YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT OUTFLOW RATES AND LABOR MARKET PROGRAMS: AUSTRALIAN EVIDENCE

A matching function methodology is used to investigate the macroeconomic effects of labor market program (LMP) commencements on youth unemployment outflows in Australia using unpublished data that classify commencements and outflows by duration of unemployment. The results indicate that LMPs have had significant effects on outflows from short-term unemployment. There is a net positive effect from LMP commencements on short-term unemployed female outflow rates. However, females experienced negative spillover effects from male LMP commencements. These spillover effects appear to be associated with wage subsidy programs and suggest the net impact of such programs may have been overstated in previous studies.     

A THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF DESIGN ISSUES IN MEDICAL SAVINGS ACCOUNTS: THE POLICY IMPLICATIONS

Abstract: Numerous methods for helping consumers deal with medical care costs have been suggested. One way that has been discussed is the use of Medical Saving Accounts. A pilot program introducing Medical Spending Accounts was passed by Congress as part of the Health Insurance Reform Act of 1996. The authors review the major points of this program and attempt to examine what impact this program could have on medical care cost.     

Economic Mismeasurement and the Bias in Policy Choice

The level of economic activity is never measured perfectly because of problems of definition, inaccuracies in data collection, and the existence of the hidden economy. Such mismeasurement implies that government policies based on official statistics can be optimal only by chance. The analysis formalizes this observation in a two-sector economy and attempts to quantify the direction and extent of the bias introduced into policy by the failure to account for the true size of the economy. It is shown that short-term reform (which need not balance the government budget) can be detrimental. When a budget constraint is imposed, this ensures that reforms will be beneficial no matter how bad is the mismeasurement.     

‘When the Going Gets Tough’ . . . : Recession and the Resilience of Workplace Partnership

Drawing on longitudinal research in an engineering multinational corporation, this article considers the resilience of workplace partnership under conditions of retrenchment. In line with extant literature, the twin influences of trade union power and competitive strategy are seen to significantly shape the durability of partnership. Beyond these determinants, trust and managerial skill and political sensitivity are deemed important moderators. The findings nonetheless suggest that the favourable alignment of these factors may not represent a sufficient bulwark in those situations where the axis of partnership is local, within the context of otherwise centrally coordinated industrial relations.     

Changing the rules of the game: Business responses to new regulation

This study investigates business responses to new regulation by focusing on the rearrangement of interactions in business relationships involving ‘NRG’, a large multinational energy company in the aviation industry. ‘NRG’ is confronted with new environmental rules resulting from the inclusion of the aviation industry in the European Emissions Trading Scheme as of 2012. We demonstrate that business actors do not simply comply with the rules of the game; instead they elaborate responses which impact on the creation of new rules. We argue that research on business responses to new regulation is highly relevant to industrial marketing because the increasing complexity of regulation in many industrial markets provides significant opportunities and threats to businesses. We propose three guiding principles which could be used by managers in understanding, influencing and responding to new regulation.     

The comparative test in marketing research and theory development

The comparative test has traditionally been viewed as a theoretical and methodological technique that was useful for making rapid advances in the development of marketing as a science. Enthusiasm for the comparative test is rooted in logical empiricism. Unexplored implications for the use of the comparative test in marketing are offered from the sophisticated methodological falsificationist and the social constructionist perspectives. A proposed solution to the problems that are created from using the comparative test in the traditional manner is presented. The solution proposed is relevant to methodology in science in general and should aid research and the development of theory in marketing.     

International Portfolio Diversification and the Magnitude of the Market Timer's Penalty

Market timers without timing skill suffer a penalty relative to buy-and-hold investors in the form of higher portfolio risk. With transactions costs, timers suffer lower expected returns as well. We derive the magnitude of this penalty for a timer randomly switching funds between two or more risky assets. Assuming costless trades, a U.S.-based timer randomly switching between U.S. and Japanese national stock funds can expect to face a 26.2% higher standard deviation than a comparable buy-and-hold investor at the same level of expected return. A timer randomly switching between a globally diversified equity portfolio and U.S. T-bills faces a 50.3% higher standard deviation of return than a comparable buy-and-hold investor.     

Teaching the coase theorem: Are we getting it right?

The authors examine current textbook representations of Coase's analysis of negative externalities [Coase, 1960]. Standard treatments identify Coase's ideas with Stigler's Coase Theorem: a zero transaction cost world in which efficient solutions emerge automatically, regardless of legal rules and the initial allocation of rights. Yet Coase's seminal paper breaks from this mode of analysis. The authors use this intellectual history to distinguish two approaches to negative externalities: blackboard (Pigou, Stigler, Samuelson) and Coasean. They survey 45 microeconomics textbooks and find that 80 percent misrepresent Coase's arguments. They argue that a Coasean approach increases students' critical thinking skills by challenging them to move beyond simple laissez faire or interventionist solutions.     

Outlook for the grain market

With all the indications suggesting that the current imbalance between supply of and demand for grain will continue for the foreseeable future, and with a steady surplus both keeping prices down and forcing on governments measures to reduce output and stocks, attention is turning to South East Asia, a region which, due to the rapid growth of both its population and per capita income, seems to offer the best prospects of medium and long-term increases in demand. How realistic are the hopes that South East Asia will be able to absorb a substantial part of the world's grain surplus?