bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Working Directory of Centers Involved in Research and Applied Work on the Young Child and the Family in Developing Countries and Eastern Europe: International Union of Psychological Science 1998
Authors: Kagitçibasi Çigdem
Published: July 2002

We are pleased to introduce the Directory of Centers Involved in Research and Applied Work with the Young Child and the Family in Developing Countries and Eastern Europe. This Directory is the product of the “International Network of the Young Child and the Family”, formed within the Executive Committee of the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS). It is the outcome of a stocktaking activity of this Network, based on existing information and drawing further data from various resources.

This directory is designed to upgrade existing information on centers involved in research/applied work with the child and the family, in particular women—especially in the developing world. Building up this data base is expected to promote communications, exchange of information and collaborative work among centers in the developing countries, as well as globally.

This inventory is prepared for extensive dissemination to the national members of IUPsyS. It is hoped that the national members will disseminate this information further to all who are interested in their own countries and abroad.

Several data bases and resources were used in the preparation of this inventory. Foremost among these are the UNESCO International Directory on the Young Child and the Family Environment and Early Childhood Care and Education. The Collaboration of Dr. T.S. Saraswathi is acknowledged, particularly in providing us with the information for India and South East Asia. Inevitably there must be some mistakes and omissions in this inventory. Any feedback you can provide us to correct them would be greatly appreciated.

It is our hope that this inventory will be helpful to psychologists and others involved in research and applied work with children and families to make contacts with others with similar interests in other countries. Such extension beyond our immediate surroundings would be expected to contribute to concerted efforts to promote the well‐being of children and families in the developing world.
Spatial Competition and Location with Mergers and Product Licensing
Authors: Norman George , Pepall Lynne
Published: July 2002

This paper analyses mergers by Cournot firms producing differentiated products in a spatial market with product licensing by the merged firms. Product licensing allows the merged firms to co-ordinate their locations. If the degree of differentiation is not 'too low', a two-firm merger is more profitable for the merged firms than for the non-merged firms. The locational advantage created by the merger leads to the additional profit from the merger being an increasing function of the number of firms in the market. A two-firm merger generally increases total surplus and is therefore efficiency-enhancing. Moreover, there are circumstances in which every firm in the market wants to find a merger partner, consistent with the wave of mergers characteristic of many markets.
Status, Quality and the Other Trade-off: Towards a New Theory of Urban Residential Location
Authors: Huu Phe Hoang , Wakely Patrick
Published: July 2002

The existing models of residential location are facing difficulties in explaining new trends in urban development such as gentrification and abandonment. The mainstream approach which stresses the bid-rent formulations and the access/space trade-off seems to be at variance with the current reality of dispersal of both industry and housing in modern cities. In this paper, it is proposed that the focus on the city centre(s) and distance(s) from it (or them) should be shifted to two other categories of parameter: housing status and dwelling quality. A model of interaction between these parameters can be used not only to describe but also to predict various types of residential development in different urban contexts. The components of a new theory of residential location are proposed.
Parking Policies and Road Pricing
Authors: Calthrop Edward , Proost Stef , van Dender Kurt
Published: July 2002

There are two main sources of inefficiency in urban transport markets. First, transport prices fail to reflect the external costs of travel, notably peak-period external congestion costs. Secondly, a large percentage of drivers park for free, particularly at the workplace. Economic theory suggests, in the absence of other market distortions, that efficiency can be restored with a perfectly differentiated external cost charge in conjunction with resource-cost pricing of all parking spots. In practice, urban transport authorities can try various combinations of imperfect road-pricing systems and imperfect parking charges. One example might be the use of a single cordon charge to enter a city, together with a tax on workplace parking. In this paper, we use a numerical simulation model of an urban transport market to examine the efficiency gains from various parking policies with and without a simple cordon system. As would be expected, we show that pricing of parking and road use need to be simultaneously determined. As the level of the parking fee becomes more efficient, or as the number of free parkers is reduced, so the level of optimally determined cordon charge falls. Additionally, by introducing a cordon charge, the level of the optimally determined parking fee falls. The model results show that the second-best pricing of all parking spaces produces higher welfare gains than the use of a single-ring cordon scheme, though marginally lower than the combination of a cordon charge with resource-cost pricing of parking spots.
Dissonance in Women's Commuting? The Experience of Exurban Employed Mothers in Israel
Authors: Blumen Orna
Published: July 2002

