bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Production Politics and Flexible Manufacturing in the South Wales Motor Components Sector
Authors: RUTHERFORD TOD 
Published: July 2006

ABSTRACT:This paper focuses on restructuring in eleven first‐tier suppliers in the South Wales motor components sector and examines the influence of production politics, including plant‐local labor market relations, on the implementation of flexible manufacaturing during the 1980s. Although industrial geographers have recognized the role of recruitment and training in the restructuring of the spatial division of labor they have tended to focus primarily on the role of new firms operating at “green field” sites and view this process as functional to the needs of capital. However, the argument of this paper will be that while new forms of work organization are influenced by the technical and commercial possibilities of new technology and markets, the form of work organization cannot simply be “read off” from the macro‐economic level, but will be partially determined by existing spatiallyuneven social relations of production.
Flexibility and Adjustment: The Hong Kong Watch Industry and Global Change
Authors: GLASMEIER AMY K. 
Published: July 2006

ABSTRACT:A case study of the Hong Kong watch industry demonstrates the adaptive flexibility of labor‐intensive industrial clusters. The study describes the evolution of industry in Hong Kong, and highlights the unique attributes of the country's economic history which have influenced the structure of production systems in the country. Focusing on the role of global competition, the case study identifies the constraints posed by a labor‐intensive flexible production system in the face of continuous technological change in the industry.
Fluctuations and Downturns in a “Company Town”
Authors: RUSHEN STEVEN F. 
Published: July 2006

ABSTRACT A semi‐structural VAR time‐series model was used to examine movements in Flint Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) employment levels and determine how area employment was affected by movements in different sectors of the U.S. economy. Flint was chosen because in 1958 over 50 percent of the area's population was employed by the transportation industry, the majority in automobile production, and therefore Flint should be considered as a company town prototype for this modeling technique. Due to the dependency of this area's employment base on the automotive industry and the highly volatile nature of area employment levels, the Choleski decomposition was used instead of the structural Bernanke method.It was found that the effects of movements in the automotive industry were a major impact on aggregate area employment as well as on virtually all manufacturing sectors. These results are more robust than those for the Detroit Metropolitan Statistical Area (PSA)1. This is due primarily to Flint's greater degree of area dependency on the automotive‐industry.
Institutions and the Market for Annexable Land
Authors: LINER GAINES H. , MCGREGOR ROB ROY 
Published: July 2006

ABSTRACTThe annexation activity of municipalities is studied in a market framework. A sample of 659 municipalities of 25,000 or more population is used to analyze the effects of municipal government structure and annexation statutes on municipal government behavior. Both annexation laws and types of municipal governments are found to be significant determinants of the level of municipal annexation activity. Since some studies indicate that annexation activity affects municipal efficiency, these results have policy implications for state legislators who control the institutions under which municipalities operate.
U.S. Economic Growth vs. Environmental Conditions
Authors: GOETZ STEPHAN J. , READY RICHARD C. , STONE BRAD 
Published: July 2006

ABSTRACTA widely‐held belief is that stricter environmental regulations stifle economic growth. To determine empirically the effect of environmental conditions and policies on state‐level per capita income growth, a Barro‐type economic growth model was estimated for the years 1982 to 1991, which correspond to two consecutive troughs in the business cycle. States with better environmental conditions had significantly higher income growth rates during this period. At the same time, stricter environmental policies did not significantly depress income growth. Data used include recently developed, consistent measures of environmental policy and quality for individual states, as well as data from the 1980 U.S. Census and Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Personal and Location‐Specific Characteristics and Elderly Interstate Migration
Authors: CLARK DAVID E. , KNAPP THOMAS A. , WHITE NANCY E. 
Published: July 2006

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of locational and individual characteristics upon interstate retiree migration, particularly in state‐level public policy variables. Data regarding the characteristics of individual movers are drawn from the 1990 US. Census of Population and Housing 5% Public Use Microdata Sample. The household data are merged with location‐specific attributes including both natural amenities and local fiscal variables. Three specifications of the model are estimated. The “push” model analyzes the impact of origin characteristics upon migration between states, while the “pull” model demonstrates the influence of destination characteristics upon interstate migration. The final specification is the “difference” model, which measures the actual changes in site characteristics experienced by migrants in their location decisions. The results indicate that both personal and locational characteristics are important factors determining the decision of elderly migrants to change their state of residence. While there is some limited support for the push and pull specifications, the difference model is found to provide the best overall fit.
Distributional Impacts of the‘Free Zone’Component of Structural Adjustment: The Jamaican Experience
Authors: KLAK THOMAS 
Published: July 2006

