Minimum Wages and Employment: Reconsidering the Use of a Time-Series Approach as an Evaluation Tool

The time-series approach used in the minimum wage literature essentially aims to estimate a treatment effect of increasing the minimum wage. In this paper, we employ a novel approach based on aggregate time-series data that allows us to determine if minimum wage changes have significant effects on employment. This involves the use of tests for structural breaks as a device for identifying discontinuities in the data which potentially represent treatment effects. In an application based on Australian data, the tentative conclusion is that the introduction of minimum wage legislation in Australia in 1997 and subsequent minimum wage increases appear not to have had any significant negative employment effects for teenagers.structural break, teenage employment, minimum wage

The Australian firearms buyback and its effect on gun deaths

The 1996-97 National Firearms Agreement (NFA) in Australia introduced strict gun laws, primarily as a reaction to the mass shooting in Port Arthur, Tasmania in 1996, where 35 people were killed. Despite the fact that several researchers using the same data have examined the impact of the NFA on firearm deaths, a consensus does not appear to have been reached. In this paper, we re-analyze the same data on firearm deaths used in previous research, using tests for unknown structural breaks as a means to identifying impacts of the NFA. The results of these tests suggest that the NFA did not have any large effects on reducing firearm homicide or suicide rates

Minimum wages and employment: reconsidering the use of a time-series approach as an evaluation tool

This paper demonstrates that the introduction of minimum wage legislation in Australia in 1997 and subsequent minimum wage increases appear not to have had any significant negative employment effects for teenagers.The time-series approach used in the minimum wage literature essentially aims to estimate a treatment effect of increasing the minimum wage. In this paper, the authors employ a novel approach based on aggregate time-series data that allows them to determine if minimum wage changes have significant effects on employment. This involves the use of tests for structural breaks as a device for identifying discontinuities in the data which potentially represent treatment effects. In an application based on Australian data, the tentative conclusion is that the introduction of minimum wage legislation in Australia in 1997 and subsequent minimum wage increases appear not to have had any significant negative employment effects for teenagers

Taking a Grassroots Approach: Creating a Future for STEAM Based Research, Data, and Tools Support at the UCF Libraries

This session will explore the impetus for UCF Libraries interest in developing a research data management (RDM) workshop series, specific infrastructure concerns (such as scalability and staff resources), key partnerships leveraged, and how the pilot workshops series has provided valuable lessons learned as the Libraries develops additional workshops on research data management. What do you do when your library does not have a formal RDM team or positions dedicated to this area of research support? How can you leverage existing campus partnerships to create robust and scalable services? Come to this session to find out more

Strategies for Innovation and Sustainability: Insights from Leaders of Open Source Repository Organizations

4th International Conference on Open RepositoriesThis presentation was part of the session : Conference PresentationsThis panel convenes leaders of organizations that provide the major open repository software platforms featured at OR09. This session provides an opportunity to learn about the strategic processes behind the software - both from a technical and business perspective. The panelists will each provide an overview of their strategic approach open source and open repositories. Specific attention will be paid to strategies for promoting innovation, governance and organization models, and revenue and business models. The area of sustainability and business models for open source software is active and evolving and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. The panelists will discuss their views on ensuring the health and vitality of their platforms, addressing challenges such as: ensuring stability while promoting innovation; generating revenue; enabling community process, governance, and organizational development

The influence of leadership on the organisational effectiveness of SAPS precincts

Public institutions have the responsibility to deliver various services to the public in the most effective and efficient manner. In South Africa, many public sector reforms were instituted after 1994. The main reasons for these reforms were to improve the access of the historically disadvantaged to public services, to increase efficiencies, to reduce costs and to reduce public debt. Despite improvements to the policy framework that underpins service delivery by the public sector, however, there are still many challenges in the delivery of public services. An improved public policy to deliver service alone is not enough if not supported by effective systems and processes for actual delivery, as well as effective leadership that leads and ensures the delivery of such services. Improving the organisational effectiveness of public institutions is therefore important in South Africa. The present study explores the role that leadership plays in the pursuit of organisational effectiveness in a selected public institution, namely the South African Police Service (SAPS). The primary objective of this study is to improve the organisational effectiveness of SAPS in the Nelson Mandela Bay municipal area by investigating the influence of leadership style (transactional and transformational) and personality (Machiavellian, narcissistic, collectivistic, masculine and feminine) on organisational effectiveness of SAPS (as measured by overall organisational performance and the individual job performance intentions of police officers). The research design is positivistic, as the relationships among the above-mentioned variables are statistically tested. The sample consisted of 90 police officers of senior rank drawn from five police stations in the Nelson Mandela Bay. The empirical results were reported and interpreted. These results revealed that constructive narcissistic and collectivistic leadership personality traits, as well as transformational leadership style exert a positive influence on the organisational performance of the Nelson Mandela Bay police precincts. The empirical results also showed that collectivistic leadership personality traits influence the performance intent of these police officials positively. These results are discussed in terms of the implications they hold for the managers of police precincts. The limitations of the study are reported which provide areas for future research