Women's work is mainly divided between unpaid domestic labour and paid jobs, both reflecting their subordinate position. Most women experience a spatial discontinuity between these roles, which are performed in different places, namely home and workplace. Research points to the negative impact of home-work separation on the daily routine of employed women, especially in peripheral suburbs. This study explores the personal experience of commuting among Israeli exurban married mothers who are employed full time in the central city of the nearest metropolis. These characteristics are expected to reflect an especially heavy load on the lives of women, and thus to shape their personal experience. Findings show that women have developed positive attitudes to their commuting; mostly, they use the long trip for a mental shift, contemplation and relaxation. The women interviewed were well aware of the burden of their commuting, but they also acknowledged that their long journey affords them a 'pause' otherwise denied them in their daily routine. Although findings were drawn from a small number of interviewees, they indicate two dissonances: one among the women, who tended to minimise their hardship and focus on the more agreeable aspects of their trips; and one among researchers, who have failed to see that at least some women have the mental ability to shape their commuting into a positive experience. The positive attitudes of the women interviewed are rooted experientially, in sounds and rural landscape, and reflect the influence of territorial socialisation as part of local culture.
Peri-urban Development in an Era of Structural Adjustment in Africa: The City of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Authors: Briggs John , Mwamfupe Davis
Published: July 2002

Much recent work in Africa has focused on the impacts of structural adjustment on prevailing economic, social and political structures, and especially so in the urban areas. Rather less has focused on the resulting land-use changes in and around African cities. This paper focuses on recent land-use changes in the peri-urban zone of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in the context of structural adjustment programmes experienced in the 1990s. Recent land-use development in Dar es Salaam's peri-urban zone has been characterised by infill rather than further linear expansion along routeways; by densification of existing linear settlement; and by limited spatial growth to the south of the city. Much of this can be explained as a response to new economic conditions resulting from macroeconomic reform. Access has improved due to greater competition in the public transport sector and increased access to private transport. Rapid capital accumulation, based on trade liberalisation and rent-seeking activities on the part of some individuals, has resulted in investment opportunities in the peri-urban zone. However, lack of confidence in future state policies and uncertainties over land ownership have resulted in investment being made in housing stock in particular, or spread over a range of small-scale enterprises, rather than in larger-scale productive investment.
The Crisis in Housing Financing in Hungary in the 1990s
Authors: Hegedüs József , Várhegyi Éva
Published: July 2002

In the 1990s, housing finance reached a crisis point in the transforming housing sector. Loans practically disappeared as a resource for housing investments for households and were replaced by savings. Paradoxically, while the institutions of the market economy, including a competitive banking system, have been created in Hungary, in the housing finance sector, the Hungarian economy has become different from those of developed economies where 60-80 per cent of housing investments are financed from loans. By examining the processes impacting the supply and demand sides, this paper attempts to find the causes of the housing finance crisis. Besides the worsening income situation of households, two other factors have played a major role in the crisis: the decrease in the value of property and the high real interest rates of loans. The combined effect of the two factors cannot be offset by the housing subsidy system. Our conclusion is that overcoming the crisis is primarily a matter of macroeconomic changes.
Why High-technology Firms Choose to Locate in or near Metropolitan Areas
Authors: Frenkel Amnon
Published: July 2002

Various studies have provided evidence of the advantages of the ability of metropolitan areas to attract hi-tech industries, which employ advanced technology and are strongly involved in the process of innovation. This paper presents the results of an empirical study of the location choice of Israeli hi-tech industries within a metropolitan area, carried out in the Northern region of Israel (which encompasses the Haifa metropolitan area and its surrounding localities) and based on field-survey data obtained from hi-tech plants. The study investigates the effect of different factors on location choice and also identifies the direct contribution of each factor to the probability of choosing the metropolitan area as a preferred location. The implications of these findings for industrial policy are also discussed.
Malicious Siting or Unrecognised Processes? A Spatio-temporal Analysis of Environmental Conflicts in Tel-Aviv
Authors: Feitelson Eran
Published: July 2002

Environmental inequities discerned on the basis of cross-sectional analysis are often portrayed as an outcome of inconsiderate or outright malicious facility-siting. However, a discussion of the evolution of spatial proximity between noxious facilities and residential areas suggests such proximity is an outcome of more complex processes—though often unrecognised in time. By analysing the pattern of environmental conflicts in the Tel-Aviv metropolitan region and following the evolution of five of them, it is shown that many conflicts arise from encroachment of residential development upon facilities originally sited in remote areas. In the past, this has led to the exit of some of the more noxious facilities. However, this option is becoming obsolete as a result of changes in social and political arrays. Thus, the real concerns are over future siting decisions rather than past practices.
Spatial Mismatch and Costly Suburban Commutes: Can Commuting Subsidies Help?
Authors: Martin Richard W.
Published: July 2002

