORARY SURVEY. Justus M. van der Kroef. The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff, 1967. Pp. viii + 268. Guilders 40.60.

INDIA'S QUEST FOR SECURITY: DEFENCE POLICIES, 1947–1965 Lorne J. Kavic. Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1967. Pp. 263 + maps. $7.95 (U.S.).

DEMOCRACY AND ECONOMIC CHANGE IN INDIA. George Rosen. Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, Revised Edition 1967. Pp. xviii + 340. $2.25 (U.S.).

INDIA'S POLITICAL SYSTEM. Richard L. Park. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice‐Hall, Inc., Revised Edition 1967. Pp. ix + 116. $2.55.

CAN WE WIN IN VIETNAM? Frank E. Armbruster, Raymond D. Gastil, Herman Kahn, William Pfaff, Edmund Stillman. Pall Mall, 1968. Pp. xiv + 427. $10.10.

VIET‐NAM AND THE WEST. Ralph Smith. Heinemann Educational Books, 1968. Pp. ix + 206. $4.80.

THE CHINESE IN AUSTRALIA. Arthur Huck. Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 1968. Pp. x + 117. $4.50.

FROM ASSIMILATION TO GROUP SURVIVAL. A POLITICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY OF AN AUSTRALIAN JEWISH COMMUNITY. P. Y. Medding. Melbourne, F. W. Cheshire, 1968. Pp. xxii + 300. $6.00.

ISAAC ISAACS. Zelman Cowen. Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1967. Pp. 280. $6.00.

CONTEMPORARY CANADA. Richard H. Leach (ed.) Duke University, Commonwealth Studies Center. Pp. xii + 328. $10.00 (US).

AUSTRALIAN TRADE POLICY 1942–1966. A DOCUMENTARY HISTORY. J. G. Crawford, assisted by Nancy Anderson and Margery G. N. Morris. Canberra, A.N.U. Press, 1968. Pp. xxvii + 641. $10.50.     

Paradigms in science and archaeology

The paradigm concept as developed in western philosophy of science contexts is reviewed, and the metaphysical paradigms that govern research protocols in mainstream Old and New World prehistoric archaeology are described and compared. It is concluded that post-1970 New World archaeological research receives its intellectual mandate from anthropology, is founded on postpositivist biases, and is governed by a critical-realist ontology, a modified-objectivist epistemology, and an experimental-manipulative methodology. Post-1970 Old World archaeological research is viewed as a kind of history, remains mostly in the strict empiricist tradition, and is governed by a realist ontology, an inductivist epistemology, and by an observational methodology. The claims of various kinds of postprocessual archaeology are also evaluated in terms of the paradigm concept.     

Poland in the ‘Paris system’: self‐determination,stereotypes, and decisions in 1919

One of the most important questions at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference was what to do about the newly re‐created state of Poland. The Paris peacemakers realised the importance of the settlement, thanks in part to dire warnings about Poland's future, and the leaders spent much time discussing the territorial settlement. Yet discussions of this important question regularly strayed from debates about policy to incorporate understandings of Polish national character. In particular, the leaders of the so‐called Big Three, Britain, France, and the United States, connected expert opinion and the broader political landscape to stereotyped understandings of national character, among other factors. With reference to scholarship on stereotyping, this article analyses how developing attitudes on Polish national character became integrated into the complex settlement of Poland's borders. The peacemakers' decisions, which were a compromise between different points of view, reflected interconnected understandings of the Polish settlement.