ADDITIVE-RATIO MEASURES OF INTERACTMTY IN INPUT-OUTPUT SYSTEMS

ABSTRACT. A general axiomatic framework is developed for analyzing alternative measures of interactivity between the sectors of a given activity system (such as the industrial sectors of an economy). Within this overall framework, we analyze an ordinal class of additive-ratio measures which has been applied to a wide variety of systems, including both economic and ecological systems of activities. Our main result is to show that such measures can be characterized by four interactivity axioms. In addition, a wide variety of alternative measures are compared to additive-ratio measures in terms of this axiom system.     

Roadside Memorials: Interpreting New Deathscapes in Newcastle,New South Wales

Over recent years, roadside memorials to commemorate people killed in motor vehicle accidents have become increasingly noticeable in parts of the Australian landscape. In Newcastle, New South Wales, roadside memorials are placed for young people. The age/gender group most at risk of road death, and those most memorialised, are young men. This is linked to spatially specific constructions of masculinity which circulate within youth milieux of Newcastle. Like other memorials and monuments these ‘deathscapes’ have multiple meanings, differing between those who build, maintain and interpret them. They function as conservative memorials of youth machismo; of heroic aggression, disregard for safety and egocentrism. Roadside memorials need to be re-read as symbolic of societal flaws; of a wasteful road toll, and a testament to dominant and problematic strains of masculinity.     

Book reviews

Innovation, Networks and Learning Regions?. J. Simmie (Ed.). Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London, 1996, 200 pp., £16.95, ISBN 1 85302402 3 (pb).

The Urban Order: An Introduction to Cities, Culture, and Power. John Rennie Short. Oxford and Massachusetts, Blackwell Publishers, 1996, 506 pp. £14.99 (pb), ISBN 1 55786 360 1 (hb), ISBN 1 55786 361 X (pb).

Multinationals and European Integration; Trade, Investment and Regional Development. Regional Policy and Development Series 14. Nicholas A. Phelps. London, Regional Studies Association/Jessica Kingsley, 1997, 200 pp., £18.95 pb, ISBN 1 85302 353 1.     

Estimation Bias in Spatial Models with Strongly Connected Weight Matrices

This article shows that, for both spatial lag and spatial error models with strongly connected weight matrices, maximum likelihood estimates of the spatial dependence parameter are necessarily biased downward . In addition, this bias is shown to be present in general Moran tests of spatial dependency. Thus, positive dependencies may often fail to be detected when weight matrices are strongly connected. The analysis begins with a detailed examination of downward bias for the extreme case of maximally connected weight matrices. Results for this case are then extended by continuity to a broader range of (appropriately defined) strongly connected matrices. Finally, a simulated numerical example is presented to illustrate some of the practical consequences of these biases.     

Globalization and the politics of local and regional development: the question of convergenc

Globalization, and the increased exposure to international competition that it has supposedly induced, has led to expectations of institutional convergence in, among other things, local and regional development policy and the politics surrounding it. There have been changes in the United Kingdom, but not of the decentralizing, neo-liberalizing form anticipated. A comparison of the British with the very different, highly decentralized, American case seeks to shed light on this. Emphasis is placed on both the strongly embedded nature of institutions and on misunderstandings about the strength of the forces of globalization.     

DO STATE BUSINESS CLIMATE INDICATORS EXPLAIN RELATIVE ECONOMIC GROWTH AT STATE BORDERS?

This study submits 11 business climate indexes to tests of their ability to predict relative economic performance on either side of state borders. Our results show that most business climate indexes have no ability to predict relative economic growth regardless of how growth is measured. Some are negatively correlated with relative growth. Many are better at reporting past growth than at predicting the future. In the end, the most predictive business climate index is the Grant Thornton Index which was discontinued in 1989.