Proponents of the spatial mismatch hypothesis argue that job decentralisation harms low-income residents of central cities because of barriers that limit their access to suburban labour markets. Such barriers can take the form of housing discrimination, exclusionary zoning or long and difficult commutes. This paper uses an urban equilibrium model of spatial mismatch to analyse the impact of commuting subsidies on the welfare of low-income, central-city households with restricted mobility. Specifically, it seeks to determine how effective such subsidies are at reducing the welfare impact of spatial mismatch. While subsidised outward commuting is found to raise the welfare of the low-income households, the welfare gains are only a small portion of the welfare loss due to spatial mismatch.
Suburban Growth and Suburbanisation under Central Planning: The Case of Soviet Estonia
Authors: Tammaru Tiit
Published: July 2002

It may be something of a paradox, but the demise of central planning has been parallelled by a surge of work on urbanisation in socialist countries. This paper focuses on the topic of suburbanisation, taking Estonia as a case. To understand more neatly the processes at work, a conceptual distinction between the terms suburban growth, suburbanisation in a narrow (statistical) and wide (including mechanisms of population change) sense is proposed. As part of the wider definition, the following characteristics of suburbanisation in Western countries are brought out: the inner decentralisation of population within agglomerations for environmental reasons, the spread of low-density, detached housing together with blurring of borders between urban and rural areas, and the relation to people's life-course. These form a baseline for comparative research which reveals both similarities and differences in suburban population developments in Estonia.
Assessing Institutional Relations in Development Partnerships: The Land Development Corporation and the Hong Kong Government prior to 1997
Authors: Adams David , Hastings E.M.
Published: July 2002

This paper interprets and develops contemporary notions of partnership in relation to Hong Kong's Land Development Corporation. It demonstrates how such agencies are likely to become overdependent on their private-sector partners or ineffective in policy delivery, unless endowed with adequate powers and resources. In this context, it suggests that the LDC's capacity to promote urban renewal was undermined particularly by the institutional requirement to assemble redevelopment sites in multiple ownership principally through negotiation. While seeking to explain this weakness in relation to the socio-cultural context of Hong Kong, it warns that, in applying the Western experience of partnership elsewhere, full account must be taken of local circumstances and constraints.
Housing Quality: An Agenda for Research
Authors: Lawrence Roderick J.
Published: July 2002

This paper proposes that housing quality ought to be considered in terms of economic, political and ecological dimensions in addition to traditional, architectural, technical and qualitative dimensions. The relative nature of these dimensions, and hence of housing quality, varies according to the societal context in which they occur. Consequently, this paper suggests that more integrated studies of housing availability, affordability and quality in precise localities should replace the transposition of generalised concepts and normative criteria from one locality to others.
Scottish Housing in a European Perspective
Authors: McCrone Gavin
Published: July 2002

As an issue of concern, the state of housing in Scotland has been high on the political agenda for as long as anyone can remember, and certainly for all of this century. No doubt housing is always a matter of political importance in any European country. But there are aspects of the Scottish housing situation which distinguish it not only from countries in continental Europe, but within the UK as well, and have made the issue one of particular concern. The purpose of this paper is to explain some of these differences and to consider, in the light of experience in other countries, how policy might be changed.
A Debt-owing Democracy: The Political Impact of Housing Market Recession at the British General Election of 1992
Authors: Pattie Charles , Dorling Daniel , Johnston Ron
Published: July 2002

The 1992 British general election took place in the context of a severe housing recession which hit hardest in those regions from which the government usually drew much of its electoral support. The slump notwithstanding, however, the government went on to win its fourth successive election victory. The paper investigates the impact of the housing recession on the geography of the vote at the 1992 general election. Party fortunes were linked to local housing market conditions, and the failure of the housing market was a factor in reducing support for the government. Negative equity is identified as a particularly important problem in this regard.
Optimal Local Sales Tax
Authors: Aisha Ghaus A.F.
Published: July 2002

The paper derives the consequences of a local sales tax within the framework of a spatial, general equilibrium model of an 'open' city. The model is initially set up for the residential economy only, with an exogenously given wage rate. Results of the simulations reveal that there exists a well-defined sales tax Laffer curve and an optimal revenue-maximising tax rate. Incorporation of the production side of the economy, with wage rate adjustment following the imposition of tax, strengthens the case for a higher sales taxation. The optimal sales tax rate appears to be sensitive to the exogenously given property tax rate, housing preferences, housing technologies and the elasticity of labour demand with respect to the wage rate.
Private Rental Housing: The Canadian Experience
Authors: Miron John R.
Published: July 2002

