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Location and Pollution in a Communal Society
Author(s) -
STANLEY OWEN
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
economic record
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.365
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1475-4932
pISSN - 0013-0249
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-4932.1980.tb01674.x
Subject(s) - human settlement , property rights , function (biology) , property (philosophy) , economics , pollution , geography , economic geography , public economics , microeconomics , philosophy , archaeology , epistemology , evolutionary biology , biology , ecology
The model presented in this paper attempts to explain the recent trend among Australian Aboriginals in remote Australia to abandon large settlements in favour of much smaller decentralized settlements. The model does, however, have implications for modern Western societies. Aboriginals are assumed to like money and non‐money income, stability of income, nearness to a place of significance and a low degree of private property rights, and to dislike pollution when interpreted broadly. Each of these determinants of werfare is expressed as a function of location and degree of private property rights alone and a utility function is maximized with respect to these two variables. The impact on the optimal location and property rights decision of a number of recent changes is then considered.