Ideas and Education: Level or Growth Effects?

This paper examines theory and evidence from recent studies into the contributions to economic growth of expenditure on education and on research and development. Investment in human capital has fundamentally different economic attributes to physical investment - exhibiting complementarity, positive feedback and non-rivalry - implying the potential to enhance economic growth over a long time period. In the case of education, there are debates over whether changes in educational attainment ultimately affect the long-run growth rate of the economy, or only the long-run level of output. The macroeconomic evidence on level effects is consistent with microeconomic estimates of private rates of return to schooling. It appears, however, that there are also significant long-term growth effects the more educated is the workforce, the better is it able to implement technological advances. There is consistent evidence of high social rates of return on research and development in both commercial areas of research and in more fundamental research, implying that R&D is under-resourced. A number of studies have emphasised the importance of international technology spillovers, particularly for smaller economies such as Australia.

International Business Visits and the Technology Frontier

This paper studies the impact of international business trips on the stock of knowledge available to an economy. It develops a theoretical model to analyse the possible effects, and presents an empirical application using productivity data for a panel of twelve Australian industries during 1991/2-2005/6. Business trips emerge as a significant source of productivity growth. As the knowledge transferred through business visits is non-rival, both countries of origin and destination can gain from the human capital of travellers. As a result, even countries traditionally disadvantaged by geography, size, or level of economic development have the opportunity to access the latest technology and information to stimulate growth.international labour movements, face-to-face meetings, business trips, growth, productivity

Income-based measures of average well-being

Internation comparisons of average national incomes omit important information about leisure, home production, health, etc. They are also bedevilled by index number problems. This paper suggests ways of combining working hours and life-expectancy with income comparisons, and shows that the fixed-price indexes of real income, such as those in the Penn World Table, substantially understate the income gaps between the poorest and richest countries

Institutions and Trade: Competitors or Complements in Economic Development?

A recent paper by Dowrick and Golley (2004) finds that the impact of trade on growth varies with income. In particular, during the period 1980-2000, trade is observed to yield larger benefits for the more advanced economies. This result is backed up by Dejong and Ripoll (2005) who show that the richer countries benefit more from tariff reduction than the poorer countries. These findings raise the question, what is it about high levels of per capita income that enable richer economies to take better advantage of trade? It appears that the reason behind the success of the high income economies is the high quality institutions. These institutions not only boost growth directly but they impact economic performance indirectly by improving trade. We capture the complementarity between institutions and trade by estimating an empirical growth model which includes an interactive term involving these two variables. Better quality institutions are indicative of lower transaction costs which facilitates trade. It also ensures better distribution of the gains from trade paving the way for further trade and growth.

Bargaining over surplus : oligopolies, workers and the distribution of income

The thesis examines the interaction of labour and product markets in determining Income distribution. It presents evidence on a marked shift in the distribution of income in the UK, in the early 1980s, towards profits and away from manual earnings, a shift which is attributed in part to a secular rise in manufacturing price-cost margins contemporaneous with a massive Increase in unemployment. Evidence that labour strength affects real wages and income distribution is contrasted with apparently contradictory theory and evidence of oligopolistic employers' ability to determine profit margins constrained only by product market conditions. Oligopoly theory is examined along with an analysis of Stackelberg and Cournot duopoly. Results are derived illuminating the links between product market and labour market conditions on the one hand and Income distribution on the other. In particular it is shown that employers will generally prefer not to bargain over employment levels; but if they do bargain over jobs, then price-cost margins will be directly affected by workers' bargaining strength. An empirical study examines the effect of labour strength on price-cost margins in UK manufacturing industry. The analysis uses cross- section regressions for the years 1975, 1979 and 1982. Qualified support is found for the hypothesis that workers and employers do bargain over employment. There is also some econometric evidence that unemployment has undermined the bargaining position of manual workers. Taken together, these studies imply that unemployment has played an important role in shifting the distribution of income In the UK In the early 1980s. A further empirical study examines changes in import levels and manufacturing margins between 1979 and 1982. While single equation estimates appear to show that Import penetration reduces domestic margins, simultaneous estimation shows no competitive impact of imports

Ageing economics: human capital, productivity and fertility

Along with many other advanced economies, Australia faces an ageing population as a result of declining fertility over the last few decades and increasing longevity. The OECD (2003:1) is sounding the alarm on the economic effects of ageing, predicting falling living standards unless remedial policy action is taken

The Role of Fertility and Population in Economic Growth: Empirical ResultsFrom Aggregate Cross-National Data

Two recently improved sets of cross-country panel data are combined in order to re-examine the effects of population growth and fertility on economic growth. Using a 107 country panel data set covering 1960-85, we find that high birth rates appear to reduce economic growth through investment effects and possibly through "capital dilution", although classic resource dilution is not evident in the data. Most significantly, however, birth rate declines have a strong medium-term positive impact on per capita income growth through labour supply or "dependency" effects.

The acceptability and feasibility of an anxiety reduction intervention for emergency department patients with non-cardiac chest pain

Despite good physical prognosis, patients who receive a diagnosis of non-cardiac chest pain (NCCP) may experience persistent pain and distress. While cognitive-behavioural interventions have been found to be effective for this group, they are difficult to deliver in busy emergency department (ED) settings. Addressing the acceptability and relevance of self-help interventions is an important initial step in addressing this need. This study sought to examine the acceptability and relevance of an evidence-based self-help intervention for ED patients with persistent NCCP and anxiety. Patient (interviews: N = 11) and specialist chest pain nurse (focus group: N = 4) views on acceptability and feasibility were examined. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Patients and nurses reported that there was a need for the intervention, as stress and anxiety are common among patients with NCCP, and provision of psychosocial support is currently lacking. Both patients and nurses reported that the intervention was relevant, acceptable, and potentially useful. Some changes to the intervention were suggested. Nurses reported that the intervention could be used within the existing staff resources available in an ED setting. This study represents an important first step towards developing a brief self-help intervention for ED patients with NCCP and anxiety. Further research should seek to determine the efficacy of the intervention in a pilot trial