Investing in Arms to Secure Water

Where nations depend on resources originating outside their borders, such as river water, some believe that the resulting international tensions may lead to conflict. Homer-Dixon (1999) and Toset et al. (2000) argue such conflict is most likely between riparian neighbours, with a militarily superior downstream 'leader' nation. In a two stage stochastic game, solutions involving conflict are more common absent a leader, where a pure strategy equilibria may not exist. When upstream defensive expenditures substitute for water using investments, a downstream leader may induced an arms race to increase downstream water supplies. Water scarcity may not be a cause for war, but may cause a buildup in arms that can make any conflict between riparian neighbours more serious.

Immigrants, inclusion, and the role of hard work: exploring anti-immigrant attitudes among young people in Britain

Previous research on youth attitudes towards immigration has tended to focus on explaining why young people are more accepting of immigrants than their elders. In this article, therefore, we focus on the young people that are opposed to immigration. First, we use nationally representative survey data from young adults in England to highlight that a substantial minority hold negative attitudes towards immigrants. In the second half of the paper, we then turn to qualitative data (in-depth interviews) to explore how young people talk about and justify holding these negative attitudes. Both the qualitative and the quantitative data suggest that anti-immigrant attitudes among young people are linked to the perception that immigrants pose an economic and cultural threat, and to the spread of culturalised forms of citizenship. What the qualitative data also reveal, however, is how these distinct discourses reinforce one another and how they intersect with other types of prejudice. We will argue that the idea of Hard Work is central to understanding anti-immigrant attitudes, as this has become a deeply-embedded cultural norm that is being used to include and exclude (immigrants and others), and to distinguish between who is deserving of membership of British society and who is not

Are today’s youth more tolerant? Trends in tolerance among young people in Britain

Attitudes towards social groups that have traditionally been marginalised or discriminated against have changed markedly in Britain over the past three decades. This change is particularly marked in attitudes towards homosexuality and racial diversity which, as public opinion surveys have regularly shown, have become more accepting over time. This change is often attributed to older, less tolerant generations being replaced by young cohorts who are more inclusive and open minded in their attitudes to cultural others. The paper explores this argument by examining trends in people’s attitudes towards a variety of minorities, including the said groups, but also immigrants and foreign workers. It starts with a discussion of several perspectives predicting different trends with regards to these attitudes. A distinction is made between optimistic ones (i.e. those anticipating rising levels of tolerance) and pessimistic ones (i.e. those expecting stable or declining levels of tolerance). Subsequently, the paper presents trend analyses and an analysis of age, cohort and period effects to broadly assess the explanatory power of these perspectives. Using these approaches, we find that tolerance towards racial minorities and homosexuality has indeed risen across the board, and that young people are also more accepting of these groups than their parents or grandparents and previous generations of young people. These trends broadly support the optimistic perspectives. However, we also find that prejudice has not disappeared from youth attitudes altogether; for a sizeable minority of youth, it has merely shifted its focus to immigration. Not only have unwelcoming attitudes towards immigrants generally become stronger, young people are not always the most tolerant age group regarding this social group. These findings are thus more in line with the expectations of the pessimistic perspectives

Changing Preferences for Brexit: Identifying the Groups with Volatile Support for 'Leave'

This paper explores the dynamics of support for the UK’s departure from the EU over the course of 2016 and the first quarter of 2017. It further identifies groups with a particular profile in terms of political attitudes and behaviours and explores whether these groups show a marked change in their support for leave. The paper draws on two contrasting perspectives on voter volatility. While the first one considers the phenomenon to be a characteristic of whimsical, uninterested and disengaged people, the second one sees it in a more positive light as it associates volatility with the informed and emancipate citizen holding politicians to account. The study uses Waves 6, 7 and 8 of Understanding Society and conducts various analyses, including latent class analysis (LCA), to explore the research questions. LCA yields four groups with distinct political profiles. Only one of these groups, labelled “the highly engaged and satisfied”, shows a significant increase in support for leave. The other groups, including “the non-engaged” and “the dissatisfied”, are not becoming significantly more or less supportive of leave. The results are thus more in accordance with the second perspective

Factors Affecting Residential Property Values in a Small Historic Canadian University Town

