Cannabis, Alcohol and Cigarettes: Substitutes or Complements?

This paper uses individual level data from the National Drug Strategy Household Surveys to estimate the price responsiveness of participation in cannabis, alcohol and cigarette use. In addition to own price effects, we estimate cross price effects and the impact of decriminalizing cannabis use. We find that participation is responsive to own prices. There is some evidence that cannabis is a substitute for alcohol and a complement to cigarettes, and that alcohol and cigarettes are complements. The liberalization of cannabis laws in South Australia may have led to a temporary increase in cannabis use among the over-30 age group.     

The predictive ability paradox in behavioral accounting research

The purpose of this brief paper is to illustrate a problem with certain “types” of behavioral experiments predicated on a test of predictive ability. Such studies possess the following common characteristics: (1) They employ the implicit prediction models of individual human subjects; (2) They utilize as criteria for assessing predictive usefulness events whose outcomes cannot be independent of expectations about them (e.g. bankruptcy); (3) They use historical values for both criterion events and treatment factors. The difficulty with such experimental designs lies in the necessity to assume unalterable prior behavior in order to utilize a known value for the criterion event. Such an assumption makes it difficult to demonstrate the predictive usefulness of any information treatment factors.     

Research in technology education: looking back to move forward … again

In 2013 I published, in this Journal, a review of journals and conference publications in Technology Education from 2006 to 2010 as one measure of the nature of research that was being conducted in the area (Williams in Int J Technol Des Educ 23(1):1–9, 2013). An element of that review was a prediction of trends, from the findings, to speculate about what research areas may develop and become more significant and more common in the future. This prediction was integrated with personal experiences and understandings to result in a speculative discussion of future trends. This Research Note represents an extended review, both in terms of the journals and conferences covered, and the time period to include 2011–2013, in order to evaluate those predictions and refine possible future trends, and to answer the research question: What are the developments and trends in Technology Education research? It is hoped that this will be useful to researchers in the area of Technology Education who are planning research, and to stimulate discussion about the research that is needed in this area.     

Investigating the feasibility of using digital representations of work for performance assessment in engineering

This paper reports on the results of a 3-year study conducted at the Centre for Schooling and Learning Technologies (CSaLT) at Edith Cowan University in collaboration with the Curriculum Council of Western Australia which concerns the potential to use digital technologies to represent the output from assessment tasks in the senior secondary course, Engineering Studies. The general aim of this study is to explore the potential of various digitally-based forms for external assessment for senior secondary courses in terms of manageability, cost, validity and reliability. The problem being addressed was the need to provide students with assessment opportunities in new courses, that are on one hand authentic, where many outcomes do not lend themselves to being assessed using pen and paper over a three hour period, while on the other hand being able to be reliably and manageably assessed by external examiners. That is, the external assessment for a course needs to accurately and reliably assess the outcomes without a huge increase in the cost of assessment. A computer managed examination was designed that consisted of a design task that was broken down into a number of timed activities. Students were paced through each activity, recording their input in the form of a portfolio. Input consisted of text, graphics through a camera, video and voice. The exam outputs were uploaded to a online repository. The students’ work was marked by external assessors using a standards based rubric that allowed the students work to be ranked though Rasch Modelling.     

University – industry collaboration in R&D: the role of labor market rigidity

We investigate how R&D university – industry collaboration (R&D UIC) is influenced by labor market rigidity. While it is well-established that an educated and skilled workforce will facilitate R&D UIC, another aspect of these alliances has been under-researched: the role of labor market rigidity, in particular the difficulties employers face in hiring and firing workers. We hypothesize that the size of the R&D labor pool in a country will encourage R&D UIC, and that the ease with which employers are legally allowed to hire and fire will directly and indirectly influence R&D UIC. Integrating data from various sources, we test our model on a sample of 73 countries for which information on the size of the R&D labor pool and labor market regulations are available. We also conduct a robustness test using a different proxy for R&D labor pool on a larger sample of 109 countries. Results confirm the strong link between a country's R&D labor pool and R&D UIC, as well as direct negative impacts of hiring and firing rigidity and an indirect negative impact of hiring rigidity. The findings have implications for managers, policy makers, and researchers of R&D collaboration between universities and industry.     

The half‐empty office: dilemmas in managing locational flexibility

Through a case study contrasting the impacts of formalised and informal teleworking practices on office‐based workers, multidimensional dilemmas between flexibility, control and equity are uncovered. Formal schemes, although problematic and rare, possess some advantages in resolving the three dimensions. A model is proposed to test findings further.