Microsimulation Modelling of Tenure Choice and Grants to Promote Home Ownership

This article develops a microsimulation model of the Australian housing market that has tenure choice as its principal focus. The article sheds light on the role played by relative prices, wealth and borrowing constraints in shaping housing tenure choices. We explore the model's capabilities as an aid to policy making by reporting the findings from an impact analysis of grant programs designed to ease the transition of first home buyers into owner occupation. We find a large demand for home ownership that is not met because of borrowing constraints. The need to meet financial institutions' down payment requirements is particularly important. Government grants made available to first home buyers will ease down payment requirements, but the formal incidence of such a subsidy is found to be inequitable among potential first home buyers, and its impact is largely to bring forward purchase decisions.     

Optimal tax and debt policy with endogenously imperfect creditworthiness

This paper studies the patterns of optimal tax rates and borrowing in a developing country characterized by a costly tax collection. Its access to the international credit market is determined by the efficiency of the tax system, the relative bargaining power of creditors, and the outstanding debt. Country risk modifies considerably the pattern of taxes and borrowing in recessions. The tax rate exhibits strong counter-cyclical patterns in economies operating close to the credit ceiling, whereas the tax rate exhibits very few cyclical patterns in economies operating on the elastic portion of the supply of credit, where country risk factors are absent.     

Intermediated mode of internationalization: new software ventures in Ireland and India

This paper longitudinally examines the relationship between the career reasons of nascent entrepreneurs, their growth preferences and subsequent growth achieved. The longitudinal design allows for examination and control of both survivorship and recall bias upon career reason and growth linkages. Substantial recall bias was observed in the career reasons of entrepreneurs, with the reported importance of self-realization and financial success, as explanations for entering venturing activity, being significantly lower when responses were obtained once the venture was operational. Consistent with economic motives, the importance that the entrepreneur places on financial success was a key determinant to explain cross-sectional differences in growth preferences of the entrepreneur, the intended size of the venture, and achieved growth. Further, the importance of financial success was robust to the use of both prospective and retrospective career reasons. While independence was the most important factor to explain the career choices of nascent entrepreneurs, independence was also found to be negatively associated with intended and achieved employment growth. Overall, the findings demonstrate that nascent entrepreneur career reasons for self-employment are not homogeneous, vary by growth intentions and preferences, and are associated with subsequent venture growth achieved.     

Positioning hierarchy in enterprise system change

There is a widening gulf in change literature between theoretical notions of evolving organisational form and the emerging reality that old and new organisational structures coexist. This paper explores this dichotomy in Enterprise Resource Planning change. It develops a cellular hierarchy framework to explain how different types of hierarchy coexist within the same organisation during the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning.     

Studying Development and Explaining Policies

Development is an ideological project. It originated in the need to address the negative consequences of capitalism in metropolitan countries and was integral to the project of imperialism, whose legacy it bears. Development policies and development studies both confound the intention to develop with the process of development. Theorists of development and of state-directed development, and most of their critics, share dualist assumptions. They have been concerned to explain how to modernize backward and rural economies and to transfer resources to create modern industrial economies. They have drawn on and influenced commu nist, state-led and market-oriented development strategies.     

The Paradox of Transparency,Short‐Termism and the Institutionalisation of Australian Capital Markets

As the ultimate corporate decision‐makers, directors have an impact on the investment time horizons of the corporations they govern. How they make investment decisions has been profoundly influenced by the expansion of the investment chain and the increasing concentration of share ownership in institutional hands. By examining agency in light of legal theory, we highlight that the board is in fact sui generis and not an agent of shareholders. Consequently, transparency can lead to directors being ‘captured’ by institutional investor objectives and timeframes, potentially to the detriment of the corporation as a whole. The counter‐intuitive conclusion is that transparency may, under certain conditions, undermine good corporate governance and lead to excessive short‐termism.     

An Investigation of the Success of Targeting Newspapers and Efficiency of Advertising in Ireland

ABSTRACT

Segmentation and targeting have been considered a central component of marketing strategy for any organization for decades. This study considers the ability to utilize Irish print media to successfully target a high value segment. The aim of this study is twofold: first, to examine reader profiles of Irish daily papers and, second, to consider the accuracy of claimed target readers. Data from the Joint National Readership Survey was utilized to profile readers of the major newspapers available in Ireland. Results suggest once actual circulation size is taken into account there is unlikely to be any advantage in buying advertising space in a publication that claims to target a specific target reader with a smaller circulation, rather than buying advertising in a large circulation mainstream tabloid.     

Managing the costs of HIV/AIDS: A case study of a South African contract cleaning company

This paper, based on a case study of a South African contract cleaning company in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, adds to the recent literature on the management of the financial impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. After situating the research alongside recent contributions that have examined large enterprises, and small, medium and micro enterprises, the paper provides a profile of the company and its predominantly female workforce. The company's management of costs incurred due to HIV/AIDS is critically assessed from the perspective of financial sustainability, using an AIDS Projection Model developed by Matthews (2007 Matthews, A. 2007. Computational modelling of the impact of AIDS on business. AIDS, 21(Supplement 3): S91–7. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). It was found that while continued employment of this workforce is economically sustainable, both from the perspective of the business and the associated provident fund, the costs to employees are far from equitable. The paper therefore recommends the implementation of a holistic HIV/AIDS management programme, including treatment and prevention activities.     

SCHOOLING IN INDONESIA: CRISIS-RELATED AND LONGER-TERM ISSUES

Though Indonesia had been making considerable progress in expanding its education system before the economic crisis broke in 1997, 30% of children were still failing to complete primary school,and the quality of education was far from satisfactory. The economic crisis threatened to lead to massive dropout, and social safety net programs were therefore introduced. This paper outlines issues facing primary and secondary education before and during the crisis, assesses the extent to which the social safety net programs have helped to limit dropout, and discusses longer-term issues in achieving the goal of nine years' universal basic education, raising educational quality and achieving increased equity of access.