1,721,004 research outputs found
Culture and Fiscal Policy
No full textThis thesis, structured around three empirical studies, examines how culture affects policy and economic outcomes in a sample of 62 developed and developing countries spanning the period 1980-2015. More specifically, the studies investigate different cultural traits and their impacts on various outcomes such as fiscal policy choice, fiscal response to cyclical fluctuations and economic volatility. In so doing, this thesis enriches the emerging literature on the economics of culture and the political economy literature to examine: (i) how cultural differences can explain variation in different aspects of fiscal policy across countries, (ii) how culture and fiscal policy jointly determine economic volatility and (iii) the stabilising role of fiscal policy. The first two research areas have remained largely unexplored in the literature whilst the third is still under intensive debate given a lack of consensus among researchers.
The first study focuses on the role of culture in determining the size of government. To that purpose, three theoretical hypotheses on the relationship between “thrift” (the proxy of culture) and government consumption are tested using panel data. Data for thrift and other culture variables used in this thesis are from the World Values Survey. Thrift represents the wise management of money and resources and it is also a summary concept for all psychological factors that affect saving. The main finding of this study is that government consumption is higher in thriftier countries, which is put down to thrifty individuals preferring to substitute their own consumption with government consumption, thus resulting in increased private savings and larger governments. The positive effect of thrift on government consumption, however, weakens in more corrupt societies.
The second study extends the aforementioned investigation in considering culture as a driver of fiscal policy. Of particular interest is the extent to which fiscal policy is used countercyclically in order to stabilise the business cycles, with the emphasis on the downside of the cycles. Therefore, this study concentrates on the discretionary fiscal expenditure rather than the total government size. The relevant culture proxy captures individuals’ attitude towards economic stability, denoted in this thesis as “stability preference”. Estimations using both panel and cross-sectional models report that a stronger cultural preference for stability effectively results in governments increasing expenditure to counter negative cyclical shocks. This in turn makes fiscal policy more countercyclical.
The third study more generally examines the relationship between cultural and economic volatility. In particular, the chapter tests the proposition that societies with a higher level of “trust” tend to trade and invest more, thus leading to more diversified economic structures that are less vulnerable to idiosyncratic shocks. This high trust – low volatility hypothesis is tested using a regression framework that has volatility as a dependent variable. Independent variables are trust and other determinants of volatility such as macroeconomic policy, term of trade and geographical variables. Thus, while assessing the impact of trust on output volatility, this study also revisits the stabilising role of fiscal policy. Empirical evidence shows that high trust levels have volatility-reducing effects. Moreover, although fiscal policy does respond to business cycles, there is neither a significant stabilising nor destabilising effect of fiscal policy.
The overall findings from these three inter-related studies contribute to the literature on the economics of culture and, more generally to the political economy literature. Empirical results suggest that culture is a fundamental driver of economic development. Different aspects of culture shape different aspects of policy outcomes as well as aggregate macroeconomic outcomes. This thesis also provides policy implications regarding the size and scope of government, types of fiscal response during economic downturns and the effectiveness of fiscal policy in stabilising the economy.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)Dept Account,Finance & EconGriffith Business SchoolFull Tex
The impact of Covid-19 stimulus: The case of Australia
No full textThe swift and immense shock of the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent containment measures have plunged the global economy into a severe contraction. Governments around the world have reacted with unprecedented financial injections, pumping enormous amounts of money in to help the staggered economy and those who have lost their jobs.
This research investigates how the economic stimulus has affected Australia's macroeconomic performance and reviews policy measures undertaken by the government and central bank as a response to the COVID-19 crisis which include fiscal, monetary and exchange rate measures. The research shows that the stimulus had some remarkable short-term benefits of boosting demand and strengthening the economy, in particular employment, which has experienced an unexpectedly quick recovery. The empirical analysis identified a strong statistical correlation between rapid money growth and inflation in the observed period. The analysis also confirms the short to medium-term risk of the excessive economic stimulus to price stability. In addition to this, the research shows that global supply constrains are not the principal cause of inflation. On the contrary, high demand induced by excessive COVID-19 economic stimulus, was the key contributor to the inflation burst. The crisis and the economy capacity were somewhat misdiagnosed - too much money was directed towards households and injected into the overall economy. The output gap was not carefully estimated, and all of this led to an overheated economy. When the economy finally bounced back and the unemployment rate fell, prices began to rise. Inflation has quickly gone from being very low to being very high.
The holistic analysis of the stimulus package adds to existing research by investigating the relationship between money stock, inflation and output. There is an ongoing economic debate over the usefulness and the size of economic stimulus as well as disagreement as to whether and under what circumstances stimulus packages trigger inflation. Some economists argue that large stimulus are necessary and policy makers should disregard inflation concerns (Kruger, 2021; Stiglitz 2020; Hawkins 2020). On the contrary, other economists fear that in the long run, economic stimulus can do greater harm than short-term good and spark inflation, even leading to hyperinflation (Summers, 2021), while some warn that higher inflation will persist (Furman, 2021).