The town of Wolfville, Nova Scotia is a small historic community, economically dominated by Acadia University. It is located on the north slope of a ridge, affording views of the Minas Basin, at the eastern end of the Bay of Fundy. The upper boundary of the town is a major provincial highway. A set of sound level observations was used to generate average and peak sound level profiles for the town. Average and peak sound level, as well as presence of a view were included in a hedonic regression of property values. View and average sound level were not statistically related to home price. However, peak sound level is priced, with a one decibel increase reducing the average house price by about two percent. Beyond conventional variables such as age and living space, the zoning classification of the property was found to be highly significant, with homes zoned for single family residential only commanding the highest price. Given the high population of student tenants in Wolfville, tenants unlikely to live in areas zoned single family residential, these results suggests that rental externalities - either due to student tenants or landlord practices - are having a strong negative impact on property values

Stakeholder Engagement in Land Development Decisions: A Waste of Effort?

Abstract Currently, management devolution and engagement of local stakeholders - expected to have better information - is seen as key to effective environmental management. Often, the absence of clear property rights and/or supporting market institutions leaves management decisions to a political process. Where undeveloped land provides a public good, when to halt further development is modelled as a repeated lobbying contest between industry and households. Lobbying effort affects the continuation probability. Depending on how stakeholders are engaged, there may be little impact on final outcomes, or a lobbying war can be stimulated. Overall welfare is seldom enhanced

Stakeholder Engagement in Land Development Decisions: A Waste of Effort?

Abstract Currently, management devolution and engagement of local stakeholders - expected to have better information - is seen as key to effective environmental management. Often, the absence of clear property rights and/or supporting market institutions leaves management decisions to a political process. Where undeveloped land provides a public good, when to halt further development is modelled as a repeated lobbying contest between industry and households. Lobbying effort affects the continuation probability. Depending on how stakeholders are engaged, there may be little impact on final outcomes, or a lobbying war can be stimulated. Overall welfare is seldom enhanced

Income Inequality and Economic Downturn in Europe: A Multi-Level Analysis of their Consequences for Political Participation

The ongoing rise of inequality and the outbreak of the economic crisis since 2008 have fueled the debate about the effects of macro-economic processes on democracy in general, and on political participation in particular. Whereas the effect of economic disparity is well documented in the literature, the implications of the economic downturn have not been sufficiently evaluated so far. The article addresses this gap by offering a comprehensive overview of the impact of these macro-economic factors on individual political participation in Europe. Using data from the first six rounds of the European Social Survey, it shows that income inequality reduces participation and enlarges the participatory gap between better- and worse-off. In contrast, economic contraction has no effect on the overall level of participation and makes the poor participate more and the rich less

Stakeholder Engagement in Land Development Decisions: A Waste of Effort?

Abstract Currently, management devolution and engagement of local stakeholders - expected to have better information - is seen as key to effective environmental management. Often, the absence of clear property rights and/or supporting market institutions leaves management decisions to a political process. Where undeveloped land provides a public good, when to halt further development is modelled as a repeated lobbying contest between industry and households. Lobbying effort affects the continuation probability. Depending on how stakeholders are engaged, there may be little impact on final outcomes, or a lobbying war can be stimulated. Overall welfare is seldom enhanced.Stakeholder engagement, lobbying contest, public good, water conservation, land development

Factors Affecting Residential Property Values in a Small Historic Canadian University Town

The town of Wolfville, Nova Scotia is a small historic community, economically dominated by Acadia University. It is located on the north slope of a ridge, affording views of the Minas Basin, at the eastern end of the Bay of Fundy. The upper boundary of the town is a major provincial highway. A set of sound level observations was used to generate average and peak sound level profiles for the town. Average and peak sound level, as well as presence of a view were included in a hedonic regression of property values. View and average sound level were not statistically related to home price. However, peak sound level is priced, with a one decibel increase reducing the average house price by about two percent. Beyond conventional variables such as age and living space, the zoning classification of the property was found to be highly significant, with homes zoned for single family residential only commanding the highest price. Given the high population of student tenants in Wolfville, tenants unlikely to live in areas zoned single family residential, these results suggests that rental externalities - either due to student tenants or landlord practices - are having a strong negative impact on property values.Hedonic regression, noise pollution, zoning, segregation