Skills Mismatch and Returns to Training in Australia:Some New Evidence

This paper utilises Australian data to evaluate the effect of firm-provided job training on labour income. It also examines whether training can shed light on the effects of skill-job mismatch. We employ the Heckman selection model to account for selection bias in training as well as work participation. The evidence shows that training has a significant positive impact on wages. Also, training ameliorates the disadvantage associated with the mismatch between formal education and required education. In addition, training is most valuable to the undereducated and young workers, and assists in the restoration and replenishment of human capitalTraining; Education; Overeducation; Undereducation; Earnings; Human capital depreciation

Second-Generation Greek-Australian and Italian-Australian Students at Victoria University

This paper examines the academic performance of the second-generation Australians at Victoria University in 2007. The study utilises Australian Bureau of Statistics Census 2006 estimates of socio-economic status to investigate the roles of socio-economic background, and cultural and linguistic diversity (CALD). Attention is given to students of Greek and Italian ancestry. The study also accounts for selection bias, elite high school participation, gender, age, employment status, and study intensity. The evidence suggests that academic outcomes vary by sector, and languages-other-than- English (LOTE) are a key driver of the disadvantage observed in second-generation Australian students

Overeducation and Overskilling in Australia: Second-Generation Greek-Australians and Italian-Australians

We utilise HILDA data over the period 2001–2005 to evaluate the performance of second-generation Greek-Australians and Italian-Australians in the labour market. We focus on the effect of overeducation, undereducation, languages-other-than-English (LOTE), and ethnicity on weekly earnings of full-time workers. The evidence is as follows: (a) most Greek-Australians are over-represented amongst the overeducated; (b) overeducation and overskilling can be attributed to a lack of new skills on the job, parental occupational status, non-English-speaking overseas born, and unobserved characteristics of second-generation females; (c) LOTE does not seem to make a contribution to earning of individual workers; and (d) the use of LOTE amongst the two second-generation groups has declined, though second-generation women in part-time employment are an exception

Intended use of IPO proceeds and firm performance: A quantile regression approach

This paper employs quantile regressions to investigate the link between the intended use of proceeds and the post-issue operating performance of IPO firms in Indonesia over the period of 2000-2010. The evidence presented here suggests that post-issue performance can be explained by a firm’s motivation to IPO issues. Investment in fixed assets and stock market shares associate with better performance for average and high-performing firms while other usages seem to lead to poor performance. The findings are robust when ownership structure was considered. These results have policy implications for the management of IPOs

Stock Prices, Exchange Rates and Portfolio Equity Flows: A Toda-Yamamoto Panel Causality Test

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a new framework to test the hypothesis that portfolio model predicts a negative correlation between stock prices and exchange rates in a trivariate transmission channel for foreign portfolio equity investment. Design/methodology/approach – This paper utilizes panel data for eight economies to extend the Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) Granger non-causality test of heterogeneous panels to a trivariate model by integrating the Toda and Yamamoto (1995) approach to Granger causality. Findings – The evidence suggests that stock prices Granger-cause exchange rates and portfolio equity flows Granger-cause exchange rates. However, the overall panel evidence casts doubt on the explicit trivariate model of portfolio balance model. The study shows that Indonesia may be the only case where stock prices affect exchange rates through portfolio equity flows. Research limitations/implications – The proposed test does not account for potential asymmetries or structural shifts associated with the crisis period. To isolate the impact of the Asian Financial crisis, this paper rather splits the sample period into two sub-periods: pre- and post-crises. The sample period and countries are also limited due to the use of the balance of payment statistics. Practical implications – The study casts doubt on the maintained hypothesis of a trivariate transmission channel, as posited by the portfolio model. Policy makers of an economy may integrate capital market and fiscal policies in order to maintain stable exchange rate. Originality/value – This paper integrates a portfolio equity inflow variable into a single framework with stock price and exchange rate variables. It extends the Dumitrescu and Hurlin’s (2012) bivariate stationary Granger non-causality test in heterogeneous panels to a trivariate setting in the framework of Toda and Yamamoto (1995)

Stock Prices, Exchange Rates and Portfolio Equity Flows: A Toda-Yamamoto Panel Causality Test