Almost three persons in ten in Canada currently rent their accommodation in the private sector: whether in the conventional or non-conventional rental stock. Over the past half-century, there have also been major improvements in financing and in the liquidity of the rental stock—widely thought to be important in attracting investment in rental housing—and all levels of Canadian government have experimented with a broad range of housing subsidies and initiatives. In this paper, outcomes in private markets for rental housing are seen as a consequence of a shift in demand or supply that may itself reflect a policy initiative. This paper examines two markets: a market for rental housing stock (whose outcomes include property prices, new construction, renovation, demolitions, conversions and other alterations) and a market for rental accommodation (whose outcomes include rents, vacancy rates, usage and the assignment of households to dwellings). The paper reviews basic data on market outcomes in Canada since the Second World War. It then discusses important shifts in the demand for, and supply of, rental accommodation and describes major policy initiatives that may have affected these.
Excess Commuting in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area: Measurement and Policy Simulations
Authors: Merriman David , Ohkawara Toru , Suzuki Tsutomu
Published: July 2002

In this paper data from the 1985 Japanese Population Census are used to measure 'excess' commuting among 211 origin and destination points in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. Using an approach developed by Hamilton, it is found that about 90 per cent of commuting time in Tokyo is excess. Using White's method only about 15 per cent of commuting time is excess. Sensitivity analyses reveal that the results are not very sensitive to the major assumptions of the analyses. The findings are compared and contrasted with Small and Song's results for the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Several simulations are used to examine the effect of decentralisation of employment on commuting behaviour and it is found that commuting time could be significantly reduced by decentralising jobs or centralising workers.
London and Property Markets: A Long-term View
Authors: Ball Michael
Published: July 2002

This paper examines the relationship between investment in built structures, economic growth and economic cycles in the UK from the middle of the 19th century and relates its findings to the development of London. A rising price of built structures relative to investment in equipment has existed throughout virtually all of the time-period. This, it is argued, has encouraged suburbanisation. In addition, a long-term rise in demand for housing is putting additional pressure on living space in the city. London has benefited however from the high level of building investment in modern economies, particularly in attracting key building-intensive activities, like financial services. Long-phases of building activity are shown in the data and they are argued to have a destabilising effect on London's economic growth. These relationships between the relative price of investment goods, long phases of higher and lower activity in their provision and the London economy, reinforce the need for a London-wide planning authority; and, if the social returns of building investment are greater than the private returns, as they probably are, for public infrastructure expenditure and for subsidies for new building investment in the city.
Labour Mobility and the Changing Housing Market
Authors: Doogan Kevin
Published: July 2002

Labour mobility as a concept is not as straightforward as it first appears and has different meanings in different contexts. Mobility as a policy concern arose in Britain in the 1980s and assumed a particular form. It was often confined to a discussion of geographical movement between labour markets and the constraints imposed on potential job-seekers by their tenure position. Mobility can indeed be expressed in this way, but this captures only one aspect of job movement. At other times there are concerns with industrial and occupational mobility and notions such as job changing, labour turnover and flows also feature in employment policy discussions. This article raises the question as to whether mobility propensity is an attribute of the individual or the post that the employee might have or seek. The analysis offered here suggests the latter and accordingly an alternative explanation of labour and housing market interactions is provided. The article is written in five parts. It begins by critically assessing the neoclassical contribution to the discussion, followed by a brief review of the mobility debates over the last 50 years. It goes on to examine the involvement of employers in the housing market and studies the interaction of housing and labour markets in different phases of the business cycle. In conclusion, it is suggested that labour mobility is a structured opportunity determined by the level of employer assistance, the transferability of skills and qualifications, and the development of internal labour markets.
Analysis of Access to Cars from the 1991 UK Census Samples of Anonymised Records: A Case Study of the Elderly Population of Sheffield
Authors: Gardiner Chris , Hill Rosalie
Published: July 2002

This study demonstrates how analysis of new British Census data (the Samples of Anonymised Records) may enhance other data sets for transport and planning purposes. The study uses logistic regression with categorical and dichotomous socio-economic independent variables to investigate access to cars amongst the elderly population in Sheffield. The method can be applied to any UK metropolitan or county area. The conclusions have implications for policies on sustainable transport and social integration.
Inner-city Innovator: The Non-profit Community Development Corporation
Authors: Robinson Tony
Published: July 2002

