Introducing ‘Journeys Home’

Homelessness, despite being a major social policy issue in Australia, is an area that is not well served by data. Most sorely lacking is any large‐scale panel study that follows a broad sample of persons with recent experience of homelessness and unstable housing histories. In 2010, the Australian Government set about rectifying this deficiency when it commissioned the Melbourne Institute to undertake a new panel study, now known as ‘Journeys Home’. This study draws its sample from the population of Centrelink income‐support recipients, targeting persons identified in the administrative data as having recent experience of homelessness, as well as others with similar characteristics who may be vulnerable to housing difficulties in the future. This article summarises the design of this new study and reports on fieldwork outcomes from the first two waves of data collection.     

A Sectoral Approach Balancing Global Efficiency and Equity

This paper explores the idea that a properly designed sectoral approach could be the answer to two sets of constraints that hinder international agreements on climate change, namely a genuine concern from developing countries for economic growth and competitiveness issues from industrialized countries. Our sectoral approach builds on three premises: (i) cap-and-trade systems are established in industrialized countries and intensity targets in developing countries, (ii) sectors subject to international trade abide by the rules of the countries in which they trade and (iii) a fraction of the revenues from permits in industrialized countries go towards carbon mitigation in developing countries. We design an economic model that features interactions in three carbon-intensive sectors (two of which are internationally traded) and two countries (an industrialized country and a developing country). Two scenarios are constructed: an Enhanced Sectoral Approach, which refers to our proposal, and a Global Cap, which implements a uniform CO₂ price. We compare the two scenarios in terms of total welfare and equity. It is shown that, for a minor global welfare loss, the Enhanced Sectoral Approach ranks high in terms of equity for emerging countries. This approach also eliminates competitiveness and leakage issues.     

Information processing and leadership styles: Constructive thinking and transformational leadership

Transformational leaders increase job satisfaction and well‐being among workers. According to the cognitive‐experiential self‐theory (CEST), all behavior is guided by two information‐processing systems: a rational and an experiential system. Study 1 examined the relationship between information processing and transformational leadership among experienced school leaders (N = 183). The rational system had a strong positive correlation with transformational leadership, whereas the experiential system was weakly correlated. Study 2 (N = 126) examined constructive thinking and transformational leadership. Global constructive thinking, emotional coping, and behavioral coping all had strong positive correlations with transformational leadership. These results suggest that improving leaders' awareness of their own information‐processing and thinking systems might encourage more productive transformational‐leadership techniques.     

On the origins of vertical unbundling: The case of the French transportation industry in the nineteenth century

Abstract

This paper retraces the origins of the unbundling of infrastructure, which is a monopoly, from services, which are subject to competition. Using the case of the railroad industry in France, I examine how both natural monopoly theorists and legislation dealt with this subject in the nineteenth century. I argue that the origins of vertical unbundling date to this period with legislation pertaining to inland waterways and railroads. This was particularly the case for the railroad industry due to pricing and competition rationales. I analyze the writings of Dupuit and Walras, and show that they both agreed that infrastructure and services had to be unbundled for the inland waterways. In contrast, they expressed different justifications to defend the monopoly for the railroad industry. Following a chronological progression, the first section explores the origins of unbundling in legislation. The second section analyzes how theorists approached the way railroads had to be managed. Throughout, I highlight the interplay between their work and legislation.     

When does the majority become a majority? Empirical analysis of the time at which main market adopters purchase the bulk of our sales

The idea of a dual-market structure in the early stages of a product's life cycle has become one of the most widely accepted ideas among new product marketing practitioners in the past decade. Concepts such as “Early Market/Main Market” and “Visionaries/Pragmatists” have entered the lexicon of high-tech executives to express the notion that the market for new products is composed of early and main markets with a discontinuity in the diffusion process in between them. Moreover, these concepts have been at least partially tested and verified in the marketing academic literature in the past few years.We extend this branch of research by investigating the timing issues in dual-market cases. We define Change-of-Dominance Time (CD-Time) as the number of years it takes main market adopters to outnumber early market adopters. We empirically investigate this timing issue on a comprehensive data set of new product sales in the consumer electronics industry. We find that regarding explanatory determinants of CD-Time, external influence, such as advertising, to the early market is the most important explanatory variable.We examine the relationship between CD-Time and other early product life cycle phenomena: Takeoff, Saddle, and Rogers' size of adopter categories. We found relatively high correlations between these phenomena and CD-Time.The answer to the question “When does the majority become a majority?” is indeed “at 16%”! In a dual-market setting, the average time at which the main market outnumbers the early market is when 16% of the market has already adopted the product. In terms of time, in 75% of the cases the majority becomes a majority in 5 to 10 years.     

Assessing the impact of a wage subsidy for single parents on social assistance

Abstract This paper studies the impact of a wage subsidy program aimed at long‐term social assistance recipients in Quebec. The program closely mimics the Self‐Sufficiency Project and was implemented for a trial period of one year in 2002.We focus on the labour market transitions of the targeted population starting one year before the implementation of the program and until the end of 2005. Our results show that the duration of spells off social assistance increased, while the duration of social assistance spells decreased slightly. The response to the program varies considerably with both observed and unobserved characteristics.     

天然气价格与原油价格的关系及其发展趋势

天然气价格与重质燃料油、家用取暖油或原油价格挂钩,使得天然气价格能够与竞争能源的价格协调,保证了天然气的销售.欧洲和亚洲市场目前仍然采用这样的价格公式和合同.但是自20世纪80年代美国和英国的天然气市场取消管制以后,长期合同和与石油价格指数挂钩的天然气定价公式受到了挑战:以前20～25年的合同期限缩短到10年之内;出现了天然气现货市场,形成了受美国纽约商品交易所或英国国际石油交易所调节的市场,并出现了标准合同(如期货和期权).今后,现货价与期货价相结合的复杂的指数化价格公式可能辅助或取代原有的石油指数价格定价模式.电价的指数价格可能更频繁地用于为天然气定价.原油价格依旧会影响天然气价格,能源间的相互作用可以调节暂时的价差过大.2050年美国在世界LNG贸易中所占的份额将由目前的5%～6%增加到25%.天然气在家用、工业、发电和运输等各个领域的消费量将不断增长,天然气价格下跌的可能性不大.     

Loss Coverage as a Public Policy Objective for Risk Classification Schemes

This article suggests that from a public policy perspective, some degree of adverse selection may be desirable in some insurance markets. The article suggests that a public policymaker should consider the criterion of “loss coverage,” and that in some markets a policymaker may wish to regulate risk classification with a view to increasing loss coverage. Either too much or too little risk classification may reduce loss coverage. The concept is explored by means of examples and formulaic and graphical interpretations. An application to the UK life insurance market is considered.