Promoting Wool Internationally: The Formation of the International Wool Secretariat

Over the past 60 years the International Wool Secretariat has conducted scientific research into aspects of the wool industry, and promotional campaigns designed to boost demand for wool. The Secretariat dates its origins back to the 1930s, a time when a number of cooperative agricultural marketing programs were first initiated. In this paper the origins of the Secretariat are investigated in order to determine the precise reasons why it was founded and why it took the form that it did.     

The Real Structural Imbalance and Fiscal Stance in Australia during the Postwar Era

By using the concept of the constant employment budget balance and changes in real public debt it is possible to determine the size of Australian Government's real structural budget imbalances during the postwar era. In doing so it is possible to partially explain the short run fluctuations in economic activity and comment on the ability of the Federal Government to influence the level of economic activity.     

煤化工技术群组分类和趋势预测:来自专利数据的分析

以国家知识产权局专利数据库为数据来源,采用专利文本挖掘、聚类分析和技术预测相结合的方法,结合R-stideo软件和Loglet Lab软件中的统计分析工具,针对煤化工技术进行技术群组分类及趋势预测研究。研究表明:煤化工技术可分成六大技术群组,即污水处理技术群组、煤气净化技术群组、煤气化技术群组、传统煤化工群组、污染物监测技术群组以及煤液化技术群组。传统煤化工技术专利申请量已进入下降期,表明传统煤化工技术进入衰退期,未来向更加清洁的新型煤化工方向发展;煤气净化技术、煤气化技术和煤液化技术等,经过发展进入稳定发展期,市场空间巨大;污水处理技术和污染物检测技术作为污染治理方面的技术处于快速发展阶段,污水处理技术正朝着更加高效、更加环保以及方法更加综合的方向发展,煤气净化技术正向着更加经济、环保、可靠和高效的方向发展。     

The productivity and performance of Australia’s major banks since deregulation

The aim of this study is to present some measures of the performance of banks operating in Australia since the deregulation of the Australian financial system in early 1980s; including the periods of financial market instability (the early 1990s and mid to late 2000s). In undertaking this measurement two approaches will be used. The first simply applies standard financial indicators. The second approach applies data envelopment analysis (DEA), to determine Malmquist indices of the levels of and the changes in the efficiency and productivity of Australian banks. The empirical results demonstrate the effect of deregulation and periodic financial crisis’s on the performance of individual banks, and the major part of the Australian banking sector. Overall the productivity performance of the Australian banks tended to improve considerably in those periods of strongest economic growth (i.e. the mid 1980s and 2000s).     

Small firms and trades unions in services in the 1990s

With the decline in trade union membership it is essential that trade unions recruit employees in small firms in the service sector.* The theme of this article is whether unions can recruit in these firms. The interviews provide insights into the attitudes of employers and employees towards trade unions with possible policy implications.     

Tariff rate quotas: structural and stability impacts in growing markets

This paper examines several aspects of tariff rate quotas (TRQ) as adopted during tariffication of agricultural policies under the Uruguay Round of GAIT. Quota rents and non-tariff barrier effects may remain under TRQs, contrary to the objectives of the tariffication process. Further, price stability impacts of a TRQ are more complex than those for either tariffs or quotas, and under certain circumstances TRQs may be more stabilizing than either case, since TRQs truncate domestic production distributions much like price bands policies. This complexity results from the possibility of regime switching, and may reflect behavior under either a tariff, a quota, or a combination of cases. A TRQ policy may affect the timing of import decisions based on incentives created under quota allocation procedures envisioned for this institution. It may also allow increased imports as demand growth occurs because the quota is not necessarily a binding constraint. This means the above quota tariff is the critical policy instrument. An empirical study of Philippines port: imports illustrates these issues.