The ABS Survey of Employment and Unemployment Patterns

This paper outlines the main features of the recent longitudinal survey that should provide a valuable information base for study of the Australian labour market.     

Occupational Status: Why do some Workers Miss Out?

The difference in socioeconomic status between the 'haves' and 'have-nots' is widening in the Australian labour market. This is reflected in the data on both earnings and occupational status. This paper assesses the factors contributing to differences in the occupational attainment of workers with a marginal attachment to the labour market and workers who are part of mainstream Australia. Overall, 94 per cent of the occupational status differential is attributable to the inferior endowments possessed by workers with a marginal attachment to the labour market. Until the disadvantaged workers improve their skills they will not be able to gain access to high status occupations.     

Supporting worklife learning at work to sustain employability

The concept of employability extends beyond initial occupational preparation into the ability to remain employable as, inevitably, occupational capacities and workplace requirements change frequently across working lives. Hence, the need to continually learn to remain occupationally current and respond to changing workplace requirements becomes paramount. The evidence suggests that much of that learning arises through individual efforts and the support of co-workers through work activities. So, there is a need to understand how that learning can be supported to sustain employability across lengthening working lives. Drawing on an Australian study, reported here are perspectives from managers and workers in diverse workplaces about current modes of continuing education and training and about how workers are assisted with their learning to meet personal needs and qthose of employers. Employers want an occupationally current workforce that can meet specific workplace needs; workers want the capacities to remain employable, which may extend to advancing their careers elsewhere. The data indicate differences in perceptions about what is being provided, how frequently the provisions are used, and the worth of its certification. Whilst the findings indicate shared concerns about the importance of learning, there were clear differences in views about the models and processes used to support that learning. Across both sets of informants can be seen distinctions between ‘training solutions’ and ‘learning solutions’. A more nuanced analysis suggests that the training solution is appropriate and effective at some point in workers' worklife trajectories but in other circumstances, learning through practice is proposed as being more efficacious.     

International Trade and Income Inequality*

We propose a simple theory that shows a mechanism through which international trade entails wage and job polarization. We consider two countries in which individuals with different abilities work either as knowledge workers, who develop differentiated products, or as production workers, who engage in production. In equilibrium, ex ante symmetric firms attract knowledge workers with different abilities, and this creates firm heterogeneity in product quality. Market integration disproportionately benefits firms that produce high-quality products. This winner-take-all trend of product markets causes a war for talents, which exacerbates income inequality within the countries and leads to labor-market polarization.     

The financial consequences of abolishing a carbon trading system

We investigate the impact of 61 announcements of environmental regulations on the equities listed on the Australian Stock Exchange over the period 2009–2015. In particular, our study focuses on how the stock market reacts to announcements of the abolishment of carbon trading/pricing system. Using event study methodology, we assess whether these announcements create or destroy wealth of equity investors. Furthermore, we estimate changes in systematic risk following the announcements. In general, we find that the abolishment of the carbon pricing system has a positive effect on 18 sectors and the process of removing the carbon pricing system appears to affect the systematic risk of businesses leading to diamond risk structures. We also document negative reactions of polluting sectors to the announcements of green policies.     

Conceptualising organisational-level and microfoundational capabilities: an integrated view of born-globals’ internationalisation

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - For born global firms, which embark on a special internationalisation pathway and shift from a cohort of individuals to small effective...     

Optimal destabilization of cartels

Journal of Regulatory Economics - This paper introduces an oligopoly model that includes three actors: a cartel (comprising two or more firms that operate like one merged company), a group of...     

Is a Risk Index Approach to Unemployment Possible?

This paper examines the ways that productivity, personal characteristics such as birthplace and gender, structural factors and labour market history impact on the distribution of the burden of unemployment. It is shown that labour market history is a major explanator of unemployment outcomes in the Australian labour market. The results from the empirical analyses of unemployment outcomes are used to identify individuals at risk of being unemployed. When individuals classified as at risk of being unemployed are followed through time, it is found that they spend considerable time looking for work and have short working spells. This suggests a risk index approach may have considerable merit as a way of identifying the relative difficulty individuals experience in the labour market.     

Pitfalls in Including Current Earnings in Labour Market Choice Estimating Equations

This paper examines the conditions under which an empirical model of employment choice based on the differential in current earnings is an adequate specification when the theoretical model suggests the use of the difference in present values of the stream of lifetime earnings. The difference between the two approaches is shown to be variables for the growth rates of earnings in the employment states over which choice is being made.     

Determinants of environmentally responsible behaviours for greenhouse gas reduction

Canadian household consumption and driving behaviours are responsible for a significant portion of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced across Canada. This paper examines and characterizes two sets of consumer behaviours, indoor GHG reduction behaviours and automobile GHG emissions, using data from a 2006 telephone survey of a representative random sample of 1002 Canadian households with cars. Two statistical models are used to analyse the impact of four groups of variables (environmental attitudes, policy opinions, automobile‐related indices and socio‐demographics) on GHG reduction at the household level. Results were obtained using ordered probit and Ordinary Least Squares regressions. Indoor GHG reduction behaviours were not correlated with automobile GHG emissions. Dominant factors increasing consumer GHG reduction behaviours both indoors and on the road were sense of personal responsibility and previous environmental activism. Canadians who least actively participate in GHG reduction activities were more likely to be living in the Prairie provinces and to be male.