This paper examines the potential and the limitations associated with the rise of the community development corporation (CDC) as a vital component of inner-city development politics. Grass-roots mobilisation in impoverished American neighbourhoods has sometimes resulted in the deconstruction of the high-rise 'growth machine' in those neighbourhoods and in the defence of 'home turf' against redevelopment and gentrification. Successful turf defence, however, has rarely been followed by an alternative, community-sensitive means of inner-city development. Recently, this dilemma has been addressed by the rise of an innovative institution capable of connecting community, capital and government in the pursuit of sensitive neighbourhood regeneration: the non-profit CDC. In some inner-city neighbourhoods, CDCs have helped to build an alternative social production process and have advanced elements of a new, progressive development regime.
Do Municipal Residency Laws Affect Labour Market Outcomes?
Authors: O'Brien Kevin M.
Published: July 2002

Studies investigating the economic effects of residency laws on municipal labour markets have not obtained consistent results. Residency laws either had no effect; decreased compensation for police and firefighters but had no effect on employment; or increased employment for police but had no effect on compensation. This study re-examines the effects of residency laws using newer data, relatively large samples and cities with a wide range of populations and data for both protective services. It is found that residency laws do not affect compensation and employment for either police or firefighters. Possible explanations for the results are non-compliance with the laws or variations in who is affected by the laws.
Fragmentation and Centralisation in the Governance of London: Influencing the Urban Policy and Planning Agenda
Authors: Newman Peter , Thornley Andy
Published: July 2002

The government of London has fragmented. Numerous quangos have taken over urban policy and planning roles. Recently further bodies have arisen in response to the government's urban expenditure competitions. This fragmentation has been accompanied by increasing centralisation, achieved through institutional reforms, central government appointments and financial controls. Government also encouraged a considerable role for the private sector. Whilst the boroughs are included in decision-making, primary objectives are set by the private sector and are concerned with London'sworld-city role. Through a unique 'partnership' with the public and private sectors, central government claims a mandate for its policies. The future of the governance of London is contested but central government is likely to continue playing a strong role.
The Political Economy of the Privatisation of the Land Market in Shanghai
Authors: Hin Li Ling
Published: July 2002

This paper examines a land market in which the authority in China has a monopolistic power in the granting of the use rights of land to developers/investors for real estate development purposes. By granting land in private treaty mode rather than open market competition to the developers/investors, the Chinese authority is actually distorting the land prices achieved in the emerging market which will subsequently lead to a distortion of normal land price behaviour. Despite the fact that the authority might have been underpricing land in Shanghai, they continue to sell land through the same private treaty mechanism. One possible explanation for this is the deeply rooted ideology of the concept of' cost as value', while another is the possible political complications involved in the property rights of various invisible interests in land.
Restructuring of Housing and Ethnic Segregation: Recent Developments in Berlin
Authors: Kemper Franz-Josef
Published: July 2002

In Germany, and particularly in Berlin, the fall of the Wall in 1989 and the years following reunification were accompanied by a large influx of immigrants. These 'new' migrants in Berlin are added to the long-resident guestworker population in the western part of the city. This paper investigates the housing situation of the increasing population of foreigners before and after unification as well as the changing segregation of ethnic minorities. After a comparison of the different housing systems in East and West Berlin and their consequences for ethnic segregation in the 1980s, the main elements of the housing transformation since 1990 are identified and related to the changing residential patterns of foreigners. The patterns of four selected nationalities with divergent migration motives are analysed in more detail. The paper draws attention to differences between East and West Berlin as well as to recent convergences between the two parts of the city.
Ethnic Residential Patterns in Dutch Cities: Backgrounds, Shifts and Consequences
Authors: van Kempen Ronald , van Weesep Jan
Published: July 2002

This article describes recent trends in the residential patterns of ethnic minorities, specifically Turks and Moroccans, in Dutch cities. In order to evaluate the patterns and their dynamics, some general observations about segregation are included. The patterns in the big cities are compared to those observed elsewhere in the country and in other European cities. This brief comparison is followed by a discussion of how the observed spatial patterns affect the social life of the groups in question. The article concludes with a list of factors that are likely to influence the evolution of ethnic residential patterns in the Netherlands in the near future. There seem to be ever fewer reasons to believe that the trend towards increasing segregation in Dutch cities can be reversed.
Transaction Costs of Allocating Increased Land Value Under Public Leasehold Systems: Hong Kong
Authors: Hong Yu-Hung
Published: July 2002

