Reviews

The “Center of the Universe”: The Geopolitics of Iran , Graham E. Fuller, Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1991.

Iran nach dem Sturz des Schahs: Die provisorische Revolutions‐regierung Bazargans , Ahmad Mahrad, Frankfurt: Campus, 1983, 396 pp.

A Persian Stronghold of Zoroastrianism , Mary Boyce, Persian Studies Series 12, repr. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1989, xv + 284 pp., 16 black‐and‐white illustrations, $39.75.

Kurdistan , photos N. Kasraian, text Z. Arshi and K. Zabihi, Ostersund, Sweden: Oriental Art Publishing, 1990, 139 pp., chiefly col. ill., $45.00.

Persian and Islamic Studies in Honour of P. W. Avery , Pembroke Papers I, Charles Melville (ed.), Cambridge, 1990, 254 pp., £16.95.

British Policy in Persia, 1918–1925 , Houshang Sabahi, London: Frank Cass, 1990, 269 pp., bibliography, index.

The History of al‐Tabari, Vol. XXIX, al‐Mansūr and al‐Mahdi , Abu Ja'far Muhammad b. Jarir al‐Tabari, trans. and annot. Hugh Kennedy, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990, 281 pp., notes, bibliography, index, $49.50 (cloth).     

ALLOCATIVE EFFICIENCY OF RURAL NEVADA WATER SYSTEMS: A HEDONIC SHADOW COST FUNCTION APPROACH*

ABSTRACT. The efficiency of the water utility firms in rural Nevada and their input optimization are examined in this study. The empirical methodology incorporates a hedonic specification of the nonminimum globally concave cost function in estimating the effect of the regulatory environment and the quality of water services on the optimum utilization of inputs. Allocative distortions are introduced through shadow prices and are specified as functions of regressors which make distortion factors firmand input-specific. The results show that 76 percent of the water utilities of rural Nevada in the sample overutilize energy relative to labor. The impact of allocative distortions on each firm's cost is also computed.