Issue 1

This paper looks at the relationship between regional policy and the structure of government by contrasting the current lack of regional government in the U.K. to the wider context of regional devolution within the European Union. Whilst economic disparities between European regions are substantial, there is both theoretical and empirical support for the hypothesis that regions with the fastest rates of growth in Europe will be those with the highest degree of regional autonomy. This hypothesis is set to dominate the regional development research agenda in Europe for some time to come.

STEPHEN HILL, ANNETTE ROBERTS

Page Number - 39

Many have called for a 'new' regional science. It is useful to note that there are valuable 'new' theories in economics, or least 'newer' than the economic models that many critics of the 'old' regional science seem to be criticising. One example is the microeconomic theory of household production, which can help us understand the 'sense of place' or sense of community, which is a real-world phenomenon that a new regional science should help us understand. Household production has a dual role: households help produce the sense of place or community, but at the same time households' value of place is an important input into their production of many other goods, such as security, education, and recreation. How households use their time is crucial aspect of this dual role. This paper elaborates on various aspects of household production and suggests new emphases in regional science, which are similar to recent emphases in environmental economics.

ROGER BOLTON

Page Number - 31

The fundamental elements of regional economic development theory identify options available for regions to work toward sustainable development. These elements are markets, resources, decision making capacity, economic rules, and space. The dimensions of time marginalized social-economic groups, and dynamic economies provide focus on how regions can build sustainable strategies. Sustainable regional economic development is about changing perceptions and choices regarding regional resources, markets, rules, decision making capacity and space. The idea of new knowledge and reframing issues is offered as a method to create new options.

RON SHAFFER

Page Number - 21

The first regional science conference in Australia was held in 1976, almost twenty years ago. The international regional science community is currently undergoing an introspective review of its directions and values. This paper attempts a review and evaluation of progress and achievements of the regional science community in Australia. This evaluation considers the general questions of contributions to regional policy, the analytical/modelling orientation of regional science, and the so-called academic-practitioner debate. The picture which emerges is one of considerable achievement, with a number of important gaps and professional issues to be resolved.

RODNEY C. JENSEN, GUY R. WEST

Page Number - 7

Lowering and abolishing internal tariffs and non-tariff barriers, establishing common external tariffs, common agricultural policy and other common industrial policies (i.e. European economic integration) should have a profound effect on economic interaction, both within and between the economies involved. This paper employs interregional input­output data to indicate whether or not and in what manner the interdependency within and between the economies of the six old EC-countries has changed over the years 1959, 1965, 1970 and 19 75.

JAN OOSTERHAVEN

Page Number - 51

In this paper a decomposition method is used to examine structural change in the Indonesian economy. The decomposition method can ascribe the sources of the shifts in position of individual sectors to changes in final demand, technology and cross effects. Using two comparable input-output tables, 1971 and 1985, it is found that changes in final demand are more important than technological change in affecting structural change in the agricultural sector and the Indonesian economy as a whole. It should be noted, however, that the two main elements of final demand and technology, moved in the same direction in their impacts on structural change.

ARIEF DARYANTO, JULIAN B. MORISON

Page Number - 65

A computable general equilibrium model of the Tasmanian economy, TASFOR, has been constructed to examine the industry-level effects and state-wide effects of state forestry policies. The theoretical structure of TASFOR is based on the ORANI model (Dixon et al. 1982) and ORANI-NT (Parmenter and Meagher 1990). The paper reports the result of an illustrative application, an increase in the price of output of the forestry sector. It illustrates the extent to which previously reported results from the national ORANI models are not applicable for Tasmania.

CHRIS LOCK

Page Number - 89