Pricing in Australian Manufacturing*

The rate of change of prices of competing foreign products and the rate of change of costs of domestic production are both found to have positive impact on the rate of domestic price inflation in a cross section of Australian manufacturing industries over the period from 1968-69 to 1986-87. Prices of competing foreign products are found to have more impact, while production costs are found to have less impact, the higher is the level of domestic concentration, supporting the hypothesis that foreign and domestic competition have interactive effects on domestic prices.     

Structural Changes in Australian Manufacturing Industry*

The paper uses a neoclassical production function and historical data to test for structural stability in Australian manufacturing industry. The production function is an extended constant elasticity of substitution form in which factor substitution elasticity, returns to scale and market structure in output, capital and labour are testable hypotheses. Tests for structural changes in homogeneity and factor substitution elasticity relations are based on overall and individual tests of covariance analysis and also on a special version of the Swerling-Kalman filtering systems as proposed by Cooley and Prescott. The empirical findings possess desirable statistical properties and indicate the existence of structural instability in the industry. The evidence also repudiates the assumptions of unitary factor substitution elasticity, constant returns to scale and market competitiveness in output and factors of production.     

全要素生产率、投入替代与地区间的能源效率

本文通过对传统的能源效率指标进行分解,考察了1986—2010年间我国各地区能源效率及其影响因素的变化情况,得到以下结论:(1)能源效率变化的主要影响因素按贡献大小的排列分别是技术进步、投入替代变化与效率改善。总体上看,全要素生产率的作用要大于投入替代。技术效率变化与技术进步对能源效率的影响与我国的市场化改革进程存在密切关系;(2)尽管地区间"能源效率缺口"绝对量在逐年扩大,但表现出一定的追赶与收敛趋势。能源效率的地区结构差异表现出一定的地带性;(3)在能源效率变化的三个分解项中,投入替代变化的差异是影响地区间能源效率差异的首要因素。以上分析结果不仅有助于理解中国及各地区的能源效率及其影响因素的变化趋势,而且将为节能减排政策的制定与完善提供一定的参考依据。     

Further Evidence from Survey Data on Australian Manufacturing Price Changes*

Three data sets from two different quarterly surveys have been used in estimating six standard models of price change behaviour. Results for Total Manufacturing Industry, for all three data sets, show prices respond to both actual cost movements and commodity market excess demand conditions. For most ASIC two-digit industries, prices respond rapidly to actual cost movements, and for many industries they also respond directly to excess demand conditions. No single excess demand measure is appropriate for all industries. The magnitude of orders and inventories influences is very small, but capacity utilization contributions seem far from trivial. Industry results are frequently sensitive to the survey used and/or to the method used to weight individual firm's responses.     

Transport Cost and Tariff Protection of Australian Manufacturing*

This paper provides estimates of transport cost and tariff protection available to import-competing Australian manufacturing industries. It finds that transport costs provide an important component of total protection available to such industries; one which, for many, is more important than the Australian tariff. In view of the effects of protection on industrial structure and performance, it should be explicitly recognized that transport costs are an unavoidable element of the protective structure and are deserving of study in their own right.     

能源异质性及其与资本替代的非对称效应研究

以超越对数成本函数及弹性分析模型为基础,对1995~2013年中国制造业分行业典型能源消费与资本的替代弹性和替代特征进行分析,发现煤炭、电力、石油与资本之间的替代强度及方向存在显著差异。并运用MES弹性模型分析表明,受控于要素价格变化触发的来源不同,制造业整体表现出资本替代能源、能源互补资本的反向非对称特征,在资本密集型行业与劳动密集型行业中替代的方向与大小亦存在显著的非对称性。这种替代非对称效应表明,中国现阶段实现制造业整体节能及推动节能技术使用的路径适用性上,可以考虑借力于资本替代能源的视角。但是,在综合各类能源研究工业能源政策时,必须充分考虑行业能源消费类型不同及与资本替代的异质性差异和非对称效应的存在,才能使得产业能源政策制定具有针对性和有效性。     

The Speed and Stability of Price Adjustment in Australian Manufacturing*

A model of industry speed of price adjustment is derived from firm pricing behaviour. The model is applied to quarterly two‐digit Australian manufacturing data for the period 1985 (Q3) to 2002 (Q3). The results suggest that the industry speed of price adjustment is positively related to the average size of large firms within the industry and is negatively related to industry concentration. We also find that import share has a role in attenuating the effects of industry concentration and that growth in a moving average of real gross domestic product reduces the speed of price adjustment. Calculated industry speeds of price adjustment are both stable across the period of examination and small, suggesting that manufacturing prices are sticky.     