The research contributes to the current understanding of the role of the government and the central bank in softening external economic shocks and also adds to the existing literature by highlighting the link between rapid money growth, inflation and output.Thesis (Masters)Master of Philosophy (MPhil)Dept Account,Finance & EconGriffith Business SchoolFull Tex
Job Satisfaction and Gender: Evidence From Australia
No full textThis paper investigates six different aspects of job satisfaction (pay, job security, work, hours, flexibility and overall) by gender over a four-year period in the Australian labour market using the HILDA panel dataset. This paper contributes to the literature by building on initial Australian findings by Long (2005), which used HILDA’s Wave 1 dataset and concentrated only on overall job satisfaction. We find females to be more satisfied with five of the six job satisfaction measures. Running gender separated random effects ordered probit models, we report that gender differences with different aspects of job satisfaction can be partially explained by both personal and labour market characteristics. In particular, job satisfaction for females is far less influenced by past labour market participation compared to males. Differences in workplace characteristics are less pronounced though unionised females are less satisfied at work compared to non-unionised females; a finding far less pronounced for males. Given that past studies have found gender job satisfaction differences disappear for the younger and highly educated, we re-ran random effects ordered probit models for both ‘educated’ and ‘young groups’. Unlike previous studies, we find that younger females are still more satisfied at work compared to males in four of the six measures investigated. However, higher educated females are a much-different subset of employed females as a whole. They are only more satisfied with higher educated males with respect to pay, and are actually less satisfied with hours worked and job flexibility. Overall, the use of HILDA’s panel dataset has produced results both consistent and inconsistent with previous findings in the literature. Females’ higher level of job satisfaction is found, with no econometric (but statistical) evidence that it is being fully eroded over time. However, we find no evidence that younger females exhibit job satisfaction rates comparable to young males, while highly educated females have satisfaction rates that failed to match initial expectations and deserve further investigation
Going beyond the zero-sum game: flexicurity as a tool for worker advancement in the Asia-Pacific region
No full textGriffith Business SchoolNo Full Tex
Is There a 'Rising Tide' of Graduate Overeducation in Australia?
Get PDFThis paper studies the extent of graduate overeducation and graduate gender income differences in Australia. As well, the paper tests for non-linear returns to overeducation. It is found that the rates of graduate overeducation vary by both gender and time and range between 16% - 22%. Returns to graduate overeducation increased over the time period but were consistent with the stylised facts found in the literature. Non-linear returns to overeducation is weakly evident for female graduates in 1996. The graduate gender income gap narrowed by 5.6% between 1991-1996, mainly due to the improvement of the position of female graduates within the male graduate income distribution and improvements in their human capital characteristic endowments relative to male graduates
2013-04: Going beyond the zero-sum game: Flexisecurity as a tool for worker advancement in the Asia-Pacific region (Working paper)
No full textGoing Beyond the Zero-Sum Game: Flexisecurity as a Tool for Worker Advancement in the Asia-Pacific RegionGriffith Business SchoolFull Tex
An Econometric Analysis of Consumer Demand in Asia
No full textMost Asian economies have grown impressively during the past 30 years. Asia continues to be both the fastest-growing region in the world and the main growth engine of the world economy, contributing to more than 60% of global economic growth. Such robust, prolonged growth has clearly raised incomes, lifted millions out of poverty and given rise to new wealth and the emergence of a new rich class in Asia. The economic transformation of Asia, combined with globalization, has led Asian consumers towards greater discretionary spending, while providing ample expansion potential for businesses and investors. In light of this background, this thesis aims to analyse the demand for consumer goods in Asian countries and examine the similarities and disparities of consumption patterns across Asian countries using a systemic approach. A review of the literature on the topic revealed that there are only a few empirical studies that include some Asian countries, for various time periods. In this thesis, we consider ten Asian countries which are at different stages of economic development: Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand—with a special focus on Sri Lanka.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)Dept Account,Finance & EconGriffith Business SchoolFull Tex
Graduate Overeducation in Australia
No full textAustralia, and indeed the world, has witnessed a massive increase in tertiary educated labour force participation, particularly in the last 30 years. An unintended consequence of this has been a rise in the number of highy qualified graduates failing to obtain employment commensurating with their paper qualifications, leading to potential human capital athropy and loss of productivity. This precipitated my study into the issue of graduate overeducation in Australia. It investigates the depth of this phenomenon among various graduate sub-groups in the labour market, including females and immigrants. The study hopes to broaden the current knowledge base by offering a comprehensive account of graduate overeducation in Australia from various perspectives.No Full Tex
Factor mobility and institutional discrimination : the case of language substitution in the private sector workplace in Quebec
No full textLabour Market Heterogeneity: Investigating Unorthodox Aspects of Labour Market Success in Sri Lanka
No full textThe global labour market is confronted with a significant challenge of labour market mismatch, notably evident in the prevalence of overeducation. Historical and contemporary research into this phenomenon has been heavily biased towards developed economies, suggesting either that (a) overeducation is not an issue for developing countries, or that (b) it actually is a significant concern, but has been under-researched for a plethora of reasons including a lack of suitable data and perhaps a lack of focus given the emphasis on economic growth and development instead. This thesis resolves the latter, at least by looking at available Sri Lankan Labour Force Survey (LFS) data, a developing country with access to better data sources than most of its peers. In Sri Lanka specifically, and in the developing world generally, the augmentation of educational investment and attainment has exacerbated the imbalance between labour supply and demand, culminating in adverse labour market outcomes characterised by diminished wage returns, wage penalties, and wage disparities. This thesis explores the overeducation phenomenon in a developing country (Sri Lanka) by studying (1) alternative measurements of overeducation, (2) incidences and returns to overeducation, including a specific look at graduate overeducation, and (3) gender wage inequalities, and its relationship to overeducation. Four research objectives were developed to address the overeducation phenomena, which in turn are organised as four studies in the thesis.
