Development in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Statistics at the Australian Bureau of Statistics

This paper outlines the ICT statistical developments that the ABS has undertaken over recent years. These developments have been on both the supply side (ICT industry) and the demand side (use of IT by sector). The content of ABS ICT surveys has changed significantly over the last few years and are expected to develop further in line with industry changes and emerging policy needs.
Recent developments in household collections have been the inclusion of IT use questions in the 2001 Census of Population and Housing and in various ABS social surveys such as Children's Participation in Culture and Leisure Activities. Annual business IT use surveys are now conducted and include topics such as Internet commerce and IT security. Biennial ICT industry surveys are conducted to provide data on ICT production, imports and exports, ICT industry employment, performance and structure information. An Internet activity survey is run every six months and provides regional Internet access details and infrastructure details on Internet service providers.
A major development for 2002–03 will be the compilation of an ICT satellite account. ABS intends to produce an ICT Information Development Plan to guide its future statistical development work in the ICT field.     

How Issue Size, Risk, and Complexity are Influencing External Financing Costs: German IPOs Analyzed from an Economies of Scale Perspective

This paper is focused on the cost of raising capital in Germany. A cross-sectional analysis of flotation cost data for 117 IPOs over the years 1993–1998 is presented. We find average flotation costs to be 7.77 percent of gross proceeds, while underwriting fees average 5.01 percent. Our results extend the literature in two important directions. First, contrary to the conventional economies of scale view we find marginal spreads to be rather constant in gross proceeds and to be higher for more risky and more complex offerings. Fixed costs amount to 5 to 9 percent of underwriting fees. Second, by applying a principal component analysis we find issue size, an issuer risk factor, and an offering method complexity factor to have an economicaly meaningful impact on underwriting fees.     

BUILDING CARS TO CUSTOMER ORDER — WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR INBOUND LOGISTICS OPERATIONS?

The automotive industry is undergoing a strategic transition. Cost pressure from rising stock levels in the market and increasing incentives needed to sell these vehicles are forcing vehicle manufacturers to rethink their prevalent “stock‐push” approach, building vehicles against a forecast and selling from stock, in favor of a stock‐less “build‐to‐order” order fulfillment strategy. More responsive order fulfillment at the vehicle manufacturer level however will not only require flexible and responsive component supply, but will also have wide ramifications for the logistics operations. Based on three case studies of major inbound logistics operations, this exploratory study assesses their ability to support such a build‐to‐order approach, as well as the potential implications of such transition. The paper concludes with a set of general strategies for how these implications could be mitigated.     

THE LAST MILE: AN EXAMINATION OF EFFECTS OF ONLINE RETAIL DELIVERY STRATEGIES ON CONSUMERS

The Internet has increased the level of importance of the end‐consumer market to transportation carriers. In two between subject experiments, carrier disclosure on retail merchant websites is examined as a strategic differentiation strategy. Predictions are offered concerning effects of carrier disclosure strategies on product delivery‐related expectations, consumer attitudes, and intentions to purchase a product online. Results from Study 1 reveal significant differences between disclosure and nondisclosure of the carrier for numerous product delivery‐related variables, as well as many differences between the six carriers examined in this first study. Study 2 extends these findings by showing that providing consumers with a choice of carrier leads to increased levels of satisfaction with the online experience and greater willingness to buy, relative to nondisclosure and disclosure strategies.     

Symmetry and order in the portfolio allocation problem

Summary. This research studies the role of multivariate distribution structures on random asset returns in determining the optimal allocation vector for an expected utility maximizer. All our conclusions pertain for the set of risk averters. By carefully disturbing symmetry in the distribution of the, possibly covarying, returns, we ascertain the ordinal structure of the optimized allocation vector. Rank order of allocations is also established when a permutation symmetric random vector is mapped into the returns vector through location and scale shifts. It is shown that increased dispersion in the vectors of location and scale parameters benefit, ex-ante, investors as does a decrease in the rank correlation coefficient between the location and scale parameter vectors. Revealed preference comparative static results are identified for the location and scale vectors of asset returns. For most issues addressed, we arrive at much stronger inferences when a safe asset is available. Received: August 8, 2000; revised version: January 8, 2001     

风险资本规模与最优投资组合

对于任何一个风险投资基金来说,都涉及到投资组合规模问题。由于在投资策略中奉行积极干预的策略,风险投资家耗费了大量的精力和时间。因此,风险资本规模的扩大对风险投资家的投资结构可能会产生影响。这就引致出风险投资最优投资组合的问题,并涉及对风险投资收益率的影响。     

生产性服务业推动制造业发展的实证分析

文章在对生产性服务业推动制造业发展和升级进行理论分析的基础上,运用计量经济方法从两方面分析了我国服务业尤其是生产性服务业对制造业发展的推动作用。第一,为说明服务业发展对制造业发展的促进作用,研究了各省 （市、区） 制造业增加值与服务业总体增加值以及交通运输仓储和邮政业、金融业、批发和零售业等服务行业增加值的关系。第二,为进一步说明生产性服务业投入作为重要的中间投入对制造业发展的促进作用,研究了北京各工业行业增加值与流通服务、信息服务、金融服务、商务服务、科技服务五个生产性服务业投入的关系。计量经济分析支持服务业对制造业发展具有积极作用和生产性服务投入对制造业发展具有积极作用的原假设。但个别变量不显著,也表明服务业对制造业的推动作用尚未充分发挥出来。这为进一步促进我国生产性服务业发展并以其推动制造业发展升级提供了依据。文章相应提出了对策建议。     

构建上海银行业优质服务体系的对策措施

银行业的竞争在某种意义上来讲就是服务的竞争。本文针对上海银行业服务存在问题,分析了构建上海银行业优质服务体系的方向与突破口,并提出构建上海银行业优质服务体系的对策措施。     

区域要素规模效率及其影响因素的效应机理研究

利用随机前沿超越对数生产函数对我国区域要素规模效率的时变趋势、地域差异进行研究,并通过非效率函数对其宏观影响因素的效应进行了分析。总体看来,考虑影响因素后的效率估计值更为准确：1986—2005年的时变效率在外部环境因素变革的冲击下虽出现了波动情况,但总体上均呈现上升趋势;东部与中西部的效率变化趋势一致,但进入1990年代后东部的平均效率增长速度明显要快于中西部,且效率的东西部推移逐步扩大;另一方面,东西部区域内部的差异均呈现收敛趋势,且东部比中西部区域要显著的多。城市化、工业化、专业化、创新活动、人口素质等因素在不同地域不同发展时期对于效率均体现出不同的影响效应,因而,针对不同地区、发展阶段特征和区域特质其区域政策和发展模式的选择也要有所侧重。