Facility Location Under Zone Pricing

Zone pricing consists in determining simultaneously several delivered prices together with the zones where these prices apply. A model and algorithm are proposed to determine optimal facility locations, prices, tariff-zones, and market areas in order to maximize the firm's profit under zone pricing. The resulting nonlinear mixed-integer program is tackled by projecting the objective function on the price space, solving repeatedly uncapacitated facility location problems for fixed values of the prices. The implicit profit function so defined is optimized by branch-and-bound. Computational results are reported.     

Semi-parliamentary government in perspective: concepts,values, and designs

The article responds to four commentaries on the concept of semi-parliamentary government and its application to Australian bicameralism. It highlights four main points: (1) Our preferred typology is not more ‘normative’ than existing approaches, but applies the criterion of ‘direct election’ equally to executive and legislature; (2) While the evolution of semi-parliamentary government had contingent elements, it plausibly also reflects the ‘equilibrium’ nature of certain institutional configurations; (3) The idea that a pure parliamentary system with pure proportional representation has absolute normative priority over ‘instrumentalist’ concerns about cabinet stability, identifiability and responsibility is questionable; and (4) The reforms we discuss may be unlikely to occur in Australia, but deserve consideration by scholars and institutional reformers in other democratic systems.     

The ethnic classification in the late 19th‐century censuses

The topic of this paper is the ethnic classification used in the last three censuses of the 19th century, i.e. the censuses taken in 1875, 1891 and 1900. The aim is to study the content of this classification diachronically, based on new and supplementary evidence from the parish of Astafjord in the southern part of Troms county, northern Norway. This evidence primarily comes from the parish registers from one decade which, unusually, contain rather elaborate characterizations of ethnic affiliation. This feature of the parish registers gives a unique opportunity to check the corresponding characterizations in the censuses.     

Trade and markets in northern Fenno‐Scandinavia A.D. 1550–1750

Generally, two main opinions have been maintained concerning the age of the markets in northern Fenno‐Scandinavia: One asserting that the markets have their origins well before A.D. 1600, and possibly are dating from the Middle Ages; and the other suggesting that the markets may be constructions of the 18th century. The majority of studies relevant to the question of the markets have, however, been confined within strict geographical limits. Few efforts have been made to view the markets in a broader context, comprising the totality of the trade relations of northern Fenno‐Scandinavia. While giving the written evidence a critical and chronological sifting, the author of this paper stresses this perspective on the markets, as instruments of mediation between what is conceived as the three great trade systems embracing the northern part of Fenno‐Scandinavia.     

BORDERS AS BOUNDARIES TO FISCAL POLICY INTERACTIONS? AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF POLITICIANS’ OPINIONS ON RIVALS IN THE COMPETITION FOR FIRMS

Studies of spatial policy interdependence in (local) public policies usually concentrate on the relations between jurisdictions within a single analyzed region, and disregard possible extraregional effects. However, the theoretical spatial statistics literature shows that biased estimates might emerge if spatial interactions extend beyond the boundaries of the available data (i.e., the boundary value problem). This paper empirically assesses the practical relevance of this concern by studying German local politicians’ assessments of their jurisdictions’ main competitors in the struggle to attract firms. We find that location near a border significantly undermines politicians’ perception that the fiercest competitive pressure derives from jurisdictions within their own state. This effect sets in about 20 km (10.2 km) from a national (international) border. These results indicate that nearest municipalities perceive each other as competitors regardless of the state or country where they are located, which has important implications for estimating spatial dependence models.     

Multiple discourses among the Bedouin: Fieldwork and the invention of the ethnographic text

Maza, Sarah C. Servants and Masters in Eighteenth‐Century France. The Uses of Loyalty. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1983. xiv + 368 pp. including illustrations, appendices, chapter references, sources and bibliography, and index. $32.50 cloth.

Dudden, Faye E. Serving Women. Household Service in Nineteenth‐Century America. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1983. viii + 344 pp. including chapter references and index. $19.95 cloth.

Rollins, Judith. Between Women. Domestics and Their Employers. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1985. viii + 261 pp. including chapter references and index. $24.95 cloth.

Glenn, Evelyn Nakano. Issei, Nisei, War Bride. Three Generations of Japanese American Women in Domestic Service. Philadelphia: Temple Uni‐verity Press, 1986. xviii + 290 pp. including appendices, chapter references, and index. $29.95 cloth.

Stanley, Liz, ed. The Diaries of Hannah Cullwick. Victorian Maidservant London: Virago Press, 1984. vii + 327 pp. including illustrations, appendices, and notes. £5.95 paper ($25 available through Rutgers University Press).

Gordon, Suzanne. A Talent for Tomorrow. Life Stories of South African Servants. Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1985. xxvii + 294 pp., including glossary, bibliography, index, and photographs by Ingrid Hudson. $16.95 paper (available through Ohio University Press).