Using Hong Kong as a case study, the paper explores the viability of four land-value-capture mechanisms available under public leasehold systems: initial land auctioning; contract modification; lease renewal; and, the collection of land rent. It is found that these mechanisms do not work equally well; instead, their viability depends largely on the context within which the contracting parties practise land leasing. By applying a modified transaction-costs framework to the case, it is shown that the transaction costs of allocating the land value at the initial land auction are the lowest among the four mechanisms. This explains why the Hong Kong government relies on public land auctions to capture land value. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of this finding for Hong Kong and for countries where officials are experimenting with public leasehold systems.
Market-place Trading and the Transformation of Retail Space in the Expanding Latin American City
Authors: Bromley Rosemary D. F.
Published: July 2002

The global spread of the supermarket and the planned shopping centre is transforming retail space in the Latin American city. Nevertheless, market-place trading has continued to flourish in most cities and is itself a key element of retail change. A case study of Quito shows how new periodic markets have been established and that, as demand density grows, these are consolidated into daily markets. Much of the dynamism in market-place trading is associated with government intervention, with principal policies being the creation of markets in poorly served urban areas and a reduction in the concentration of market-place trading in the historic centre. Speculations about competition and complementarity between supermarket and market underline the need for further research and an understanding of the consumption patterns which support the continued heterogeneity of retail forms in the Latin American city.
Was There a Social Transformation of Urban Neighbourhoods in the 1980s? A Decade of Worsening Social Conditions in Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Authors: Chow Julian , Coulton Claudia
Published: July 2002

One central thesis in recent urban poverty research, that social context has further disadvantaged poor residents of central-city neighbourhoods, has not been tested empirically. This analysis examines the strength of relationships among adverse social conditions in neighbourhoods in one North American industrial city. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, the hypothesis that negative social conditions have become increasingly intertwined in the 1980s was supported. Neighbourhoods could be distinguished along several important dimensions in the early 1980s. At the end of the decade, a single dimension of interconnected adverse conditions predominates. While the explanation for these trends is structural, the conditions themselves must be addressed if efforts to revitalise neighbourhoods and prevent the spread of poverty are to succeed.
Using Contingent Valuation to Estimate a Neighbourhood's Willingness to Pay to Preserve Undeveloped Urban Land
Authors: Breffle William S. , Morey Edward R. , Lodder Tymon S.
Published: July 2002

Contingent valuation (CV) is used to estimate a neighbourhood's willingness to pay (WTP) to preserve a 5.5-acre parcel of undeveloped land in Boulder, Colorado, that provides views, open space and wildlife habitat. Households were surveyed to determine bounds on their WTP for preservation. An interval model is developed to estimate sample WTP as a function of distance, income and other characteristics. The model accommodates individuals who might be made better off by development and addresses the accumulation of WTP responses at zero. Weighted sample WTP estimates are aggregated to obtain the neighbourhood's WTP. This application demonstrates that contingent valuation is a flexible policy tool for land managers and community groups wanting to estimate WTP to preserve undeveloped urban land.
The Private Provision of Urban Infrastructure: Financial Intermediation through Long-term Contracts
Authors: Clark Gordon L. , Evans John
Published: July 2002

This paper deals with pension fund investment in urban infrastructure projects. It is suggested that the potential returns (and risks) with such projects are significantly greater than comparable fixed-income products though they have long gestation periods like gilt-edged securities. Our argument begins with unique evidence collected from an industry-sponsored research study of Australian infrastructure investment performance. Also analysed in a formal manner are the steps taken in evaluating urban infrastructure projects, ranging from roads and bridges through to hospitals and urban development. It is shown that, notwithstanding the uncertainty endemic to these kinds of project, a commonly desired form of financial intermediation is a formal contract binding the parties to one another over the long term (as much as 20 years or more). While no doubt valuable for many reasons, matching in effect the formal structure of some types of bond, it is suggested that these institutional structures can be more problematic than often appreciated once the world of short-term discrete contracts is left behind. At issue here is the management of contractual performance given that investment performance is a function of both the level of management resources (relative to capital investment) and the expertise of those who operate such facilities over the long term.
Preference for Product Variety and City Size
Authors: Ogawa Hikaru
Published: July 2002

