Balancing the Australian National Accounts

This paper describes a method of balancing the Income and Expenditure Accounts. By formulating the accounts in a social accounting matrix, assigning reliability weights to the items in the accounts, and using an elegant balancing method advanced by Stone, the discrepancies in the accounts may be removed. Results of this are presented for the period 1970-71 to 1983–84.     

Retained ownership and the valuation of initial public offerings: Canadian evidence*

Abstract. Recent empirical work by Krinsky and Rotenberg (KR) (1989a, b) suggests that the relationship between entrepreneurial ownership retention and initial valuation of unseasoned common shares may not hold in the Canadian environment. In this study, we replicate and extend KR's tests on our more recent Canadian sample of 180 IPOs that listed on the TSE between 1984 and 1987. We find empirical evidence that initial valuation is increasing in the ownership retention signal (α), even when retention is included with various other possible managerial or firm-specific signals about future cash flows. Further, we find this result to be robust with respect to a number of different model specifications as well as across different definitions of who the entrepreneur is, different classes of common stock, and different types of offering units. Résumé. Les récents travaux empiriques de Krinsky et Rotenberg (1989a, b) donnent à penser que la relation entre la rétention par l'entrepreneur d'une participation dans l'entreprise et l'évaluation initiale d'actions ordinaires émises par une entreprise non solidement établie pourrait ne pas tenir dans le contexte canadien. Dans l'étude qui suit, les auteurs reprennent, en les élargissant, les tests de Krinsky et Rotenberg auprès d'un échantillon canadien plus récent de 180 premiers appels publics à l'épargne sur la bourse de Toronto, entre 1984 et 1987. Ils démontrent empiriquement que l'évaluation initiale des actions émises augmente au signal de rétention d'une participation (α), même lorsque la rétention fait partie de divers signaux possibles relatifs à la direction ou spécifiques à l'entreprise au sujet des flux monétaires éventuels. Les auteurs concluent en outre que la solidité de cette conclusion résiste à la modification des caractéristiques du modèle ainsi qu'à la modification des définitions de l'identité des entrepreneurs, des différentes catêgories d'actions ordinaires et des différents types d'unités émises.     

CASUAL EMPLOYMENT IN AUSTRALIA: INCIDENCE AND DETERMINANTS

Casual employment as a fraction of the employed labour force has expanded substantially during the period 1984 through 1993. This paper examines the incidence of this growth by gender, sector and industry. Separate shift-share and econometric procedures analyse ABS pooled time-series, cross-section data for the period 1984 through 1992. The shift-share analysis decomposes intra-industry growth. The fixed effects estimation results suggest recent casual employment growth in Australia is demand determined.     

TOTAL TRANSACTION MEASURES AND M1 GROWTH

This paper examines the role of measures of total transactions in explaining growth in the demand for Ml money balances. Fueled by strong growth in financial activities, total transactions have grown rapidly relative to nominal GNP, especially since 1979. In an aggregate Ml equation, we find financial transaction measures to be of some additional help in explaining Ml growth, beyond the ability of GNP to do so alone. A disaggregated approach shows more promise, with transaction measures improving the explanation of demand deposit growth.     

Standard Setting and Economic Consequences: An Ethical Issue

This article examines difficulties associated with the Australian Conceptual Framework requirement that standard setters have to take into account the economic consequences of their decisions, particularly in relation to the possibility that qualitative criteria such as representational faithfulness might have to be sacrificed in the process. By identifying and assessing the ethical implications of the standard setting task, these difficulties are shown to be avoidable.     

A Decomposition of Changes in Labour Productivity in Australia: 1970-71 to 1989-90*

We show that business-cycle phenomena, climatic conditions and industrial structure are important determinants of annual variations in Australia's labour productivity growth. Another finding is that Australia's productivity slowdown in the 1980s was associated with a reduction in capital growth per unit of labour. The methodology relies on production functions at the industry level We analyze the sensitivity of results to the specification of these functions.     

Further Evidence from Survey Data on Australian Manufacturing Price Changes*

Three data sets from two different quarterly surveys have been used in estimating six standard models of price change behaviour. Results for Total Manufacturing Industry, for all three data sets, show prices respond to both actual cost movements and commodity market excess demand conditions. For most ASIC two-digit industries, prices respond rapidly to actual cost movements, and for many industries they also respond directly to excess demand conditions. No single excess demand measure is appropriate for all industries. The magnitude of orders and inventories influences is very small, but capacity utilization contributions seem far from trivial. Industry results are frequently sensitive to the survey used and/or to the method used to weight individual firm's responses.