A Measure of Competitive Access to Destinations for Comparing Across Multiple Study Regions

Accessibility is now a common way to measure the benefits provided by transportation–land use systems. Despite its widespread use, few measurement options allow for the comparison of accessibility across multiple urban systems, and most do not adequately control for market competition between demand-side actors and supply-side facilities in localized markets. In this article, we develop a measure of competitive access to destinations that can be used to accurately compare accessibility between regions. This measure stems from spatial interaction modeling and accounts for competition at both the supply and demand sides of analysis, regional differences in transportation networks and travel behavior, and any imbalance between the size of the population and the number of opportunities. We use this method to compute access to employment for Canada's eight largest cities to comparatively examine inequalities in accessibility, both within and between cities, and by travel mode.     

International law and ‘humanity’ in the making and unmaking of European solidarity, 1830–1915

Abstract

The Janus-faced character of nineteenth-century Europe presents unique challenges to historians. Concurrent to spiralling industrial growth, working-class revolts, transatlantic migration and imperialism, the stark social and economic upheaval of the period has virtually belied the solidarity achieved on the Continent. In recent years, however, a number of superlative scholarly studies have excavated and illuminated the intellectual, legal and technological revolutions that ushered in an era of promise and potential unity. In this article, the author examines the degree of interdependence and interconnectedness across the Continent and the world by melding extant scholarship, introducing primary-source research, and offering new perspectives on the relationship of the increasingly globalized world and the European efforts to harness its potential by attempting to create lasting norms for peace and prosperity through international law and the benchmark concept of ‘humanity’.     

Big City Labor Markets and Immigrant Economic Performance

Franklin J. James spent much of his career working to understand and improve our metropolitan communities. His interests were varied, ranging from impacts of fiscal and economic distress on urban areas to understanding socioeconomic forces reviving our central cities. During the last several years, Professor James had turned his attention to examining the positive economic impacts immigrants and ethnic communities have for reinvigorating our central cities-and beginning to investigate how non-native American's will impact America's suburbs in metropolitan settings
This preliminary exploration examines destination choices of immigrants, the characteristics of immigrant labor markets, and the determinants of immigrant earnings. The article begins to explore indirect evidence on the economic efficiency with which immigrants and native workers distribute themselves within and among labor markets as well as the assimilation process facing new immigrants. Evidence is presented to explain how the earnings of recent immigrants are affected by their human capital characteristics, their race, and ethnicity, and other factors. We reject the hypothesis that immigrants participate in a tertiary sector of urban labor markets and conclude that the determinants of immigrant earnings are similar enough to those of U.S. natives that it makes sense to assume that they work in the same primary labor market in which most native White Americans work. We find that urban labor markets for immigrants are surprisingly efficient, thus enabling immigrants to take advantage of economic opportunities. A major exception concerns what appears to be a powerful effect of discrimination on the economic progress of Black immigrants.     

Multiple Principals, Multiple Signals: A Signaling Approach to Principal-Agent Relations

This study suggests a key element of the principal-agent relationship involves communication between potential principals and their agents. We suggest communications often resemble a signaling process in which potential principals indicate their interest in policy matters through multiple venues. This study models changes in the levels of rulemaking activity by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as a function of increased salience in public, congressional and executive venues.