Temp to Perm: Stacking the Electoral Deck Through U.S. Senate Appointments?

One concern with allowing governors to appoint replacements for U.S. Senate vacancies is that appointees may have an advantage over their competition in seeking election. Another is that governors may use their power to further their own political ambitions. This investigation explores whether an electoral benefit is conferred through receiving or making an appointment. The analysis provides insight into how gubernatorial appointments shape electoral outcomes for quasi-incumbents and the Senate's membership. Notably, the results reveal an electoral boost for representatives who are appointed prior to making a run for the Senate. Although the results demonstrate that some appointees gain an advantage by receiving appointments, governors who run for Senate do not experience an electoral benefit from making an appointment.     

Determinants of Residential Location Choice: How Important Are Local Public Goods in Attracting Homeowners to Central City Locations?*

Abstract. A hybrid conditional logit choice model is estimated using data on the characteristics and destination of homeowners who engaged in intrametropolitan moves among 17 school districts within the Columbus, Ohio area in 1995. The model is used to test the relative influence of local fiscal and public goods versus household‐level characteristics in determining household location choices across central city and suburban school districts. Results provide evidence of both a “natural evolution” of households to the suburbs, due to job location, residential filtering, and household income and lifecycle effects, and “flight from blight,” due to lower school quality, higher crime levels, and lower average income levels in the city. In comparing the magnitudes of these variables, we find that school quality exerts the strongest influence: a 1‐percent increase in the school quality of the city district increases the probability of choosing a city residence by 3.7 percent. In contrast, the effects of household income and other individual characteristics are relatively modest. The findings provide support for a “flight from blight” suburbanization process that is dominated by differences in neighborhood quality between the city and suburbs. An implication is that investments that promote central city development and reduce suburbanization are justified on efficiency grounds if negative externalities are generated by increased concentration of poverty, crime, and low school quality.     

Reviews

Spatial models and locative expressions in Baluchi , Ela Filippone, Baluchistan Monograph Series, IV, Naples: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1996, 427 pp.

Qissah‐yi niyaz , Hushang Rahnema, Philadelphia: Miras‐e Iran, 1998, 175 pp.

Modernism and Ideology in Persian Literature: A Return to Nature in the Poetry of Nima Yushij , Majid Naficy, Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1997, 144 pp., $27.50

Mysticism and the Plurality of Meaning: The Case of the Ismailis of Rural Iran , Rafique Keshavjee, London: I. B. Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 1998 (Occasional Papers, no. 2), vii + 47 pp.

Sacred Acts, Sacred Time, Sacred Space , John Walbridge, Oxford: George Ronald, 1996.

The History of Contemporary Iranian Jews , vol. 2, ed. Homa and Houman Sarshar, Beverly Hills, Calif.: Center for Iranian Jewish Oral History, 1997.

Padyavand , Judeo‐Iranian and Jewish Studies Series, vol. 2, ed. Amnon Netzer, Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, 1997.

Memoirs of M. E. Amirteymour Kalali: Tribal Leader, Majles Deputy, Cabinet Minister , ed., Habib Ladjevardi, Iranian Oral History Project, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University, 1997.

Persian Cookings: A Table of Exotic Delights , Nesta Ramazani, New York: Quadrangle Books, 1974, reprint Iranbooks, Inc., 1997, 296 pp.

The Legendary Cuisine of Persia , Margaret Shaida, U.K.: Lieuse Publications, 1992., reprint Penguin Books, 1994, 337 pp.

Reconstructed Lives: Women and Iran's Islamic Revolution , Haleh Esfandiari, Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1997, 234 pp., $15.95, paperback, ISBN: 0–8018–5619–1, $24.50, hardcover, ISBN 0–8018–5618–3.

Die iranische Schia und die islamische Einheit 1979–1996 , Wilfried Buchta, Hamburg, Deutsches Orient‐Institut, 1997, 427 pp.

Maqalati dar jami^cah‐yi shinasi‐yi siyasi‐yi Iran [Articles on the Political Sociology of Iran], Ervand Abrahamian, trans., Soheyla Torrabi‐farsani, Tehran: Shirazeh Publications, 1997, 254 pp. + index.

Parliamentary Politics in Revolutionary Iran: The Institutionalization of Factional Politics , Bahman Baktiari, Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1996, ISBN 0–8130–1461–1, 282 pp. appendix, notes, bibliography, + index.

Street Politics: Poor People's Movement in Iran , Asef Bayat, New York: Columbia University Press, 1997, 216 pages + plus glossary.

The United States and Iran; In the Shadow of Musaddiq , James F. Goode, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997, xiv + 235 pp.

The Soviet Republic of Iran, 1920–1921; Birth of the Trauma , Chosroe Chaqueri, Pittsburgh and London: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995, xxvii + 649 pp.

Know Thine Enemy: A Spy's Journey into Revolutionary Iran , Edward Shirley, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997, 247 pp.

The Middle East: from the end of Empire to the end of the Cold War , P. J. Vatikiotis, London and New York: Routledge, 1997, $65.00.

Iran and the Gulf: A Search for Stability , Jamal S. al‐Suwaidi, ed., Abu Dhabi: The Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research, 1996, xi + 425 pp., 12 figures, 8 tables, maps.

The Persian Gulf at the Millennium: Essays in Politics, Economy, Security, and Religion , ed. Gary Sick and Lawrence G. Potter, ,New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997, 356 pp.

The Paradox of Plenty: Oil Boom and Petro‐States , Terry Lynn Karl, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997, 342 pp., $55.00, $22.00, paper.     

PRICE AND LOCATION CONJECTURES IN MEDIUM- AND LONG-RUN SPATIAL COMPETITION MODELS*

ABSTRACT. This paper examines medium-run and long-run equilibria in unbounded (circular) and bounded (linear) one-dimensional multifirm markets. A price-location adjustment model is outlined that dows simulation of the spatial equilibrium when these firms anticipate reactions from their nearest spatial rivals. Thus, the market equilibrium is derived from the interdependent but atomistic decisions of the competing firms and is not imposed by some outside observer or agency. Ail conjectures are exogenous; the three well-known price conjectures (Greenhut-Ohta, Hotelling-Smithies, and Losch) are highlighted; and the relevant comparative statics are provided.