ABSTRACTOur understanding of the socio‐economic and geographical impacts of structural adjustment has not kept pace with the transformations, and this paper responds to this problem. Faced with massive foreign debt and a collapse of traditional exports, governments throughout the developing world have agreed to World Bank‐ and International Monetary Fund (IMF)‐prescribed structural adjustment and to its component industrial free zones. The zones are designed to attract foreign manufacturers to produce for export, and thereby generate hard currency for governments and jobs for young women. Jamaica, which has experienced a greater foreign debt burden and more structural adjustment agreements than virtually any other third world country, provides a case study of free zone policy. The research employs a political economy approach (Barnes 1993, whereby conventional wisdom that free zones contribute positively to Third World development is initially scrutinized. Free zones are examined with respect to the historical, social, and spatial contexts in which they are imbedded, and social groups affected by free zones are disaggregated by class and gender to expose power relationships and differential impacts. Most evidence is drawn from internal Jamaican government records and interviews with public and private managers involved with the free zones. The findings indicate that the costs and benefits of free zone promotion are distributed very unevenly with respect to class, gender and location.
Is There a Trade and Defense Perimeter? The Regional Impacts of Trade and Defense Spending in the United States, 1978‐1986
Authors: NOPONEN HELZI , MARKUSEN ANN , DRIESSEN KARL , SHAO YANG 
Published: July 2006

