Efficiency in the Supply of Regional Public Goods that are Subject to Congestion

The purpose of the current paper is to extend the theory of regional public goods to account for population congestion,or crowding, and then to introduce the possibility of congestion into boundary spillovers of benefits. This paper deals with congestion costs for regional public goods provided by provinces which belong to a federation and indicates how optimizing subsidies may be used by the federal government to correct for benefit spillovers. The analysis is based on the assumption that for each province there is a social welfare function and that this welfare function is defined in terms of per capita consumption of private and public goods. The next section of the paper develops the theory of congested public goods and shows how congestion will affect the behaviour of a single province, which is exclusively concerned with the welfare of its residents. Section III introduces congestion into local public good benefits and into spilling benefits. Provincial and federal optimization conditions are also derived. Section IV concludes the paper.

A General Equilibrium Model of Regional Public Goods and Optimizing Subsidies

The present paper follows the neoclassical tradition of private goods general equilibrium theory and integrates public goods into a simple equilibrium model. In doing so, no attempt is made to construct a behavioural theory of government to explain the articulation of individual demand for public goods. In what follows, it is assumed that private and public goods are provided by a set of governments and private firms whose market behaviour replicates the long-run equilibrium behaviour of perfectly competitive industries. The paper will use a general equilibrium model to examine the effects of a federal subsidy to a provincial government, which produces a single public good for a province whose population is endogenously determined.

Population Mobility and Efficiency in the Provision of Regional Public Goods

The purpose of the present paper is to extend the analysis of public goods to situations where population is variable. The focus of the analysis will be a system of local governments, or a federation, where population movement is important and where boundary spillovers of benefits from local public goods may be generated. The paper will develop a simple model of local public good provision, and this model will be used to derive effeciency conditions for population movement between regions and for optimal production of public goods. A behavioural model of free migration will be presented to determine whether free migration of people between fiscal regions will lead to efficiency in locational choice. The general result that will be established is that the free market does not lead to an optimal allocation of population among fiscal regions.

Alleviation of pressure pulse effects for trains entering tunnels. Volume 1: Summary

The degree to which it is possible to attenuate the effects of pressure pulses on the passengers in trains entering tunnels by modifying the normally abrupt portal of a constant-diameter single track tunnel was investigated. Although the suggested modifications to the tunnel entrance portal may not appreciably decrease the magnitude of the pressure rise, they are very effective in reducing the discomfort to the human ear by substantially decreasing the rate of pressure rise to that which the normal ear can accommodate. Qualitative comparison was made of this portal modification approach with other approaches: decreasing the train speed or sealing the cars. The optimum approach, which is dependent upon the conditions and requirements of each particular rail system, is likely to be the portal modification one for a rapid rail mass transit system

Literacy development: evidence review

Literacy includes the word-level skills of word reading and spelling and the text-level skills of reading comprehension and writing composition. These skills are involved in virtually all everyday activities. As a result, poor literacy impacts on every aspect of life. Word reading, spelling, reading comprehension, and writing composition are supported by similar language and cognitive skills as well as affective and environment factors. Learning to be literate builds upon existing knowledge of the language from speech. Becoming literate then enables children to learn more about language. However, literacy is unlikely to be achieved without explicit and prolonged instruction. This review provides an evidence base for decision-making during literacy education. We identify key skills that must be in place to enable children to reach their optimum potential and highlight where weakness can suggest a need for extra support. We begin by discussing models of literacy development as these models provide a framework within which to present the evidence base for the rest of the review. We then consider the underlying skills in greater depth, beginning first with the proximal factors that underpin word-level and text-level reading and writing. Then we consider distal child-based and wider environmental factors that indirectly impact on literacy development

Hamming weights and Betti numbers of Stanley-Reisner rings associated to matroids

To each linear code over a finite field we associate the matroid of its parity check matrix. We show to what extent one can determine the generalized Hamming weights of the code (or defined for a matroid in general) from various sets of Betti numbers of Stanley-Reisner rings of simplicial complexes associated to the matroid