Housing Interest Rate Deregulation and the Campbell Report*

It is argued that deregulation of housing interest rates would, under plausible assumptions, substantially increase the cost of housing finance in Australia, contrary to the impression created by the Final Report of the Australian Financial System Inquiry (the Campbell Report). Characteristics of the market for owner-occupier housing finance, on both the demand and supply sides, suggest that the deregulated market rate will be approximately equal to the uncontrolled rate under regulation. The weighted average interest rate for owner-occupier housing finance at December 1981 is more than three percentage points below the uncontrolled rate. The authors conclude that while this result does not of itself constitute an argument against deregulation, it does imply that deregulation would have a substantial distributional impact .     

The Challenge of Human Resources Development

A productive workforce depends on a country's educational system, the quality of its health care, training and retraining opportunities, its family policy, its labor policies with or without unions, and the quality of public services. On all counts, a significant portion of the U.S. workforce is in serious trouble. Numerous community cases and experience abroad teach that ideological boundaries in the United States inhibit the formation of new partnerships, coalitions, and forums essential to the development of more productive human resources     

Egoistic Rationality and Public Choice: A Critical Review of Theory and Evidence*

Over the past 20 years there has been a rapid development of public-choice theory: that is, the application of an assumption of egoistic utility maximization to political behaviour. In this paper it is argued that, in important areas, the available empirical evidence runs counter to this theory. The continuing work in this area therefore reflects ideological, rather than explanatory or predictive, concerns.     

Testing Rationality in the Point Spread Betting Market

This paper presents empirical tests of market rationality using data from the point spread betting market on National Football League games. Data from this market avoid many common pitfalls of tests of rationality in conventional financial markets. The authors test for rationality with two types of tests, statistical and economic. Results of the tests reveal that the statistical tests cannot reject market rationality while the economic tests do reject market rationality.     

Changes in IR Programs Since the Mid-Sixties

An up-date of a 1967 study of industrial relations programs reveals that they are increasingly being integrated into traditional academic units. Both undergraduate and graduate degree programs have increased and most are housed in an academic department. The content of degree programs is shifting from collective bargaining to human resources management.