Cost‐benefit appraisal of the industrial areas programme in Greece: Aims,methodologies and assumptions

The Industrial Areas Programme in Greece aims to promote and propagate industrial activity in targeted regions. The policy mainly provides for the acquisition of industrial land and the development of the public infrastructure and has been operational since 1968. The objectives of this research are to evaluate the cost‐effectiveness of this policy in terms of the stated aims. Cost‐benefit methods are used to compare the likely outcomes of the policy in the light of the resources deployed. The research illustrates the variety in performance levels that individual projects achieve but concludes overall that the programme has been more than worthwhile. This paper deals with the objectives of the study and how they are to be achieved.     

Book reviews

P. L. Thomas (tr.). Hikayat Panglima Nikosa: The story of Panglima Nikosa, with an introduction and notes by R. H. W. Reece and P. L. Thomas. v, 45, 29 pp. Sarawak: Persatuan Kesusaster‐an Sarawak, [^C1983].

Russell Jones (ed. and tr.). Hikayat Sultan Ibrahim: the short version of the Malay text. [v], 78 pp. Dordrecht: Foris Publications, 1983. (Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal‐, Land‐ en Volkenkunde. Bibliotheca Indonesica, 24.) Guilders 20.     

Demand in the Spatial Economy: II Homo Stochasticus

Probabilistic preferences and choices and their connections to trip making and to distance-related demand are discussed. They are seen to aid aggregation. Risk aversion in retail shopping behavior and entropy maximizing as rational random behavior are examined. Elasticity of substitution is presented in terms of the covariance matrix. A Markovian phrasing and potential theory allow an analogy with deterministic choice: various applications of potential operators are outlined. Changes in utilities can only be modeled stochastically and some mechanisms are detailed. Price changes are random walked in time and space as a diffusion process. A fairly coherent theory of spatial demand emerges     

The changing nature of GIS and the provision of formal GIS education in the UK: a case study

The arrival of the term Geographical Information System (GIS) in the 1960s soon created a demand for training and education in the use of this specialist hardware and software. Initially the main focus was on training people to use GIS, formal named degree programmes leading to postgraduate and undergraduate qualifications arrived later. This paper explores the changing landscape of U.K. degree level GIS education drawing on contemporary information from Higher Education Institution websites and a case study of the first single honours degree in GIS in Europe. The paper identifies a rise and fall in the number of named undergraduate “GIS” degrees since the late 1980s sandwiched between the continuation and development of postgraduate qualifications. In parallel with this trend the teaching and learning of GIS skills has emerged as a core component of undergraduate degree programmes with “Geography” in their title and in national school and degree level benchmarking statements for the discipline.