THE IMPACTS OF TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE ON PROPERTY VALUES: A HIGHER-ORDER SPATIAL ECONOMETRICS APPROACH

ABSTRACT.  We evaluate the impacts of enhanced transportation systems on property values for U.S. manufacturing firms, allowing for higher-order spatial error correlation. We use a state-level model of production cost and input demand that recognizes the productive contribution of public transportation infrastructure stocks. Our findings include significant impacts on property shadow values and input composition from both public highway and airport investment. We also find that these effects have a spatial dimension that depends on the proximity of the transport system; at least one and as many as three spatial error lags are significant in our estimating equations. Further, recognizing production growth from transportation system improvements augments the associated incentives for private capital investment.     

The Issue of Citizenship for the Bidun Minority in Kuwait after the Arab Spring

Kuwait is a country in which there are many tribes but it is the al‐U'zam tribe which is very dominant and influential in local politics and the economy, in contrast to the other tribes in Kuwait who are recognized by the state as being equal, but have little influence in these things. The Bedouin tribes, such as the Bidun society in Kuwait, who have been excluded from nationality and citizenship and thus have no influence, are an exception. The Kuwaiti government claims that the Bidun themselves gave up these rights so as not to be part of the Kuwaiti state and this has resulted in the Kuwaiti government not granting them any formal economic, political, or social rights. Because of this, the Bidun have had to fight for their rights for decades since the formal establishment of an independent Kuwait in 1961. This article wishes to discuss whether the question of the Kuwaiti refusal to recognize the Bidun as citizens is because of geostrategic reasons, because of the fear of creating a precedent that might lead to the inclusion of other tribes into the Kuwaiti state, or because this is a traditional political strategy for dealing with politically weak tribes.     

The Incredible Vagueness of being British/English

After suggesting why strong national identities arise, the author highlights the difficulties of distinguishing between Britishness and Englishness. Though this distinction is frequently elided or conflated, there are now pressures to resolve ambiguities that arise from globalization, Celtic demands for autonomy, the UK's membership of the European Union and the growth of international expressions of English identity. Can a specifically English identity be demarcated? Simply listing supposed national characteristics is futile, while looking at the connection between identity and landscape is helpful, but insufficient. Delimiting a British identity is even more difficult. Nonetheless, the author suggests that it remains important to construct an inclusive notion of British identity.