The Impact of Health, Education and Housing Outlays upon Income Distribution in Australia in the 1990s

The distributional impact of public expenditure on such programs as health, education and housing is frequently ignored in studies of income distribution. This may bias assessment of both the relative living standards of different types of families at any particular point in time and of trends in income inequality over time. This article provides estimates for the 1990s of the combined distributional impact of public outlays on health, education and housing. The analysis indicates that the major beneficiaries of public outlays on these services are families with children and the aged. The pattern of receipt shows a strong life-cycle effect, with the value of non-cash benefits peaking in the 30s and 40s and rising again in retirement. Non-cash benefits are also shown to have an equalising effect upon income distribution.     

The Measurement of Poverty in Australia: 1981–82 and 1985–86

In this paper I discuss indices used to measure the level of poverty in Australia among demographic groups and over time. The strengths and deficiencies of indices in current use are noted and alternative indices are presented. The theoretical properties of the indices are compared and discussed. The discussion is extended to include a brief review of poverty lines paying particular attention to the method used to update them. Poverty is measured for 1981–82 and 1985–86 for broad demographic groups. Differences between groups in each year and trends over time are noted and discussed. The performance of alternative indices are compared.     

1949—2011:关于民营经济的历史经验研究

中国共产党探索民营经济问题的过程历经曲折,既有改革开放之前的艰辛努力,又有改革开放之后的成功实践。中国共产党探索民营经济问题的过程中,在掌握马克思主义精神实质、坚持解放思想实事求是思想路线、认识中国国情、与时俱进等方面都积累了丰富的历史经验。这些经验对于发展民营经济,实现中国现代化具有很大的借鉴意义。     

A Note on Causality Between Money,Wages and Prices in Australia*

Lead and lag relationships between money, wages. and prices are examined using Australian data. Granger causality tests support univariate causality running from money to both wages and prices. This result is consistent with a monetarist explanation of inflation.     

A Decomposition of Changes in Labour Productivity in Australia: 1970-71 to 1989-90*

We show that business-cycle phenomena, climatic conditions and industrial structure are important determinants of annual variations in Australia's labour productivity growth. Another finding is that Australia's productivity slowdown in the 1980s was associated with a reduction in capital growth per unit of labour. The methodology relies on production functions at the industry level We analyze the sensitivity of results to the specification of these functions.     

Pollution,Private Investment in Healthcare,and Environmental Policy*

In this paper, we demonstrate that, in a two‐period overlapping‐generations model, the relationship between environmental taxation and economic activity (output level and growth) has an inverted‐U shape when we take into account the detrimental impact of pollution on health and the individual decision of each working‐age agent to improve her health. We also demonstrate that the link between environmental tax and lifetime welfare also has an inverted‐U shape, and that a tighter environmental policy might enhance economic activity while reducing steady‐state lifetime welfare. Finally, we investigate the social optimum and the determinants of the optimal environmental tax.     

Money Wages, Consumer Prices, and Causality in Australia*

This paper exploits recently developed statistical techniques to examine the causal patterns in lag relationships between changes in wages and consumer prices. The analysis uses quarterly data for selected periods and a total historical sample period 1954-82. Causation has generally been unidirectional from wages to prices. However, for the first half of the 1970s bidirectional causation was detected, though the causation from wages to prices was statistically more significant. Brief consideration is given to some policy implications of the results.     

Unemployment in Australia: Duration and Recurrent Spells*

Using a parametric technique. this paper estimates average completed duration of unemployment for several age and sex categories. It shows that the use of Labour Force Survey data leads to underestimates due to the presence of recurrent unemployment. When allowance is made, using A BS Persons Looking for Work and Labour Force Experience data, it is shown that new entrants to unemployment in 1981 could expect to remain unemployed for nearly six months. For teenagers evidence is presented to suggest that, contrary to current economic thought, teenagers may on average be unemployed for longer periods per spell and may have less experience of recurrent spells than their counterparts. It also shows that changes in the unemployment rate are dominated by changes in duration.     

Equilibrium Unemployment in Australia: Concepts and Measurement*

This paper reviews some concepts of equilibrium unemployment and outlines the fundamental difficulties facing any attempt to produce estimates of the equilibrium rate of unemployment. It develops simple quasi-reduced form models of aggregate unemployment based on rival non market-clearing and market-clearing theories. These equations form the basis of an empirical model of aggregate unemployment in Australia since 1969. The empirical evidence suggests that most of the observed increase in unemployment can be attributed to cyclical rather than structural-frictional factors. However, stylized explanations of cyclical unemployment exclusively along the lines of Keynesian, Classical or equilibrium search theory are found inadequate.     

Investment Spending in Australia: Further Study and Interpretation*

Recent work in macro theory suggests that aggregate 'demand' policies have direct supply-side effects in the short run, if Lucas's standard specification of the nonlinear adjustment costs for capital is generalized In this paper, we estimate an investment equation (involving Tobin's valuation ratio and Australian data) which nests three hypotheses: Lucas's standard specification of adjustment costs, a simple generalization which permits labour to be involved in the installation of capital and a model which allows for liquidity constraints. The results support the suggested alternative formulation of the q-theory     

Globalization and the Return to Education in Australia

Reich argues that globalization will increase the relative earnings of those whose occupation involves identifying and solving problems and managing ideas. Hence, the return to education, especially education in the form of a university degree, will rise. This paper examines the return to education in Australia in the 1980s and shows that in the private sector there has been a substantial rise in the relative earnings of graduates. Due to special circumstances there has been a fall in the public sector. Previous findings of little change are the result of aggregation problems.     

Private and Government Employment in the OECD: Productivities and Wages

This paper estimates the productivity of private and government employment for a panel of 23 OECD economies over the 1961–1992 period, and investigates their relation to the government/private wage ratio. The paper finds that (i) the elasticities of output with respect to private and government employment are statistically significantly different from each other; (ii) the marginal products of private and government employment are not statistically significantly different, which suggests that government employment is neither over- nor under-provided, and that shifting employment from one sector to the other is not likely to produce substantial output gains; and (iii) in most of the countries examined, government workers are overpaid in the sense that the government/private wage ratio exceeds the corresponding ratio of marginal products.
(J.E.L. E24, E62).