"Can Expenditure Cuts Eliminate a Budget Deficit?: The Australian Experience"

Australian governments since the late 1970s have attempted to eliminate the fiscal deficit through reductions in expenditure. These efforts have failed. With each successive business cycle the federal government's budget outcome has been an ever-growing deficit. This paper explains the failure of the government to achieve its balanced budget objective through expenditure reductions. It argues that the impact of these expenditure reductions on the course of the business cycle and the long-term development of the economy has actually fed back onto the budget outcome in a negative way. These feedbacks have rendered the instruments for achieving the government's objective self-defeating. The paper explores the compositional changes in government outlays, away from capital to current outlays, that have resulted from this policy and which may have a detrimental effect on long-run growth.

Social cost-benefit analysis in Australia and New Zealand. The state of current practice and what needs to be done

All is not well with the evaluation of government programs and projects. Resources available to any society are limited. If governments are to increase the well-being of their citizens, they must be able to select and implement the socially most beneficial projects and policies. But many government agencies lack the expertise to carry out a cost-benefit analysis, or even to commission one. Commercial consultants, on the other hand, often have some analytical expertise, but are not immune from adopting approaches that accommodate the proclivities of their client agencies. In order to increase analytical rigour and methodological consistency, this publication urges the adoption of a ‘belts and braces’ set of protocols for use in project evaluation

Social cost-benefit analysis in Australia and New Zealand. The state of current practice and what needs to be done

All is not well with the evaluation of government programs and projects. Resources available to any society are limited. If governments are to increase the well-being of their citizens, they must be able to select and implement the socially most beneficial projects and policies. But many government agencies lack the expertise to carry out a cost-benefit analysis, or even to commission one. Commercial consultants, on the other hand, often have some analytical expertise, but are not immune from adopting approaches that accommodate the proclivities of their client agencies. In order to increase analytical rigour and methodological consistency, this publication urges the adoption of a ‘belts and braces’ set of protocols for use in project evaluation

Can Expenditure Cuts Eliminate a Budget Deficit? The Australian Experience

Australia Governments since the late 1970's have attempted to eliminate the fiscal deficit through reductions in expenditure. These efforts have failed. With each successive business cycle the Federal Government's budget outcome has been an ever growing deficit. This paper explains the failure of the government to achieve its balanced budget objective through expenditure reductions. It argues that the impact of these expenditure reductions on the course of the business cycle and the long term development of the economy has actually fed back onto the budget outcome in a negative way. These feedbacks have rendered the instruments for achieving its policy objective self-defeating. The paper explores the compositional changes in government outlays, away from capital to current outlays, that have resulted from this policy objective and which may have a detrimental effect on long run growth.

Statistics for research : with a guide to SPSS

xxi, 585 p. ; 25 cm

Statistics for research : with a guide to SPSS

This book explains statistical concepts in a highly readable and accessible way without assuming a formal knowledge of statistics. Using practical examples from a variety of disciplines and concentrating on the clear explanation of a wide range of statistical techniques, this book is an easy-to-read and comprehensive introduction and guide to SPSS. An ideal textbook for any course in statistical methods across the social sciences and health sciences and is the perfect starter book for students, researchers and professionals alike

Disciplinary differentiation and institutional independence: a viable template for a pluralist economics

This paper surveys the teaching of pluralist economics in Australian universities with a particular focus on explaining growth and decline. The paper also presents the results of a survey of staff teaching pluralist economics to assess their background and views on the state of economics teaching. The key finding of our survey is that the most promising pathway to a genuinely pluralist economics appears to be disciplinary differentiation and institutional independence: disciplinary differentiation by teaching a pluralist economics under the subject 'political economy', and institutional independence by basing teaching in faculties of arts and social science away from economics departments and business faculties