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a new framework to test the hypothesis that portfolio model predicts a negative correlation between stock prices and exchange rates in a trivariate transmission channel for foreign portfolio equity investment. Design/methodology/approach – This paper utilizes panel data for eight economies to extend the Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) Granger non-causality test of heterogeneous panels to a trivariate model by integrating the Toda and Yamamoto (1995) approach to Granger causality. Findings – The evidence suggests that stock prices Granger-cause exchange rates and portfolio equity flows Granger-cause exchange rates. However, the overall panel evidence casts doubt on the explicit trivariate model of portfolio balance model. The study shows that Indonesia may be the only case where stock prices affect exchange rates through portfolio equity flows. Research limitations/implications – The proposed test does not account for potential asymmetries or structural shifts associated with the crisis period. To isolate the impact of the Asian Financial crisis, this paper rather splits the sample period into two sub-periods: pre- and post-crises. The sample period and countries are also limited due to the use of the balance of payment statistics. Practical implications – The study casts doubt on the maintained hypothesis of a trivariate transmission channel, as posited by the portfolio model. Policy makers of an economy may integrate capital market and fiscal policies in order to maintain stable exchange rate. Originality/value – This paper integrates a portfolio equity inflow variable into a single framework with stock price and exchange rate variables. It extends the Dumitrescu and Hurlin’s (2012) bivariate stationary Granger non-causality test in heterogeneous panels to a trivariate setting in the framework of Toda and Yamamoto (1995)

Which comes first—urbanization or economic growth? Evidence from heterogeneous panel causality tests

Heterogeneous panel causality tests are employed to consider the relationship between urbanization change and economic growth (i.e., differenced logged GDP per capita). Income- and geography-based panels demonstrated substantial variation in that relationship. Urbanization caused economic growth in high income countries, but non-causality could not be rejected for both middle-income and Latin American countries. A bi-directional, equilibrium relationship was uncovered for low-income, predominately African countries where economic growth had a positive, causal effect on urbanization, but where urbanization, in turn, had a negative, causal effect on economic growth. Hence, urbanization and economic growth either co-evolve, as they do for low income/African countries and (likely) for high income countries, or else the two processes are somewhat decoupled, as they are for middle income and Latin American countries, despite their high degree of correlation

Revisiting carbon Kuznets curves with endogenous breaks modeling: Evidence of decoupling and saturation (but few inverted-Us) for individual OECD countries

This paper tests for a carbon Kuznets curve (CKC) by examining the carbon emissions per capita-GDP per capita relationship individually, for 23 OECD countries over 1950-2010 using a reduced-form, linear model that allows for multiple endogenously determined breaks. This approach addresses several important econometric and modeling issues, e.g., (i) it is highly flexible and can approximate complicated nonlinear relationships without presuming a priori any particular relationship; (ii) it avoids the nonlinear transformations of potentially nonstationary income. For 15 of 23 countries studied, the uncovered emission-income relationship was either (i) decoupling—where income no longer affected emissions in a statistically significant way, or (ii) saturation—where the emissions elasticity of income is declining, less than proportional, but still positive. For only four countries did the emissions-income relationship become negative—i.e., a CKC. In concert with previous work, we conclude that the finding of a CKC is country-specific and that the shared timing among countries is important in income-environment transitions

Revisiting carbon Kuznets curves with endogenous breaks modeling: Evidence of decoupling and saturation (but few inverted-Us) for individual OECD countries

This paper tests for a carbon Kuznets curve (CKC) by examining the carbon emissions per capita-GDP per capita relationship individually, for 23 OECD countries over 1950-2010 using a reduced-form, linear model that allows for multiple endogenously determined breaks. This approach addresses several important econometric and modeling issues, e.g., (i) it is highly flexible and can approximate complicated nonlinear relationships without presuming a priori any particular relationship; (ii) it avoids the nonlinear transformations of potentially nonstationary income. For 15 of 23 countries studied, the uncovered emission-income relationship was either (i) decoupling—where income no longer affected emissions in a statistically significant way, or (ii) saturation—where the emissions elasticity of income is declining, less than proportional, but still positive. For only four countries did the emissions-income relationship become negative—i.e., a CKC. In concert with previous work, we conclude that the finding of a CKC is country-specific and that the shared timing among countries is important in income-environment transitions