In this paper, we examine the effect on city size of household preference for product variety. There are many theoretical analyses that have attempted to clarify the determinants of city size in the urban literature. Comparative static analyses are used to find out what happens to the equilibrium city size if the exogenous variables change by a small amount. Using the model of monopolistic competition, we provide a simple model of product variety to show that the equilibrium city size depends on the degree of household preference for product variety. The main result is that the strong preference for product variety promotes the formation of a large city.
The Scope for Poverty Alleviation among Elderly Home-owners in the United States through Reverse Mortgages
Authors: Kutty Nandinee K.
Published: July 2002

This paper investigates the scope for alleviating poverty among elderly home-owners in the US by means of reverse mortgages. A reverse mortgage is a loan secured against the home equity owned by the borrower. This loan does not require monthly repayment and the elderly borrower is allowed to use the home as a principal residence for as long as she wishes. We compute monthly payments that can be obtained by elderly home-owners under a reverse mortgage by simulating the tenure plan of the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) reverse mortgage product which is sponsored by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. This study utilises data from the National File of the American Housing Survey of 1991. We estimate that 621 820 elderly home-owners in poverty could be raised above the poverty line if they obtained a reverse mortgage under the HECM tenure plan. These households constitute 29 per cent of all poor elderly home-owners. There appears to be considerable scope for alleviating poverty among elderly home-owners through reverse mortgages. We estimate that the poverty rate of elderly households in occupied units (both renters and owners) can be reduced by three percentage points (from 17 per cent to 14 per cent) by means of reverse mortgages. It is estimated that if home-owners in poverty had obtained reverse mortgages in 1991, the poverty rate for all elderly persons that year, 12.4 per cent, would have reduced by 2.4 percentage points to 10 per cent.
Property Market Efficiency: An Institutional Economics Perspective
Authors: Keogh Geoffrey , D'Arcy Eamonn
Published: July 2002

This paper reassesses the debate around property market efficiency and introduces an institutional perspective. It considers property market efficiency in terms of the specific characteristics of property itself and the processes through which property is used and traded. It argues that the institutional dimension fundamentally alters the concept of efficiency and leads to a partial and contingent judgement on achieved efficiency. Instead of seeking a judgement on whether the 'property market' as an entity is efficient, the institutional approach allows the possibility that 'property market process' may be efficient for some market participants but not for others. It also introduces a time dimension, suggesting the need to assess the adaptability of property market process as economic and social conditions change.
Costs of Infrastructure Deficiencies for Manufacturing in Nigerian, Indonesian and Thai Cities
Authors: Sik Lee Kyu , Anas Alex , Oh Gi-Taik
Published: July 2002

This paper is a sequel to an earlier paper on Nigeria published in this journal. Using the fresh results obtained from the sample survey of manufacturing establishments conducted in Indonesia and Thailand (a sample of 290 and 300 establishments, respectively), the authors contrast and compare the findings from these new data with those of an earlier study on Nigeria. The main elements of comparisons include: the extent and incidence of public infrastructure deficiencies; the extent of manufacturers' private provision responses to the deficiencies; the capital shares of various private infrastructure investments including electric power, water, telecommunications, transport and waste disposal; and, costs of producing their own electricity and water. The extent of public infrastructure deficiencies and private provisions varies across the countries and firm sizes. For example, 92 per cent of the Nigerian firms had their own generators to supplement the inadequate public supply, while the figure was 66 per cent in Indonesia and only 6 per cent in Thailand. However, the quality of electric power in Thailand was not very different from that of Indonesia. The total share of capital investment in private infrastructure was 16 per cent of the total capital in the case of the Indonesian firms which is comparable with 14 per cent in the case of the Nigerian firms, but is twice that of the Thai firms. The private costs of infrastructure deficiencies are substantial and the burdens are much greater for small firms than large firms, which has a negative implication for the birth and growth of firms, hence employment and income generation, in cities in developing countries.
Housing Vacancy and Rental Adjustment: Evidence from Hong Kong
Authors: Tse Raymond Y. C. , MacGregor Bryan D.
Published: July 2002

The traditional rental adjustment equation is flawed in that the equilibrium paths for the adjustment of rents and vacancy rates cannot hold simultaneously over time. This paper suggests a two-equation model of rental adjustments based on adaptive expectations rather than the single-equation model presented in the traditional literature, and provides empirical tests. Annual data from the housing market in Hong Kong during the 1980-96 period are consistent with the adjustment equation. The results also show that the rate of change of real rents is neutral with respect to inflation.
Social Transformations in the Global City: Singapore
Authors: Baum Scott
Published: July 2002

