Central place theory and the location of services in Colorado in 1899

Central Place Theory predicts the geographic distribution of services in an economy. Using the 1899 Colorado State Business Directory, this case study examines retail grocers, physicians, wholesale grocers and dentists. As predicted by the theory, the distribution of grocers, physician, and dentists closelyailable parallels population patterns. Higher order services such as dentistry are available at few centers while low order services such as groceries and medical care are widely available. On the other hand, the distribution of wholesaling corresponds to location theories for producer services. These services concentrate in highly accessible trade entrepots and gateway centers. Overall the 1899 pattern is much like today.     

Risk reduction or risk compensation? The case of mandatory safety-belt use laws

The technological approach to risk regulation seeks to lessen the incidence of mortality and morbidity by modifying environmental conditions. Insofar as risk-taking behavior is purposive, social scientists have predicted that technological progress may be negated by various forms of risk compensation. The validity of this hypothesis is tested in the transportation sector with data from the U.S. on the effects of new mandatory safety-belt-use laws. A fixed-effects model of traffic fatality counts is estimated using pooled data from 50 states during the 1975–1987 period. Results suggest that such laws have reduced mortality among car occupants to a degree that is compatible with the predictions of technologists. However, there is weak evidence of increased mortality among some nonoccupants, a pattern predicted by risk-compensation theorists. The lifesaving effects of belt-use laws are largest in states that permit primary police enforcement and appear to be somewhat larger for front-seat occupants age 21 and under. Although offsetting behavior appears to be small relative to lifesaving effects, it may take several more years for any compensatory behavior to achieve a new equilibrium.This research was supported in part by a grant from the Centers for Disease Control to the New England Injury Prevention Research Center.     

Neonatal euthanasia: attributions of students and nurses

An attributional analysis of neonatal euthanasia was undertaken in two studies to compare the responsibility attributions of nursing and non-nursing students (Study 1) and nurses (Study 2) toward a physician for a critically ill neonate's death. In both studies, vignettes about a newborn's death differed with respect to the physician's treatment of the critically ill newborn. In the student study, the physician was attributed the least responsibility for the newborn's death when cardiopulmonary resuscitation was attempted but failed, followed by the physician's issuance of either a "Do Not Resuscitate" order or an order to turn off the infant's respirator. Greatest responsibility was attributed to the physician when he ordered the infant's nutritional and hydration support to be terminated. In addition, the student's major (nursing vs. non-nursing) and the nursing student's educational cohort impacted the level of physician responsibility attributed. In contrast, the nurses' study found that the termination of nutritional and hydrational support was viewed as different from the physician's other three actions.     

Practical reasons and reasonable practice: the case of euthanasia in The Netherlands

Since the early 1970s the issue of euthanasia has been intensely debated in The Netherlands. Through these debates knowledge about medical practices involving the end of life was no longer confined to medical or legal quarters, but became public to a large extent. Following public opinion changes, the legal reaction to euthanasia changed. By prosecuting test cases the public prosecutors allowed the Dutch Supreme Court to formulate specific conditions in which euthanasia would go unpunished. The political debate about changing the criminal law, which still holds that euthanasia is a serious crime, developed at a much slower pace. Several extensive empirical studies were undertaken to gain valid knowledge about the medical practices. This article is concerned with a presentation of the various debates and the changes that took place in the fields of criminal law, politics, and medicine. The main conclusion is the hypothesis that a more open climate for medical practices concerning the end of life allows society to better control these practices.     

Commodity prices and the world distribution of income

Some advocates of a new international economic order recommend raising prices of commodities exported by developing countries as a means of reducing the inequality of world income distribution. A simulation model using commodity trade data and income distribution data for 68 industrial and developing countries examines this policy alternative. Initial data compilation reveals that internal inequality is as important as international: The world income share of the poorest 40% of people would be twice as high in the absence of intracountry inequality. Calculations using actual price experience in the “great inflation” of 1972–1975 show that despite the large relative price changes for some commodities (especially oil), these changes left the world size distribution of income virtually unchanged. Separate policy simulations show that even a quadrupling of the price of ali “equalizing” commodities (those mainly exported by LDCs) would leave the size distribution of world income practically unaltered (even under optimistic assumptions about intracountry distributional incidence), although some individual LDCs would gain. Increasing commodity prices therefore appears to be an ineffective means of increasing international equity, quite apart from questions about the feasibility of cartels or commodity agreements.