INFERENCE BASED ON ALTERNATIVE BOOTSTRAPPING METHODS IN SPATIAL MODELS WITH AN APPLICATION TO COUNTY INCOME GROWTH IN THE UNITED STATES*

ABSTRACT This study examines aggregate county income growth across the 48 contiguous states from 1990 to 2005. To control for endogeneity, we estimate a two‐stage spatial error model and implement a number of spatial bootstrap routines to infer parameter significance. Among the results, we find that outdoor recreation and natural amenities favor positive growth in rural counties and property taxes correlate negatively with rural growth. Comparing bootstrap inference with other models, including the recent General Moment heteroskedastic‐robust spatial error estimator, we find similar conclusions suggesting bootstrapping can be effective in spatial models where asymptotic results are not well established.     

Variability in Wood-Frame Building Damage using Broad-Band Synthetic Ground Motions: A Comparative Numerical Study with Recorded Motions

Earthquake damage to light-frame wood buildings is a major concern for North America because of the volume of this construction type. In order to estimate wood building damage using synthetic ground motions, we need to verify the ability of synthetically generated ground motions to simulate realistic damage for this structure type. Through a calibrated damage potential indicator, four different synthetic ground motion models are compared with the historically recorded ground motions at corresponding sites. We conclude that damage for sites farther from the fault (>20 km) is under-predicted on average and damage at closer sites is sometimes over-predicted.     

The cybernetic moment: Roy Ascott and the British cybernetic pioneers, 1955–1965

ABSTRACT

Professor Roy Ascott developed the Ground Course at Ealing College of Art, drawing on his experience of Basic Design under Victor Pasmore and Richard Hamilton at Newcastle University. Through his reading of Ross Ashby and his friendship with Gordon Pask, Ascott introduced cybernetic theory into his art practice and pedagogy. This essay explores the degree to which Ascott embodied a distinctly British approach to cybernetics.     

The responsible government question in Natal, 1856–1893

ABSTRACT

The history of South Africa's Eastern Cape continues to attract considerable attention. Recent scholarship suggests that the Royal Engineers, as one of the executive arms of imperial colonisation, played a significant role in the colonisation and development of the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony. This article seeks to contribute to the discussion by examining the importance of surveying and mapping in underpinning and extending the colonial State in what is now the Eastern Cape. It attempts to disentangle and assess the impact of the activities of the Royal Engineers and other military officers. It briefly examines African responses to surveying and the construction of fortifications; and attempts to unravel the respective roles of imperial and colonial agencies in surveying, mapping, and construction of fortifications and establishment of towns.     

Imperial Realism: Post-War IR Theory and Decolonisation

The paper reviews the record of realism in IR theory in relation to the process of decolonisation. It argues that despite being traditionally set against imperial adventures and opposed to the kind of idealism in which they are usually coated, realism was remarkably silent about decolonisation, at a time when most commentators thought that the emergence of newly independent countries was a more portentous event than even the cold war. It explains this silence by the structure of the post-war debate on decolonisation, largely monopolised by modernisation theorists and often confined to the precincts of international organisations, but also by the fact that IR theory had built-in arguments against the unlimited extension of sovereignty that allowed its practitioners to advocate a pragmatic support for imperial powers and reproducing classical tropes of imperial thought.     

The Political Transfer of English Parliamentary Rules in the French Assemblies (1789–1848)

France has often been perceived as the most resilient country to political transfers from abroad. This view does not withstand close scrutiny and political realities tell a different story. This article argues for a reinterpretation of the role of political transfers in modern French political life (since 1789). Through the study of the introduction of rules inspired by the British parliamentary system, this article seeks to show that transfers did take place and gave rise to controversy. The July Monarchy represents the best example. There was an effective transfer but the resistance to this transfer was also very effective. This resistance shows the structural specificity of the French parliamentary system. Political transfers are thus double edged: it is simultaneously an import into a system and a way of reorganizing the system that modifies the nature of the transfer (in this instance the ‘recipes’ of the British parliament).

Résumé La France a souvent été vue comme le pays du refus de toute importation politique venue de l'étranger. Mais, une telle idée appartient plus au monde des représentations (que les Français ont abondamment nourri) qu'au domaine de la réalité politique. Cet article plaide pour une réévaluation du rôle tenu par les transferts politiques dans la vie politique française moderne (à partir de 1789). A travers l'étude de l'introduction de règles inspirées du modèle parlementaire britannique, l'article tente de démontrer que les transferts ont été à la fois effectifs et sujets à de très fortes controverses. La période de la monarchie de Juillet, de ce point de vue, offre un exemple remarquable. Le transfert eut bien lieu (la publicité des votes principalement) mais la résistance opposée à ce transfert fut elle aussi très efficace. Cette résistance est un révélateur des spécificités structurelles du parlementarisme français. Un transfert politique se révèle donc ici ambivalent: il est à la fois un phénomène d'importation à l'intérieur d'un système d'accueil (ici, la monarchie de Juillet) et une forme de recomposition de ce système qui vient modifier à son tour la nature initiale du transfert (ici, les ‘recettes’ du parlementarisme britannique).