In recent years, there has been increased interest in testing the thesis that global city emergence is accompanied by increases in social polarisation. Given the growing importance of the Asia-Pacific region in the global economy, this paper makes a timely contribution to the social polarisation debate by discussing the social transformations occurring with reference to Singapore. It is suggested that within Singapore, rather than the development of a polarised structure, there is a trend towards a professionalised occupation structure and a growing middle-upper income-group.
Securitisation and Finance for Social Housing in Finland
Authors: Tulla Sirpa
Published: July 2002

Although state housing loans (ARAVA loans) are separate from the state budget in Finland, the Housing Fund, which grants the loans, has not been immune to changes in public finances. Because of the severe economic recession of the 1990s and the approching third stage of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), it was necessary to consider new ways of raising funds for the ARAVA housing loan programme. In recent years, funds have been raised through securitisation, and subsidised housing production has been maintained at a reasonable level while non-subsidised production has become decreased.
Social Housing Finance in Sweden
Authors: Turner Bengt
Published: July 2002

Sweden historically had a highly subsidised housing construction and rehabilitation. Subsidies were mainly channelled through an interest subsidy system, which reduced initial capital expenditures. A boom in the housing market in the late 1980s turned into a 'bust' in the early 1990s. This was due to a combination of factors: a lower inflation rate, a deep economic recession and reduced interest subsidies in combination with a tax reform. The effect was to create a large price fall, vacancies, a low construction rate and large defaults. The bank crisis was counteracted by a tighter credit market, with a more thorough screening of borrowers. Municipal housing companies lost their protected position on the credit market in the early 1990s. Many of the companies were severely hurt by an increasing number of vacancies, and had an insufficient safeguard in terms of a low equity. It is thus anticipated that municipal housing companies will be an important target for bank screening in the future, and it is anticipated that banks will develop more sophisticated risk-management techniques in the housing market, which also will include municipal housing.
The Mismatch Argument: The Construction of a Housing Orthodoxy in Australia
Authors: Batten David C.
Published: July 2002

Australia's housing policy discourse contains many orthodoxies. While orthodoxies are never totally accepted within a discourse, they are the dominant notions within them and as such carry significant symbolic authority. One orthodoxy that has particular authority in Australia is the notion that there is a 'mismatch' in the housing system between the available stock and the size of households to the extent that there is significant underutilisation and underoccupancy of housing. The mismatch argument's power as orthodoxy is such that the idea is assumed in much housing policy discussion. Criticism of the mismatch orthodoxy can take many approaches, such as empirical, conceptual and discursive. The discursive critique focuses not on the empirical relationship between households and dwellings, but on the statements about that relationship. The resulting analysis shows how the mismatch orthodoxy arose in Australia and its effects on housing discourse. This paper examines the construction of the mismatch orthodoxy, from its first uses in the early 1970s to its entrenchment in national and state housing policy research in the early 1990s. It shows how the structures of the discourse construct the orthodoxy, despite empirical and conceptual criticisms of it. Of particular importance is the effect the orthodoxy has on people deemed to be underutilising their dwellings, and on how the orthodoxy affects policy interpretations, such as occupancy standards.
Managing the 'Underclass': Interpreting the Moral Discourse of Housing Management
Authors: Haworth Anna , Manzi Tony
Published: July 2002

This paper examines contemporary housing management practice by attention to a changing discourse within social policy, emphasising duties over rights. Current policy initiatives are based upon concerns about the collapse of foundational assumptions and a perceived decline in moral responsibility. This concern is most commonly articulated in debates about the existence of an urban underclass, linked to anti-social behaviour on housing estates. The paper argues that a communitarian outlook has exerted a significant impact on contemporary initiatives incorporating a strongly judgmental bias. As a consequence, housing practice discriminates between behaviour in social housing and privately owned property. Drawing upon post-liberal perspectives, the conclusion suggests that the predominance of a deontological discourse has resulted in policies of social control of residents.
Discourses of Citizenship in Transition: Scale, Politics and Urban Renewal
Authors: Smith Fiona M.
Published: July 2002

Geographical understandings of citizenship and insights from studies of post-communist transitions inform an examination of discourses and processes of urban change in the city of Leipzig, eastern Germany. Dominant public discourses shaped by citizens and elites include demands for `careful urban renewal' and 'citizen participation', rejections of party-politics in local action and collective aims of working 'for the good of the city'. All come under pressure from processes of economic liberalisation. Discourses operate through and work to redefine the positions of 'experts', 'citizens' and 'residents' in the scales of the 'city' and the 'local' and produce complex and contested relations of power and control in specific material situations where space, place and scale are more than passive containers of action.