The Mining Industry: From Bust to Boom

The Australian mining industry experienced a remarkable turnaround during the 2000s. The rapid growth of emerging economies in Asia drove a surge in demand for commodities, particularly those used in steel and energy generation. With global supply unable to respond quickly, prices surged to historically high levels. In response, mining investment in Australia rose to record levels as a share of the economy by the end of the decade. The rise in commodity prices has boosted activity and incomes and encouraged the factors of production to shift towards the mining industry. The boom has also been associated with a large increase in the real exchange rate, affecting trade-exposed industries. Overall, Australia's macroeconomic performance during the decade was much more stable than during the earlier mining booms, reflecting a stronger institutional framework.Australian mining industry; commodity prices; structural change

The Impact of Superannuation on Household Saving

Over the last 20 years superannuation has grown to be the second largest component of household wealth in Australia after ownership of dwellings. This paper analyses the impact on household saving behaviour of the substantial rise in compulsory contributions to superannuation funds. Our analysis takes account of other macroeconomic developments that are likely to have had a strong influence on the household saving rate over this period, especially the financial deregulation of the 1980s and the unprecedented increase in the value of household wealth in the 1990s. We first illustrate the effect of superannuation on household saving in a small theoretical model, also taking account of the effect financial deregulation and capital gains might have on saving. In an empirical model of saving motivated by our theoretical analysis, we find evidence that only part of compulsory superannuation contributions has been offset by reductions in other saving, suggesting that – other things being equal – compulsory superannuation has indeed resulted in higher household saving.superannuation; household saving; offset coefficient

News and Interest Rate Expectations: A Study of Six Central Banks

In this paper we analyse the effect of news relating to the expected path of monetary policy on interest rate futures. Central banks’ transparency is in most respects much greater than it was a decade ago, and so central bank communication needs to be included as a potential source of news. We therefore consider four types of news: macroeconomic news, overseas news, monetary policy surprises and central bank communication. The effect of these types of news on daily changes in interest rate futures is estimated using an EGARCH model for a panel of six economies. We find that interest rate expectations respond to both macroeconomic and policy news, although the response to macroeconomic news is larger, especially once we include foreign news. Overall, the results suggest that the impact of the RBA’s communication policy is in line with other major central banks, and significantly influences (and informs) expectations of future monetary policy.central bank communication; news; interest rate futures

Trends in Labour Supply

The labour force has grown strongly since the mid 2000s due to both a rising participation rate and faster population growth. The increase in participation has been greatest for females and older persons, driven by a range of social and economic factors. At the same time, average hours worked have declined as many of these additional workers are working part time. The rise in population growth has mostly reflected higher immigration, with a larger intake of skilled workers and students adding to the labour supply.labour supply; population growth; immigration; migration; skilled migration; participation rate; services employment; household balance sheets; retirement intentions

The Effect of the Australian Superannuation Guarantee on Household Saving Behaviour

Individual pension accounts are growing in importance as a pillar of retirement incomes policy in the developed world. Policy-makers have generally assumed that by introducing pre-funded pension schemes, they can increase household wealth and thereby raise retirement incomes. However, there has been relatively little empirical work to confirm this. This paper focuses on the effect of Australia’s system of compulsory pension accounts, the ‘Superannuation Guarantee’, on household saving behaviour. Microeconomic data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, are used to explore three related questions: i. Have compulsory pension accounts increased household wealth? ii. What effect do compulsory pension accounts have on voluntary saving for retirement? iii. Do compulsory pension accounts influence the timing of retirement? This paper finds that Australia’s compulsory pension accounts increased household wealth. Voluntary saving for retirement in pension accounts also appeared to increase slightly, possibly due to the added convenience of being able to make contributions directly into these pension accounts. Finally, there is no evidence of a significant effect on retirement intentions. Overall, the results suggest that Australia’s compulsory pension accounts have increased household wealth and raised self-funded retirement incomes.superannuation; household saving; pension reform; HILDA

What Do Financial Market Data Tell Us about Monetary Policy Transparency?

This paper attempts to discern from financial market data the impact of greater monetary policy transparency over the period since the late 1980s. We examine whether interest rate variability has changed, the degree to which financial markets anticipate policy moves and movements in the yield curve at the time of changes in monetary policy. Where possible, we compare the results for Australia with other countries. We find that interest rate volatility at the short end has fallen dramatically since the late 1980s. The extent to which market participants anticipate changes in the policy rate has gradually risen, as has the speed of reaction to interest rate announcements. Since the late 1990s, bill futures contract prices have responded to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) commentaries on the economy. These results are consistent with an increase in the efficiency with which the market digests economic news. The results are quite similar across countries, and it is difficult to isolate from cross-country data any specific preferred model of monetary policy transparency.transparency; monetary policy; accountability; central banking

Effects of crosstalk in WDM optical label switching networks due to wavelength switching of a tunable laser

rosstalk caused by switching events in fast tunable lasers in an optical label switching (OLS) system is investigated for the first time. A wavelength-division-multiplexed OLS system based on subcarrier multiplexed labels is presented which employs a 40-Gb/s duobinary payload and a 155-Mb/s label on a 40-GHz subcarrier. Degradation in system performance as the transmitters switch between different channels is then characterized in terms of the frequency drift of the tunable laser

Framing headship:A demand-side analysis of how the headteacher role is articulated in job descriptions

The majority of studies into recruitment to the headship role have focused on supply-side dynamics and teachers’ own accounts of the factors that (dis)incentivize them from aspiring or progressing to headship. Significantly less work has been done in analyzing demand-side factors. This paper addresses the gap by presenting findings from a mixed-methods analysis of headteacher job descriptions (n = 67) published in a complete school year within Wales – one of the UK’s devolved education systems. A discourse analysis was conducted, based on organizational and occupational conceptions of professional work, which informed a subsequent content analysis of the job descriptions. Our findings identified a dominance of articulations that privileged organizationally-orientated understandings of headship and evidence of a lack of contextualization and agency by stakeholders responsible for recruitment. Such ‘demand-side’ analysis offers scope for examining and understanding the way in which headship is framed and aligns with policy within a variety of international educational contexts and jurisdictions

SCM optical label switching scheme in a WDM packet transmitter employing a switching SG-DBR laser

We demonstrate an SCM optical label switching scheme with spectral efficiency of 0.4bit/s/Hz and a spectral density figure of merit of 1. We then employ this scheme in a WDM transmitter subsystem and we investigate the detrimental effects that switching events in tunable lasers can have on such systems. The label performance is shown to hit an error floor when the tunable laser switches channels and this would cause incorrect routing of packets. The bit error rate is time resolved in order to better understand the problem and some possible solutions are discussed