This new report based on data from the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth questions whether completing Year 12 benefits all young people. Alfred Michael Dockery argues that alternative pathways and institutional arrangements need to be available to meet the varying needs, abilities and preferences of all young people, as well as the information they require to make informed decisions on what is appropriate for them
The aim of this scoping study is to review the existing literature on the connections between housing and childhood development and wellbeing and to investigate the value and feasibility of conducting empirical research in the Australian context. Specifically, the research questions addressed are: What aspects of housing and housing assistance have been demonstrated to influence children’s development and wellbeing? What are the implications of this influence for housing policy and programs? What data sources are currently available that could be used to investigate the link between housing and housing assistance characteristics and child development and wellbeing outcomes in Australia? Based on these data sources, what methodologies and analytic approaches could be employed to examine direct and indirect associations between housing and children’s development and wellbeing? Authors: Alfred Michael Dockery, Garth Kendall, Jianghong Li, Anusha Mahendran, Rachel Ong and Lyndall Strazdins. Image: narice28 / Flick
The overarching research question of National Research Venture 1 (NRV1) is: How do housing assistance programs impact economic participation outcomes, once we control for the mediating effects that intermediary variables such as ‘health’ and ‘neighbourhood’ have on economic participation outcomes? The potential employment impacts of the two key housing assistance (HA) programs − public housing and Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA) − are investigated using a mix of quantitative and qualitative approaches. In addition, policy simulations are conducted using the AHURI-3M microsimulation model and econometric models that shed light on how policy reform measures might impact economic participation behaviour. Since 1982 the role of public housing has changed from a tenure offering working families affordable housing opportunities to a residual sector that targets HA on those with the greatest need. There has then been a marked change with working age public housing renters increasingly drawn from the ranks of those whose employment prospects are relatively poor. This increasingly stringent targeting is an important factor in explaining the deteriorating employment participation rates of male tenants. However, our modelling of employment trends indicates that female tenants are more employable now than 20 years ago, yet their actual employment participation rates have not changed. This report was written by Alfred Michael Dockery, Simon Feeny, Kath Hulse, Rachel Ong, Lise Saugeres, Heath Spong, Stephen Whelan and Gavin Woo
As someone who identifies as a ‘rational economist’, and has taught and studied both international trade and economic policy, I am going to do something that I never imagined I would do. In this short article, I am going to advocate a government assistance package for the Australian car industry.
To be blunt, government subsidisation and protection of the car industry is widely recognised as a policy failure. Regular reports have made this abundantly clear from as far back as the Industries Assistance Commission’s 1974 report on assistance to ‘passenger motor vehicles, etc.’. Somehow, such assistance has persisted to today despite enormous cost to the Australian people. The direct cost of protection and the many other guises it comes in, such as the recent 1billion‘innovationpackage’isonlypartofthestory.Thereisalsothehighercostofimportedcarstoconsumersandbusinesses.Lockingupresourcesinlessefficientindustriespreventstheseresourcesbeingusedinother,moreefficientindustriesandreducesourproductivity.Hadthesepoliciesbeenscrappedyearsago,therewouldnowbeasmany,probablymore,andhigherpaidjobsinothersectors.Soitisnotamatterofsupporting‘jobsandgrowth’,butratheramatterofshort−termstructuraladjustment.Suchmyopicindustryprotectionhasneverworked,andneverwill.Thereisnobetteropportunitytogetridofassistanceandundergostructuraladjustmentthanduringtimesoffullemploymentandskillshortages,likethoseAustraliahasjustexperienced.Assistancetothecarindustryhaspersistedpurelyforpoliticalreasons,namelythelobbyingandvotingpowerofthosecompaniesreceivingthehandouts,andoftheunionsandworkerswhosejobsaretemporarilyprotected.Thepoliticalprocessfailsbecausethosewhowouldbeemployedinbetterpayingjobsifweweren’tproppinguplocalcarmanufacturersdon’tknowwhotheyare,sotheyhavenopoliticalsway.Earlytradetheoryconcentratedondifferencesincostsofproductionandfactorendowmentsastheexplanationforwhycountriestrade.Thistheoryworkedwellforexplaininginter−industrytrade,likeAustraliaexportingprimaryproduceandimportingmanufacturedgoods.Thefactis,however,thatasubstantialproportionoftheworld’stradeflowsareintra−industrytrade–countriesimportandexportverysimilargoodstooneanother.Thenewtradetheoriesthatemergedtoexplainthisintra−industrytradefocussedonconsumerpreferencesandtheroleofeconomiesofscale.Totakearelevantexample,inAustraliathereisanenormousrangeofcarsavailableforsale–smallandeconomicrunabouts,luxurysportscars,familycars,four−wheeldrives,peoplemovers,utes,panelvans,convertibles,andsoon.Becausethecostofproducingeachmodelfallswiththesizeoftheproductionrun–economiesofscale−acountyproducingonlyforitsdomesticmarkethasachoiceofeitheraverylimitedrangeofproductsorveryhighprices.Bycountriesspecialisingincertainmodelsandbrandsandthentrading,consumershaveaccesstoproductsthatmeettheirfullrangeofpreferencesandatmuchlowercost.Itisthesebenefitstoconsumersthatdriveintra−industrytradeandmuchofglobaltrade.Competitivenessderivesnotsomuchfromfactorprices,butsimplycompaniesfindingtheirnicheinthemarketandinnovatingtokeepit–thinkofPorsche,Ikeafurniture,Nike,TheWigglesandanyotherenduringglobalbrand.BeforegettingtomyproposalforarescuepackagefortheAustraliancarindustry,thereisonemorepiecetothejigsaw.ThelevelofdisadvantagefacingAboriginalandTorresStraitIslanderslivinginremoteAustraliahasbeenextensivelydocumented.Itextendstopoverty,culturalmarginalisation,lifetraumasandphysicalandmentalhealth,asreflectedintheCouncilofAustralianGovernments’‘ClosingtheGap’agenda.Theyarealsoahighlymobilepopulation.Theyoftenneedtotravelvastdistancesoverpoorroadconditionstoaccessbasicservices,togettheirchildrentoschoolandtocomplywithvariousregulationsapplyingtothemandtheircommunities.However,otherkeydriversofAboriginalandTorresStraitIslandermobilityarethedesiretomaintainkinshipnetworksandattachmenttocountry.Itshouldbenotedthatmuchofthiscontemporarymobilityoccursnowasaresultofpastpoliciesofdisplacement,includingforcedremovalofchildrenfromtheirfamilies,permitsystemsandotherlimitationsonmovement,andremovalfromtraditionallands.Thatmobilityofthiskindpersists,despitehundredsofyearsofattemptstostampitout,istestamenttotheimportanceofconnectiontokinandcountryforAboriginalandTorresStraitIslanderAustralians.EffectivepolicyandservicedeliveryneedstotrytoaccommodateAboriginalandTorresStraitIslandermobility,ratherthanseeitaspartoftheproblem.Withlittleinthewayofpublicorcommercialtransport,therearesubstantialbarrierstomobility.Roadandweatherconditionstaketheirtolloncrowdedvehicles,tripsoftentakeunexpectedturnsduetoonecrisisoranother,andpeopleendupstuckintownsandcrowdedhousingorsleepingrough,unabletoreturntotheircommunity.So,inresignationtothepoliticalrealityofongoingprotection,IproposethattheCommonwealthGovernmentspend1 billion to commission the Australian car manufacturers to design and produce an all-terrain vehicle specifically to meet the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders living in remote communities. Ideally, there would be extensive consultation with people in remote communities and collection of data on likely usage patterns in the design phase. However, some key attributes may well be that it is extremely basic, reliable and easy to service and drive, with few mod-cons other than an emergency beacon, perhaps a top speed of only 60 kms per hour; runs on Opal (non-sniffable) fuel; able to carry numerous passengers safely – perhaps the capacity to add additional ‘carriages’ as needed; and built in water tanks.
There are around 1,000 remote Aboriginal communities in Australia. Ideally the vehicle would be cheap and accessible, perhaps a price-tag of around 10−15,000. But even if it was produced at a price of 25,000each,theninsteadofthe1 billion (anti-)innovation package we have now, we could provide 4 such vehicles to every community every year for the next 10 years, and that’s without any cost recovery. Jobs would still be ‘saved’, but instead of a rescue package we know will only harm Australian consumers and productivity, and possibly invoke retaliation from trading partners, why not a policy that would bring substantial social benefits to one the most disadvantaged groups in Australian society? A group for who past policies have mostly inflicted nothing but suffering. And who knows what the international market for such a vehicle might be – it might just be one of those market niches that saves the Australian industry. I’ll even propose a name – The Dream Machine – built specifically for traversing the Dreaming.
Alfred Michael Dockery is Associate Professor of Economics at Curtin University
Photocredit: Devin Huang / Flick
The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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