ABSTRACTUsing an expanded shift share technique to impute international trade‐related industrial job change, the extent to which structural changes in trade and defense spending appear to explain state economic performance differentials is explored. The findings show there is limited support for the “trade perimeter” argument, but strong support for the hypothesized relationship between military procurement spending and state trade performance. To the extent that defense commitments, especially to private sector procurement and R & D, have operated as an informal industrial policy, particularly by guaranteeing strong domestic sales, they have enabled a significant number of states peripheral to the traditional industrial heartland to build a strong international trade posture. The conclusion offers observations on the economic development implications of these findings.
Culture in the Rise of Tiger Economies: Scottish Expatriates in Dublin and the ‘Creative Class’ Thesis
Authors: BOYLE MARK 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis article evaluates the contributions which Richard Florida's seminal ‘creative class’ thesis might make to ongoing efforts to re‐inscribe ‘culture’ back into political economy explanations of the rise of Tiger economies. It reflects upon the value of reconsidering both the role of skilled migrants in Tiger states and the factors which attract skilled migrants to these economies in the first instance. Based upon analyses of a series of focus groups conducted with Scottish expatriates currently working in Dublin, the article specifically attempts to gauge how far the creative class thesis can be stretched to account for the locational preferences of talented migrants. Whilst Florida's work undoubtedly sheds light on aspects of expatriate existence which might not otherwise have been obvious, its ability to account for the relationships which have existed between technology, talent and tolerance in the Celtic Tiger must be questioned. Moreover, if political economy and Floridian readings are to do more than simply inform one another, there will be a need to establish more clearly the complex ways in which developmental states intersect with skill flows and cosmopolitan cultural agendas.
Message in a Metro: Building Urban Rail Infrastructure and Image in Delhi, India
Authors: SIEMIATYCKI MATTI 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe world over, infrastructure mega projects have become more prevalent, even as evidence suggests that such projects often experience significant cost overruns while failing to fully deliver on their projected benefits. In this light, this article will argue that continued support for infrastructure mega projects stems from the way that such projects are presented to the public. Using the case of the development of a metro railway in Delhi, India, it shows that galvanizing public support and attracting patrons to a public transit system stems from creating an all‐round positive image that combines tangible variables with an intangible set of symbolic meanings. Of course, image is only an impression, and does not necessarily reflect reality. In this light, the final section of this article examines the broad physical and societal implications of the metro development in Delhi, and uncovers the driving forces behind the project. The article concludes that, in spite of the cultivation of a positive image, the specific metro form that was developed in Delhi to satisfy each of the special interest groups involved in its production might be specifically one that fails to suit the transportation needs of the city.
Planning à la Carte: The Location Patterns of Gated Communities around Buenos Aires in a Decentralized Planning Context
Authors: LIBERTUN DE DUREN NORA 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe spectacular growth of gated communities around Latin America’s largest cities has been widely noted. In Buenos Aires, after the upgrade of the northern highway in the 1990s, the number of gated communities along the road more than tripled, reaching 500 by the year 2001. Yet, the geographic distribution of these communities was uneven, with the majority concentrated in municipalities with the highest percentage of poor households. Why, given similar land prices, land availability, access to infrastructure and distance to the city’s core, did developers build gated communities in the poorest municipalities? This article argues that the decentralization of planning controls contributed to these patterns of distribution. While wealthier municipalities used this prerogative to enforce tighter controls on land use, the less affluent ones relied on their capacity to modify planning codes to lure real estate developers. Unlike well‐serviced municipalities, who perceived the gated communities’ privatization of services as a potential danger to their fiscal tax base, the municipalities that lacked urban services in most of their territory saw gated communities as a fast and inexpensive way of increasing local economic activities in less productive lands. As a consequence, after decentralization of planning capacities, the development of gated communities clustered in less affluent municipalities, hence deepening the social polarization in these jurisdictions.
Corporate Governance and Asset Sales: The Effect of Internal and External Control Mechanisms
Authors: Hanson Robert C. , Song Moon H. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractWe investigate firms that sell assets to determine whether corporate governance mechanisms are effective at controlling agency problems. Our evidence shows that these firms have lower managerial ownership and are more likely to make unrelated acquisitions, suggesting weak internal controls. Analysis of insider trading activity shows that, on average, net buying increases before the asset sale and shareholders benefit more when this occurs. Results suggest that how managers reach a given level of ownership provides more information about incentive alignment than just the level of ownership. Our results also highlight the dynamic nature of corporate restructuring as firms acquire and then sell assets.
Effect of Governance Characteristics on the State of the Firm after an Initial Public Offering
Authors: Howton Shelly W. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractI examine firm characteristics available to investors at a firm's initial public offering date to determine whether they predict the firm's survival, acquisition, or failure. Firms survive more often than they are acquired when they are venture‐backed, the chief executive officer is the original founder, and an outside blockholder is present. The presence of an outside director does not increase the probability of survival. Firms that are more likely to survive than fail include large firms and those with longer board tenure.
Institutional Ownership and Return Reversals Following Short‐Term Return Consistency
Authors: Watkins Boyce D. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractSecurities with consistently strong positive (negative) returns during the previous two weeks have future returns that are higher (lower) than those that do not. The results hold for various robustness checks, including those involving firm size, share turnover, past return levels, and bid‐ask bounce. The returns to short horizon consistency trading strategies are reliable through time and are both economically and statistically significant. There is also some evidence that longer periods of consistency lead to greater risk‐adjusted profits. Most surprising is that this effect holds only for those firms with high institutional ownership.
P Wave Dispersion Predicts Recurrence of Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation in Patients with Atrioventricular Nodal Reentrant Tachycardia Treated with Radiofrequency Catheter Ablation
Authors: Amasyali Basri , Kose Sedat , Aytemir Kudret , Kilic Ayhan , Turhan Hasan , Celik Turgay , Kursaklioglu Hurkan , Iyisoy Atila , Ozturk Cengiz , Isik Ersoy 
Published: July 2006

Background: Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF) recurs in up to one‐third of patients with atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia (AVNRT) treated with slow pathway ablation. Therefore, identification of patients at risk for recurrence of AF after slow pathway ablation is important because of the necessity for additional therapies. The purpose of this study was to determine whether successful slow pathway ablation influences P wave parameters and whether these parameters predict the recurrence of paroxysmal AF in patients with both AVNRT and paroxysmal AF after ablation. Methods: Thirty‐six patients with AVNRT and documented paroxysmal AF (Group 1) were compared to 36 age‐matched controls with AVNRT only (Group 2). P wave durations and P dispersion were measured before and after ablation. Results: No significant differences were observed between P wave parameters observed before and after ablation. Maximum P wave durations (Pmax) and P dispersion (Pdisp) were significantly higher in Group 1 than in Group 2 (P < 0.001 for both) whereas minimum P wave durations did not differ between groups, both before and after ablation. Ten patients (28%) in Group‐1 had recurrence of AF during a mean follow‐up of 34 ± 11 months. Univariate predictors of AF recurrence were Pdisp ≥35.5 ms (P < 0.010), left atrial diameter >40 mm (P < 0.010), mitral or aortic calcification (P < 0.010), Pmax ≥112 ms (P < 0.050), valvular heart disease (P < 0.050), and atrial vulnerability (induction of AF lasting >30 second) after ablation (P < 0.050). However, only Pdisp ≥35.5 ms (P < 0.050) and left atrial diameter >40 mm (P < 0.010) were independent predictors of AF recurrences. Conclusion: This study suggests that P wave dispersion could identify patients with AVNRT susceptible to recurrence of AF after slow pathway ablation.
Natural Killer, Natural Killer T, Helper and Cytotoxic T Cells in the Decidua from Sporadic Miscarriage
Authors: Shimada Shigeki , Nishida Ryutaro , Takeda Masamitsu , Iwabuchi Kazuya , Kishi Reiko , Onoé Kazunori , Minakami Hisanori , Yamada Hideto 
Published: July 2006