Despite almost 50 years of research into overeducation, there is a significant absence of a comprehensive synthesis regarding the alternative measures of overeducation. In Chapter 3; a systematic quantitative literature review addresses this gap by providing a wide-ranging overview of alternative measures of overeducation debated in the contemporary literature, thereby contributing novel insights into the methodological diversity and implications of different measurement approaches. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines are used to synthesise a database using Covidence and Notion software. Relational analysis by Leximancer software identifies six major clusters within the segmented review that highlight the divergences in results due to the use of alternative measurements and clarify the sensitivity of results to specification to both the academic community and policymakers.
Chapters 4 and 5 focus on the incidences and returns to overeducation. Specifically, Chapter 4 provides a comprehensive analysis of overeducation in Sri Lanka, comparing the incidences and returns to overeducation utilising alternative measurements. A pseudo-panel is created out of five continuous (2015 - 2019) cross-sectional data to control individual unobserved heterogeneity using fixed effect estimations in assessing returns to overeducation. Consistent with the stylised facts of overeducation, the study found significant pay penalties for overeducation and pay premia for undereducation vis-a-vis adequately matched peers with similar levels of education, irrespective of measurements used, though magnitude differences were evident. Moreover, the study found that overeducated males no longer suffer from a wage penalty whereas the pay penalties associated with overeducation only apply to females, again irrespective of measures utilised.
Chapter 5 explores the impact of graduates' overeducation on wages across the wage distribution accounting for the individual unobserved heterogeneity attributed to ability, given the governmental focus on developing skills via the higher education sector in Sri Lanka and other developing countries. Overeducated graduates were distinguished from their non-overeducated counterparts using the Job Analysis (JA) measure. Unconditional Quantile Regression (UQR) approach along with standard Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression employed to estimate the wage effect of overeducation across the entire wage distribution while stratifying by gender and field of study sub-samples. Results suggest a wage penalty associated with overeducation across the wage distribution, irrespective of sex and field of study. Both male and female graduates with lower abilities experience higher wage penalties, supporting the notion of a close relationship between low ability and overeducation. Conversely, higher-ability male graduates suffer lower wage penalties compared to higher-ability female counterparts prompting discussion on the existence of the glass ceiling effect.
Chapter 6 contributes to the gender wage inequalities of overeducation. The study estimates the gender wage gap (GWG) in urban and non-urban areas in Sri Lanka in the presence of overeducation, using Blinder Oaxaca decomposition (BOD), Counterfactual Decomposition using Quantile Regression (CDQR), and Decomposition using Unconditional Quantile Regression (UDQR). Unsurprisingly, the chapter finds GWG in favour of males, especially in lower and higher quantiles of the wage distribution. The non-urban localities evince a higher GWG compared to urban areas consistently in all three methods. Decomposition results indicate that the GWG is mainly driven by discrimination i.e. by the unexplained factor in comparison to the explained factors. Indeed, the explained factors suggest that any existing wage premia should actually accrue to females rather than males, which is a unique finding. A priori, one would expect that explained factors like skills and work experience would already favour males in terms of wages, and that this would only widen with the presence of the discriminatory (i.e. unexplained portion) of the models. Instead, findings suggest a significant discrimination effect on wages against females, as the explained portion results in favour of females is completely flipped on its head. Overeducation contributed positively to the GWG in which overeducated males are penalised less in terms of wages compared to their female counterparts. Especially so in urban areas compared to the non-urban counterparts.
Post-empirical studies, Chapter 7 provides a comprehensive overview and detailed empirical findings of the research where the thesis provides policy recommendations on each specific research chapter (i.e. chapters 4-6) to reduce the labour market mismatch from the supply side. Finally, this chapter also addresses the limitations encountered during the study and proposes directions for future research.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)Doctor of PhilosophyDept Account,Finance & EconGriffith Business SchoolFull Tex
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