Measuring the Effects of Exchange Rate Changes on Investment in Australian Manufacturing Industry*

This paper examines the relationship between exchange rates and investment in Australian manufacturing between 1988 and 2001. The effects of exchange rates on investment are found to vary positively with the export share of sales and negatively with the share of imported inputs into production, with lower price‐over‐cost mark‐ups increasing the response. For Australian manufacturing, a 10 per cent real appreciation of the Australian dollar leads to an average 8.0 per cent decrease in total investment through the export share channel, and an average 3.8 per cent increase through the imported input share channel, with most of the response occurring through investment in equipment, plant and machinery.     

我国制造业能源消耗强度变化的因素分解——基于结构份额和效率份额视角

在借鉴已有研究成果基础上,将能源消耗强度分解为结构份额和效率份额两个因素,并测算了1994-2006年我国制造业中能源消耗强度中两个因素的变化情况,分析了制造业产业结构调整和能源效率提高对能源消耗强度的影响。研究结果表明:我国制造业能源消耗强度在不断下降,原因是产业结构调整和能源使用效率提高的综合影响。两者对降低能源消耗强度都有正面作用,同时,能源使用效率提高作用略大于产业结构调整作用。     

The Impact of Productivity Growth on the Costs of Production in Australian Manufacturing Industries*

The primary objective of this study is to examine the impact of technological progress on costs of production in 34 Australian manufacturing industries. An analytical model incorporating the notion of factor-augmenting technological change was developed and applied to each industry. The results indicated that in most of the industries technological progress during the period 1954–55 to 1981–82 had been biased towards augmenting labour and thereby reducing the cost of labour per unit of production. The implication of the analysis is that there is a nexus between incomes policy and the rate and bias of factor-augmenting technological change.     

Technological Change in Australian Manufacturing

In the modern era, the extent and character of technical change features prominently in discussions of productivity growth and movements in the competitiveness of manufacturing. While technical change is pervasive in modern manufacturing, it occurs unevenly. In this study, technical change is estimated by fitting dual cost functions for each of 38 sectors of Australian manufacturing over the 32 year period, 1968–69 to 1999–2000. The estimates show that technical change is heavily labour-saving in all industries, but that the overall rate of change, as measured by a rate of cost diminution, and the degree of bias towards saving labour, rather than capital or material, varies substantially across industries.     

The Effect of Nominal Demand Shocks on Manufacturing Output: Evidence from Disaggregated Australian Data*

The menu costs model predicts that during times of rapid inflation firms are less likely to vary output in response to changes in nominal aggregate demand. This paper tests the proposition using a disaggregated sample of Australian three-digit ASIC manufacturing industries. The results show that a significant number of Australian industries exhibit behaviour that is consistent with this prediction. In addition, the results show that the variability of inflation and changes to the import penetration ratio also influence the response of output to nominal demand changes.     

Brookings on the Australian Economy*

This paper offers a review of two central issues of macroeconomic management, nominal wage determination and the relative roles for fiscal expansion and real wage restraint, discussed in the Brookings study of the Australian economy. Consideration is given to the book, The Australian Economy: A View from the North, edited by Richard E. Caves and Lawrence B. Krause, George Allen & Unwin, Sydney 1984, and to the January 1984 conference discussion.     

Natural Resources and Missing Inputs in International Productivity Comparisons*

Standard theory for cross-country productivity comparisons assumes all countries use the same factor inputs in production. This assumption is violated when including natural resources, such as oil, gas and gold, because countries do not extract the full set of resources. In this paper we propose a solution by viewing it as a “missing goods” problem and assigning missing inputs a reservation price equal to the world resource price. We show that this has a substantial impact on relative productivity levels for countries heavily reliant on natural resources for generating their income. Under our new productivity measure, resource-rich countries are no longer uncommonly productive.     

Cyclical and Competitive Influences on Pricing in Australian Manufacturing

Dynamic pricing equations are estimated using an error correction model, with data on a panel of 89 Australian manufacturing industries for the 14 years, 1971172 through 1984/85. The overall pattern is consistent with prices approximately following a fixed mark-up rule in low concentration industries, while the mark-up factor in high concentration industries is strongly pro-cyclical. Also, in high concentration industries that are heavily exposed to import competition, the mark-up factor increases with prices of foreign competing products and with the general price level for domestic manufactures.     

The Cost of Monopoly in Australian Manufacturing

This article looks at the deadweight loss arising from monopoly elements in Australian manufacturing under various assumptions and its relationship with the level of concentration.