Steepest ascent tariff reform

The policy reform literature is primarily concerned with the construction of reforms that yield welfare gains. By contrast, this paper’s contribution is to develop a theoretical concept for which the focus is upon the sizes of welfare gains accruing from policy reforms rather than upon their signs. In undertaking this task, and by focusing on tariff reforms, we introduce the concept of a steepest ascent policy reform, which is a locally optimal reform in the sense that it achieves the highest marginal gain in utility of any feasible local reform. We argue that this reform presents itself as a natural benchmark for the evaluation of the welfare effectiveness of other popular tariff reforms such as the proportional tariff reduction and the concertina rules, since it provides the maximal welfare gain of all possible local reforms. We derive properties of the steepest ascent tariff reform, construct an index to measure the relative welfare effectiveness of any given tariff reform, determine conditions under which proportional and concertina reforms are locally optimal and provide illustrative examples.     

Risk‐Utility Paradigms for Statistical Disclosure Limitation: How to Think,But Not How to Act

Risk‐utility formulations for problems of statistical disclosure limitation are now common. We argue that these approaches are powerful guides to official statistics agencies in regard to how to think about disclosure limitation problems, but that they fall short in essential ways from providing a sound basis for acting upon the problems. We illustrate this position in three specific contexts—transparency, tabular data and survey weights, with shorter consideration of two key emerging issues—longitudinal data and the use of administrative data to augment surveys.     

Defining key inventors: A comparison of fuel cell and nanotechnology industries

This paper defines the notion of key inventors — those whose patenting is simultaneously highly productive and also widely cited. By implication, key inventors should be the leaders in any developing new field and we investigate the validity of the notion through an exploration of two emerging technological fields: fuel cell and nanotechnology. The nature of the two groups is compared to discuss the differences between the technological groups.     

National nanotechnology research prominence

A new bibliometric technique enables one to distinguish high emergence topical content. This technique can be applied to sets of research publication abstracts reflecting a given technical domain (here, nanotechnology) to score cutting edge research terms. The resulting high emergence terms warrant special consideration in setting R&D priorities. The researchers (individuals, organizations, or countries) whose publications address those emergent terms heavily deserve consideration as possible leaders in that technical domain. This paper studies nanotechnology research publications using the new emergence scoring in conjunction with established bibliometric publication and citation measures. Findings challenge U.S. superiority in cutting edge nanotechnology research. China shows strongest at addressing emergent nanotechnology topics, followed by the U.S., South Korea, India, and, surprisingly, Iran.     

Capabilities,Rights and Justice in the Context of Australian Aboriginal Welfare Policy

Since white settlement of Australia in 1788, the Aboriginal community has remained a conspicuously disadvantaged minority group. Decades of Federal and State government welfare policies have not prevented alcoholism, domestic violence and unemployment from undermining life in Aboriginal communities. Radically different policies are now being trialled, in recognition that a social emergency exists and in recognition that ‘money for nothing’ welfare handouts have not succeeded in developing human capabilities in Aboriginal communities. Despite the 2008 ‘sorry day’ apology, emotional hurts still run deep, and perceived injustices continue to impact upon the recognition of Aboriginal rights and the advancement of Aboriginal capabilities.     

Bubbles in UK house prices: evidence from ESTR models

Recent movements in stock and house prices have led to an examination of the presence of bubbles. Whilst, there is extensive research on stock price data, there is relatively less for house prices. This paper uses a present‐value model for house prices to test for the presence of bubbles. The results support the presence of a non‐fundamental component within UK national and regional house prices. In particular, for the majority of series considered, evidence is presented of linear non‐stationarity within the fundamental present‐value relationship, and of non‐linear stationarity, implying the presence of a non‐fundamental, or bubble, component. Furthermore, evidence is presented that prices adjust quicker when they are below fundamental equilibrium, than when they are above fundamental equilibrium, i.e. there is downward price stickiness. These results support the hypothesis that house price dynamics can be characterised by price‐to‐price momentum. Finally, forecast evidence suggests that real prices are likely to adjust downwards and converge with fundamental value.     

High-performance human resource practices in Australian family businesses: Preliminary evidence from the wine industry

Using quantitative and qualitative approaches, this paper examines the prevalence of high-performance human resource (HR) systems in Australian family businesses. Focusing on the wine industry, we found that establishing formal HR systems, particularly related to employee involvement and motivation, was positively related to perceived effectiveness of a company’s HR function, leadership, strategic alignment and profitability. Results indicated that formalizing HR systems occurs slowly in the industry, and is largely a function of organizational size. This exploratory study shows the need for more in-depth studies of HR in family-run organizations and supports the notion that increased emphasis on people practices is important to operational and financial success of the family business.     

Relationship between just-in-time manufacturing practices and performance: A meta-analytic investigation

Just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing is among the most commonly researched topics in the area of operations management. This study examines the relationship between JIT manufacturing practices and performance outcomes by means of meta-analysis of correlations approach. Based on an in-depth analysis of literature spanning from 1992 to 2008, the results of this meta-analytic investigation support a positive relationship between JIT manufacturing practices and aggregate performance. However, the findings suggest that not all individual JIT practices are associated with all types of performance outcomes. This study highlights the JIT practices that have the greatest impact on individual performance outcomes and emphasizes the role of moderating factors in the relationship between JIT practices and performance. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed and directions for future theory building in JIT are presented.     

Pretty Vacant: Recruitment in Low-Wage Labour Markets

This paper is a study of the process by which employers in five relatively low-wage British firms fill vacancies. It studies the determinants of the number and quality of applicants, the way in which these applicants are selected for interviews and offered jobs. The main conclusions are that thenumber of applicants is relatively small, the monetary and non-monetaryaspects of jobs are important determinants of the number of applicants forjobs, but that firms do eventually fall virtually all vacancies. Non-employedjob applicants have more difficulty in getting a job interview than those whoare currently employed but, once interviewed, do not appear to face any further difficulties in getting employment.     

Profiling leading scientists in nanobiomedical science: interdisciplinarity and potential leading indicators of research directions

Nanobiomedical science is a promising area in the application of nanotechnology. This paper profiles a group of 21 leading scientists in nanobiomedicine based on high publication rate and high citations. Comparisons with other researchers indicate that the leaders publish more in high impact journals and collaborate more extensively (team science). They reside most heavily in the United States and Western Europe. We compare their research publications using multiple indicators–Integration, Specialization and a Multidisciplinary Index. Relations among interdisciplinarity indicators generated support a three‐factor model based on principles of diversity. We locate this research among the disciplines using science overlay mapping. Key term analyses, based on keywords and on natural language processing help profile the research emphases of these leading researchers. Such results could serve as leading indicators to help identify directions of future nanobio development.