Electoral rule and public sector efficiency: Some evidence from Italian municipalities

We study the effect of Law 81/1993, which introduced a different rule for the election of mayors, on the technical efficiency of Italian cities over the period 1998–2006. Since 1993, municipalities below 15,000 inhabitants vote with a single-ballot system, whereas cities above 15,000 inhabitants are subject to a double ballot. We first estimate the output-oriented technical efficiency of municipalities through data envelopment analysis, and then we perform a regression discontinuity design analysis by exploiting the exogenous change in the electoral scheme at the 15,000 inhabitants cut-off. We find evidence that municipalities voting under a double-ballot rule show lower levels of efficiency—in terms of provision of public goods—compared with cities voting under a single-ballot scheme, by about 6.5%. This effect is driven by inefficiencies registered in specific sectors, that is, police, education, and maintenance of roads. Furthermore, the overall lower efficiency of municipalities voting under runoff is related to the different level of educational attainment of elected mayors, whereas it is not driven by the features of Law 81/1993 relating to the number of lists forming a coalition in support of mayoral candidates and to disjoint votes.     

大汶口文化的打击乐器——陶鼓浅析

田野发掘所获取的资料显示大汶口化(含北辛化)所发现的陶鼓是原始先民的主体乐器。     

Venturing Into Unknown Territory: The Preparation and Formulation of the Second Benelux Structural Outline

Inherent in transnational planning are obstacles which cause spatial planners to venture into unknown territory. The scale, the issues and the institutional context are significantly different from planning at the national level or below. What does this mean for the role of spatial plan-making, which is the cornerstone of the planning profession? This paper focuses on the role of plans as part of building transnational governance capacity. It does so on the basis of an in-depth case study of the preparation of the Second Benelux Structural Outline (1994–2000). The research material consists of a series of interviews with directly involved planners and administrators, primary sources such as internal reports of the Benelux Economic Union and direct observations by the researcher who attended several meetings of the planning committee. The paper starts with a short discussion of contemporary planning theory through which the formulation of the plan is analysed. Planning as a communicative process and planning as a programming process are central concepts in this analytical framework. The paper proceeds with an analysis of the making of the Second Benelux Structural Outline. A conclusion is that the plan as a communicative tool was not sufficiently developed during the planning process, in spite of the desirability of such a feature in this stage of building transnational governance capacity. The concluding remarks will focus on the ways in which the communicative dimension of future transnational plans can be improved.     

The Impact of a Customs Union with the European Union on Internal Migration in Turkey

Abstract The impact of the recent Customs Union (CU) agreement between Turkey and the European Union on internal migration is studied using an intra‐industry trade Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model with intersectoral capital mobility under two alternative specifications for the labor market: the traditional Harris‐Todaro approach and the existence of a “wage curve” in the urban sector. Under both specifications, the numerical results show that the CU is welfare enhancing and causes a reduction of the urban‐rural wage gap as suggested by theoretical studies. At the same time, it leads to rural‐to‐urban migration and raises the capital rent, results that are counter intuitive with respect to the dual economy literature. Furthermore, the rise in formal labor demand and the migration response to the CU have not resulted in an increase in urban unemployment (i.e. the “Todaro paradox”), but rather to a fall in the unemployment pool. The study also shows that the Bhagwati‐Srinivasan proposal of maximizing welfare by uniformly subsidizing the entire labor market is impracticable, especially if the high wage union sector can negotiate employment conditions.     

Trade and the location of industries in the OECD and European Union

Trade and location theory identifies forces that could leadto locational dispersion (comparative advantage) or locationalconcentration (scale economies) in the face of globalizing markets,each with different consequences for specialization and theadjustment costs associated with integration. However, theseforces can play themselves out in very complex ways if locationalchange principally affects intermediate production. Moreover,effects of history may be important, if locational patternswhich exist prior to integration reflect either strong externaleconomies or, as we argue, strong institutionalized capacitiesto respond to more open markets. This could especially be thecase in the context of Europe, whose territories are generallyless specialized than the states of the USA. To see how thesedifferent effects are operating today, empirical measurementis required. Using a data set which allows changes in locationaldistribution of manufacturing industries in the OECD to be measured,we show that Europe does not seem to be ‘Americanizing’its economic geography. Many sectors are actually spreadingout in Europe, implying that the effects of history have remainedstrong up to this point. Specialization increases are weak inmost European economies as well. The OECD has a more complexpicture of spread and concentration. Some of the implicationsfor further research on agglomeration, intra-industry trade,and integration are brought out in the conclusion.     

Minero-petrographic characterization of fine ware from Cales (South Italy)

79 samples of black glazed pottery, Terra sigillata, fine common ware, and production indicators were recovered in the archaeological site of Cales and investigated via a multi-analytical program (polarized light microscopy, thermal analyses, XRPD, XRF, FESEM, FESEM-EDS). Among the materials, finds of important production indicators, represented by welded pieces of black glazed pottery and spacers, attest a local production. Polarized light microscopy shows that the inclusions consist of feldspar, quartz, mica, calcite, and lithic fragments of both volcanic and sedimentary nature. Additional information about the mineralogical assemblage comes from the XRPD that revealed the presence of neoformed Ca-silicates, indicating equivalent firing temperatures ranging from 750 to 1050°C. All the samples show a Ca-rich character and an extreme compositional homogeneity, including the production indicators. The comparison with some Ca-rich Campanian clay raw materials shows a greater affinity with the Mio-Pliocene marine clay sediments of the Apennine sector, which include local clays. This allowed us to formulate the first hypotheses about clay sources used to produce fine pottery during the third century BCE to the early imperial period in Cales.     

Preliminary Assessment on Seismic Vulnerability of Masonry Churches in Central Chile

ABSTRACT

The 2010 Maule Chile earthquake (Mw 8.8) caused extensive structural damage to the built heritage. In particular, the poor seismic performance of a set of unreinforced masonry (URM) churches highlighted the need to implement protective and safety strategies in order to preserve these buildings which exhibit unique constructive and typological features, as a result of a combination of Chilean and European construction cultures.

The peculiarity of this heritage and the high seismic hazard of Chilean territory have motivated the present study which aims to apply systematic procedures to assess the seismic vulnerability of these buildings. This article is of archival nature and presents a complete database generated from the geometrical, constructive, and structural characteristics of a representative stock of 106 churches located in central Chile, with the goal of proposing fragility curves to be used in seismic risk assessment. Considering variables related with geometrical, architectonic, and stylistic features, as well as damage levels for the 2010 Maule earthquake, this church sample is classified into three homogenous groups: colonial, neo-classic, and neo-gothic. Moreover, a preliminary qualitative assessment of the seismic capacity of these structures is provided using a survey and analysis of geometric indices for each of the three selected groups.