Problem  The aim of this cohort study was to assess natural killer (NK) cell and natural killer T (NKT) cell populations and cytokine expressions of helper T (Th) and cytotoxic T (Tc) cells in the decidua of sporadic miscarriage (MS) and induced abortion (IA).Methods  The deciduae were obtained from consecutive 40 women whose pregnancies ended in the first trimester MS, and the fetal chromosome karyotypes were analyzed. The cell populations were measured by flow cytometry.Results  No significant differences in NK cell or NKT cell percentages were found among MS with normal chromosome karyotype (MSNK, n = 14), MS with abnormal karyotype (MSAK, n = 26) and IA (n = 14). Interferon (IFN)‐γ+ cell percentage and interleukin (IL)‐4+/tumor necrosis factor (TNF)‐α+ ratio of Th cells in MS groups were increased, while IL‐4+ cell percentage, IL‐4+/IFN‐γ+ and IL‐4+/TNF‐α+ ratios of Tc cells in MS groups were decreased as compared with those in IA. No significant difference in these parameters between MSNK and MSAK was found.Conclusions  These results suggested that Tc1 predominance existed in the decidua of MS. Th1 predominance was not found in MSNK.
Public Health Aspects of Individual Water Wellsa
Authors: Hancock John C. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractLocal government in Michigan, and perhaps in other states, must try to bring the best thinking there is concerning solutions to health problems which are within their legally designated area of responsibility. One such local health department activity in Michigan is the construction and operation of private individual water well systems. Monroe County, which is just beginning to feel the effects of the suburban spillover from Detroit, Michigan, and Toledo, Ohio, recognized, in 1961, the need for regulation of such water well systems. The subsequent development of a Code, and its enforcement have made us realize that we are just beginning to fully understand a subject which is much broader in scope from a public health standpoint than just construction details and bacterial tests.
Saline‐Water Development Poses Problems in Metal Corrosiona
Authors: Fink F. W. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractSaline waters usually are more corrosive to metals than ordinary fresh waters. To predict whether saline ground water will be corrosive to steel, it is necessary to understand the effect of such factors as: (1) the salt content, (2) the dissolved gases, (3) the pH, (4) the temperature, and (5) the tendency to form mineral scale. If the water contains several thousand parts per million of sodium and other chlorides, it is likely to attack many metals, particularly steel and low‐alloy steels. Stainless steels, copper alloys, aluminum alloys, and some nickel‐base alloys also may be attacked, depending on conditions.Of the dissolved gases, oxygen is most important. The higher the oxygen content the more corrosive the saline water, particularly to steel. On the other hand, high‐oxygen content tends to promote passivation of aluminum and stainless steels. If the saline water is acid (with a pH well below 5), direct attack of the metal accompanied by hydrogen evolution may be expected. Under these conditions, the rate of attack often is very rapid and oxygen is not needed for the corrosion reaction.As the temperature is increased, the corrosion rate usually is accelerated. However, if one considers a saline water at atmospheric pressure, an increase in temperature will reduce the oxygen solubility. It has been observed that high‐temperature brines from anaerobic wells usually do not corrode steel. Also metastable waters, containing calcium and magnesium salts, may form mineral scale upon being heated. This scale, if it forms a tight coating, slows down or stops corrosion. Galvanic couples in equipment such as valves, pumps, screens, and well fittings in general, often are a serious corrosion problem in practice.It is recommended that pilot corrosion studies be made of candidate designs in a specific ground water at the pressure and temperature which exists in service. Many saline waters, particularly those containing oxygen, are found corrosive to common metals. Some of the factors which influence corrosion are described.