CRIME IN A MULTI‐JURISDICTIONAL MODEL WITH PRIVATE AND PUBLIC PREVENTION*

ABSTRACT Criminals move between jurisdictions in response to differences in the net returns to crime that depend on the opportunity for crime and the effort to prevent crime. An increase in police protection of a jurisdiction diverts crime to other jurisdictions when only public crime prevention such as police protection is available. However, residents also invest in private prevention (private security, burglar alarms, etc.), and the value of these measures depends on the level of local public protection. In a spatial context, an increase in public prevention of a jurisdiction not only alters the incentives of individuals of the jurisdiction, but also of other jurisdictions as well, and such a change in private crime prevention may end up attracting crime to the jurisdiction. An increase in public prevention of a jurisdiction thus may divert or attract crime. This ambiguous effect stands in contrast with the literature and may appear counterintuitive, but is logical under plausible conditions.     

Geometry,Construction and Structural Analysis of the Crossed-Arch Vault of the Chapel of Villaviciosa,in the Mosque of Córdoba

The vault of Villaviciosa is one of the oldest existing examples of a true ribbed vault, and is the first of the crossed-arch type. Although its perfection suggests earlier trials, none has been found so far. It predates the oldest Romanesque ribbed vaults by more than a century. Notwithstanding its importance, no construction and structural study has ever been done; neither has an accurate survey been published. The purpose of this article is to fill this gap in the history of vault construction. A detailed survey has been made, providing the first accurate drawings of the vault. A close inspection of the extrados, completed with a visual inspection of interior damages, has allowed ascertaining the main construction features. With the geometry and the material data a structural analysis has been carried out. This analysis explains the fundamental structural behavior of the vault and throws new light into some historical issues; for example, it leads to discarding the widespread belief that the ribs are decorative: they are supporting the weight of the vault.     

Cluster Life Cycles,Path Dependency and Regional Economic Development: Insights from a Meta-Study on Basque Clusters

In this study, we aim at evaluating the role of path-dependent and past-dependent forces in the historical trajectory of clusters. For that purpose, we study the life cycles of four of the main industrial clusters in the Basque Country (paper-making, electronics and information and communication technology, maritime industries and aeronautics) and analyse the factors that account for the origin, development, maturity and, if so, decline of those clusters, considering factors related to both cluster dynamics and the regional environment. Our analysis shows that the existence of a life cycle does not imply a straightforward growth path. Clusters follow multiple growth patterns in their development. The heterogeneity of growth patterns may be, in some cases, due to different initial conditions. However, despite similar initial conditions and/or resource endowments and opportunities for development, we can observe heterogeneous evolutionary patterns. Clusters react differently to the same external shocks (e.g. international demand, global competition and technological change) and evolve differently according to their capabilities.     

Chemists,engineers and entrepreneurs the chemical institute of sarrià's impact on Spanish industry (1916–1992)

This paper analyzes the influence the Chemical Institute of Sarrià (IQS) ‐a private institution devoted both to the education of chemists and chemical engineers and to applied research‐ has had on Spain's chemical industry from 1916 onwards. The research reported is based upon three data sources (articles on industrial chemistry published by the IQS’ journal Afinidad and M. Se. theses; IQS graduates’ industrial activities; and technical services carried out by the Institute's staff for several companies). The main conclusion is that the IQS has had a remarkable impact on Catalan and Spanish industry. Although there are no other similar studies on Spanish scientific and technical institutions, the IQS case confirms that technical education and institutionalized research have a positive impact on the economic and industrial development of “latecomers” like Spain.     

