Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space

The paper deals with some determinants of urban labor-supply absorption. This paper challenges the usual view of wage rate as an equilibrating mechanism whereby unemployment leads to lower wages which in turn encourage the introduction of more labor-intensive capital that increases demand for labor. The rational reasons for the introduction of laborsaving equipment even under conditions of unemployment is derived by considering the concept of effort per worker. Because labor contracts for continuous relationships are imprecise with regard to effort, effort variation exists. The degree to which inputs are underutilized is the degree of ‘X-inefficiency’. Since effort depends partly on motivation, lower wages may result in more than a proportionately lower value of effort; firms will not want to minimize the wage per man-year that they pay but the wage per unit of effort. Capital-intensive techniques may (up to a certain point) be ‘effort-stretching’, stimulating a higher level of effort per worker. Under such circumstances unemployment would not lead to the introduction of more labor-intensive capital nor necessarily to the absorption of the unemployed.

The major aim of the model developed in this paper is to assist decision makers in identifying the industries which are likely to be attracted to underdeveloped regions as a result of specially devised government policies. The effect of these policies in achieving objectives, such as the reduction of unemployment and underemployment, will differ from industry to industry. Thus it is most important to investigate the production function parameters of each of the industries which are likely to be attracted to these regions, so as to determine to what extent the devised policies will achieve their declared objectives. This paper shows that no single policy can be applied for all industries. It is therefore necessary first to identify the industry and thereupon to devise the proper policy that will advance the overall set of objectives. Finally, we describe in a graphical form in the appendix the gaming process of the on-the-job-training programme which takes place between the trainee and the employer through time.

A computer model for allocating activities in regional space in order to achieve multiple objectives is proposed. The application of the model is illustrated.

This report presents preliminary findings with regard to the spatial association between places of work and places of residence in Israel. The existence of such an association becomes apparent when the lines of demarcation coincide with the boundaries of the local authorities within the metropolitan area of Tel-Aviv. A finer demarcation is used to compare the actual work-trips distribution with a random distribution on the one hand and an efficient distribution on the other hand. This comparison is made separately for white-collar occupations, blue-collar occupations and all other occupations. The findings seem to be definitely inconsistent with the assumption of independence. Moreover, the ordering of the ‘proximity indices’, suggested in the paper, supports the efficient distribution hypothesis.

This paper deals with an empirical investigation of the applicability of two well-known functions—the Clark and Newling functions—for the description of the patterns of population densities in the Tel-Aviv metropolitan area. The density pattern is examined in a temporal cross-section in order to trace systematic changes in it. The fitting of the two functions is done by two different methods in order to find out the influence of the method of measurement on the type of pattern generated. The findings of the investigation enable several hypotheses to be developed concerning the factors involved in structuring the density pattern of the population in the Tel-Aviv metropolitan area.

This paper presents an analysis of the effect of an efficient price system on the degree of suburbanization when there exists a stable source of pollution located in the center of the city. It is shown that the city becomes more suburbanized when the external effect, associated with the emission of pollutants, is internalized by proper taxation. Under the assumptions of the model, the introduction of efficient pricing (which internalizes the external effects) is not neutral with regard to the composition of consumption. The introduction of efficient pricing results in an increase in the consumption of housing and a decrease in the consumption of all other goods.

This paper presents a linear-programming model for the formulation of a joint policy for land use and environmental pollution. The theoretical framework is an extension of the residential-location model originally suggested by Herbert and Stevens (1960). Environmental policy is introduced by setting environmental standards which can be spatially differentiated. According to the characteristics of the diffusion process and of the discharge location of the residuals into the environment, these standards can be expressed as the permissible concentration of pollutants, the total allowable pollutant emission, or the required treatment of the residuals. The model considers the locational choice of the various urban activities as well as the available technological alternatives for residual treatment. In the analysis of the dual it is shown that a policy which uses environmental standards can efficiently be implemented by using a system of emission or pollution licenses, performance standards, and zoning restrictions.

The paper discusses pricing schemes for some public services in urban areas with regard to equity and efficiency, taking into consideration the residential geography of cities, in terms of the spatial pattern of population density and the level of income. Spatial pricing schemes that use a distance criterion, especially distance from city center, are shown to be inadequate for purposes of equity and efficiency—the reason being the weakness of distance as an underlying variable in urban social ecology. One should, therefore, resort to a pricing scheme which comes as close as possible to the actual residential pattern. This paper suggests the use of a zonal and parcel pricing scheme which takes into account data on density and income by zone, or neighborhood, and by parcel. Usually such zonal and parcel data are quite readily available and are often used for such purposes as land use regulation or property taxation. With little additional effort a more refined spatial pricing scheme would be reached, thus equity and efficiency considerations would be more properly satisfied. By introducing additional data on the spatial distribution of peak and offpeak users, such a spatial scheme could replace temporal pricing in urban areas where peak-load pricing through metering is not feasible.

This paper critically reexamines the Jaynes interpretation of finite maximum-entropy distributions as limits of the ‘most likely’ relative-frequency distributions consistent with any given prior information. It is shown that while this interpretation is valid in a number of cases, it fails to hold for many types of prior information. Given this limitation, a weaker form of the Jaynes interpretation is proposed which is shown to hold for a wider class of prior information.

In this paper it is argued that public provision of roads causes cities to become more spread out than they would otherwise be, and that it tends to attract people to big cities.