Australia 2022

Macro outcomes A simple projection of current trends is that in ten years Australia’s population will reach 26.3 million, GDP in nominal dollars will be just short of $2.5 trillion (and in today’s dollars a round$1.8 trillion), and GDP per head in today’s dollars will be $68,400 compared to$59,000 now. There will be 13.34 million employees. Nominal net wealth will have increased by three quarters to $14 trillion – on average, half a million dollars each. In this projection the apparently inexorable growth of net foreign liabilities as a share of GDP over the last thirty years stabilises around the current ratio of 60 per cent of GDP. Over the decade Australian average living standards will probably have improved a little against those of Americans or Europeans or Japanese, though not against those of Chinese, Indians or Brazilians. These outcomes are well within reach. An unremarked but startling fact about Australia today is that the economy is in many respects performing rather better than it has for a half a century. To attain the outcomes described above we need GDP to increase on average by 3 per cent a year, the workforce by 1.5 per cent a year, and labour productivity by 1.5 per cent a year. Each of these outcomes is less than the average annual increase over the last two decades. With the exception of productivity, which has averaged 1.3 per cent over the last decade, these average outcomes are also below the average outcomes for the last decade

Using information technology to help business students learn about contract law

This paper describes continuing work in using information technology (IT) to help Business students learn about contract law. The approach adopted uses a model of the contracting process as being one of negotiation, where the decisions made by the parties involve the acceptance or rejection of certain risks. Normal discussion tutorials are therefore replaced by a role‐play exercise in which students learn by taking part in simulated negotiations, each interested party being represented by a team of students. IT is being introduced into the learning process, both to provide decision‐support for the student teams, and to improve the mechanics of the exercise

Short and Long Run Decomposition of OECD Wage Inequality Changes

This paper focuses on the decomposition of increased wage inequality in OECD countries into the component factors of trade surges in low wage products and technological change. It argues that if the observed wage inequality response to price and technology shocks represents a short run response in which factors and output have not adjusted fully across industries, then decomposition analysis is substantially altered relative to a long-run factors mobile world. This applies either when one type of labour has mobility costs or where there is an additional, sectorally immobile factor. Only small departures from the fully mobile model can greatly change decompositions. Previous general equilibrium based studies have assumed a long-run full mobility response, when this may not be the case, and may consequently have drawn incorrect conclusions.Trade, wages, technology, inequality.

Economic Benefits of American Lobster Fishery Management Regulations

A simulation model is used to compare measures for future management identified in the American lobster fishery management plan; specifically, increases in the minimum legal size and a modest reduction in aggregate fishing mortality are evaluated. The analysis differs from previous work in that the distributional aspects of the alternative management regulations are quantified. The results indicate that (1) both an increased minimum size and a reduction in fishing mortality are economically justified in the sense that net benefits are positive; (2) increasing the minimum size without an adjunct regulation to prohibit entry will cause present fishermen to suffer an initial short-term reduction in revenues for which there will be no long-term gain; (3) because increased minimum size can be justified on the basis of consumer benefits alone, arguments favoring its increase to prevent recruitment failure are moot as far as a test of national economic efficiency is concerned; and (4) a program of effort reduction which reduces by 20% the fraction of available lobsters captured annually is projected to generate SI of producer benefits for every pound of lobster landed. Reducing the annual harvest fraction by 20% results in a level of fishery benefits greater than increasing the minimum size to 89 mm (3^-in.), and increases the coincidence of short-run costs and long-term benefits among those impacted by fishery management.Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Plate versus bulk trolley food service in a hospital: comparison of patients’ satisfaction

Objective The aim of this research was to compare plate with bulk trolley food service in hospitals in terms of patient satisfaction. Key factors distinguishing satisfaction with each system would also be identified. Methods A consumer opinion card (n = 180), concentrating on the quality indicators of core foods, was used to measure patient satisfaction and compare two systems of delivery, plate and trolley. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to build a model that would predict food service style on the basis of the food attributes measured. Further investigation used multinomial logistic regression to predict opinion for the assessment of each food attribute within food service style. Results Results showed that the bulk trolley method of food distribution enables all foods to have a more acceptable texture, and for some foods (potato, P = 0.007; poached fish, P = 0.001; and minced beef, P ≤ 0.0005) temperature, and for other foods (broccoli, P ≤ 0.0005; carrots, P ≤ 0.0005; and poached fish, P = 0.001) flavor, than the plate system of delivery, where flavor is associated with bad opinion or dissatisfaction. A model was built indicating patient satisfaction with the two service systems. Conclusion This research confirms that patient satisfaction is enhanced by choice at the point of consumption (trolley system); however, portion size was not the controlling dimension. Temperature and texture were the most important attributes that measure patient satisfaction with food, thus defining the focus for hospital food service managers. To date, a model predicting patient satisfaction with the quality of food as served has not been proposed, and as such this work adds to the body of knowledge in this field. This report brings new information about the service style of dishes for improving the quality of food and thus enhancing patient satisfaction

Writing masters and accountants in England – a study of occupation, status and ambition in the early modern period

The purpose of this paper is to address the lack of knowledge of the accounting occupational group in England prior to the formation of professional accounting bodies. It does so by focusing on attempts made by the occupational group of writing masters and accountants to establish a recognisable persona in the public domain, in England, during the seventeenth and eighteenth century, and to enhance that identity by behaving in a manner designed to convince the public of the professionalism associated with themselves and their work. The study is based principally on early accounting treatises and secondary sources drawn from beyond the accounting literature. Notions of identity, credentialism and jurisdiction are employed to help understand and evaluate the occupational history of writing masters and accountants. It is shown that writing masters and accountants emerged as specialist pedagogues providing expert business knowledge required in the counting houses of entities which flourished during a period of rapid commercial expansion in mercantilist Britain. Their demise as an occupational group may be attributed to a range of factors amongst which an emphasis on personal identity, the neglect of group identity and derogation of the writing craft were most important.history ; accountants ; bookkeepers

The origins of the Inquisition in Andalusia

Es bien conocido que los primeros tribunales de la nueva Inquisición fueron establecidos por Fernando e Isabel en Andalucía, tanto en Sevilla como en Córdoba. Su introducción fue, por supuesto, el resultado de un claro propósito de lograr la ortodoxia religiosa entre los cristianos de origen judío los llamados «cristianos nuevos» o conversos. Pero el contexto político también influyó en la nueva institución porque contribuyó a asegurar el régimen de Isabel tras la amenaza que había representado su rival Juana “La- Beltraneja” y su marido portugués, al tiempo que podía servir para controlar mejor los conflictos entre «bandos», especialmente en Andalucía. Con todo, no debería pensarse que la Inquisición y sus horrores fueron una cuestión solamente atribuible a España. Por el contrario, tuvo sus precedentes y paralelos en otros países europeos, entre ellos Francia, Italia e Inglaterra.It is known that the first tribunals of Isabella end Ferdinand I s new Inquisition were established in Andalusia, in Seville and Córdoba. Their introduction resulted not only from an overt concern for religious orthodoxy among Christians of Jewish origin -the "New Christians" or conversos. The political context of the new institution consisted of the security of Isabella I s regimen after the threat posed by her rival Juana "La Beltraneja" and her Portuguese husband, and the control of conflict between "bandos", especially in Andalusia. Yet it should not be imagined that the Inquisition and its horrors were unique to Spain. Instead they had their precedents and parallels in other European Countries, including France, Italy and England