Testing micro-regional variability in the Holocene shaping of high mountain cultural landscapes: a palaeoenvironmental case-study in the eastern Pyrenees

Previous research acknowledges the ancient and complex land-use history of European mountainous areas, which are characterised by a remarkable regional variability in terms of human practices and patterns of occupation during the Holocene. However, the combined palaeoenvironmental and archaeological study of highland human management at a micro-regional scale remains a largely unexplored research field, especially in the Pyrenees. A combined pollen, stomata, non-pollen palynomorphs (NPPs) and macrocharcoal study was carried out at three nearby alpine and subalpine peat basins from a relatively small territory (ca.1700 ha) at the Madriu valley (Andorra, eastern Pyrenees), following a fine spatial-resolution strategy. The purpose was to test the suitability of high altitudinal palaeoecological sequences when reconstructing past small-scale land-use variability. The palaeoecological results of those peat records are compared and further integrated with archaeological local data, and together underline the marked complexity of high mountain land-use system over the Holocene period. Main phases of micro-regional land-use and landscape variability can be distinguished from the middle Neolithic to the early Bronze Age and from the Roman Period to the Modern Era. Conversely, several phases of homogeneous landscape management are distinguishable during the early Neolithic, and from the late Bronze to the late Iron Age. Results drawn from this study show that landscape variability is not necessarily connected to topographic or climatic parameters, and underline the role of social, economical and cultural parameters in the land-use organisation and the landscape shaping of high mountain spaces since Prehistory.     

TAX COMPETITION IN THE PRESENCE OF INTERJURISDICTIONAL EXTERNALITIES: THE CASE OF CRIME PREVENTION*

ABSTRACT The paper analyzes the effect of fiscal competition when local governments choose the level of public goods that generate spillover effects elsewhere. For instance, law enforcement activities affect both the crime level in the jurisdiction providing the good and in neighboring communities. The model shows that when local governments rely on capital taxation to finance these expenditures the spillover effects may not lead to an inefficient provision of public goods as predicted by the tax competition literature. In the model, capital is costlessly mobile and offenders relocate responding to differential criminal opportunities and differential local law enforcement efforts.     

The Resinous Cargo of the Java Sea Wreck

A number of blocks of resinous materials were found in the cargo of a 12th‐ to 13th‐century shipwreck, discovered in the late 1980s in the Java Sea near the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java and excavated in 1996. These well‐preserved blocks presumably were trade materials used for religious, medicinal, cosmetic, decorative or practical purposes. Such materials, derived from plants and termed exudates, generally include frankincense, myrrh, ‘gum benjamin’, liquidambar, dragon's blood, dammar, copal and amber. The source of the cargo resin could not be determined from the site. Investigation by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has revealed that the molecular structure corresponds to that of modern resin from the plant family Dipterocarpaceae, known in trade as dammar and closely resembling Group B copal and amber. Other molecular classes of exudates are excluded. Such materials are not present in the Middle East, which then cannot be their source. The NMR spectra differ from those of Group B samples from Australia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, but resemble those from India or Japan. The spectra indicate that the saline environment had a similar effect on the molecular structure to heating and aging.     

A simple methodology for recording petroglyphs using low-cost digital image correlation photogrammetry and consumer-grade digital cameras

In the present study a simple method is described for obtaining 3D digital models of petroglyphs of different sizes and characteristics and its usefulness, in the study of this cultural heritage, is evaluated. For this research we used low-cost photogrammetric software and consumer-grade digital cameras, without any other surveying techniques. In order to test this methodology, three field research studies were carried out in Galicia (Spain).     

Paul Broca’s search for Basque skulls: The full story

Paul Broca surmised that the short and broad—brachycephalic—skulls of the earliest European settlers had become longer and narrower—dolichocephalic—in modern populations due to the blending of different races. Swedish anatomist Anders Retzius had two brachycephalic skulls said to be from contemporary Basque individuals, a claim suited to test Broca’s hypothesis. Broca worked with fellow anatomist and surgeon Pedro González Velasco, the founding father of Spanish anthropology, to gather a large number of Basque skulls. In its time, this was the most fascinating collection owned by the Anthropological Society of Paris. This article explains how Broca and Velasco were able to gather such a sizeable array of specimens, which they had collected at a location known at first by the code name of “Z.” Although Broca finally concluded that the origin of the Retzius skulls could not be determined, his research was to spark anthropologists’ interest in the language and origins of the Basque people.