Explaining Unemployment Duration in Australia

What influences the probability that someone will leave unemployment? Informed by a search-theoretic framework and allowing for exits to not in the labour force and employment, I examine what influences the probability that somebody will leave unemployment. The unemployment data used are derived from the retrospective work history information from the first two waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey. I find that variables that increase wage offers and lower reservation wages are associated with shorter durations of unemployment and that exit rates from unemployment appear to remain steady initially with duration before declining relatively sharply.survival analysis unemployment durations

Unemployment and Psychological Well-Being

Who records the largest drops in life satisfaction when they move into unemployment? Do men experience a larger drop in life satisfaction than women? Do Australians and Americans record a larger drop than Europeans? Using an Australian panel data-set (the Household Income and Labour Dynamics Survey of Australia), this paper finds that the unemployed in Australia report lower life satisfaction than observationally equivalent employed people (holding current income constant). Being currently unemployed is estimated to be equivalent to the loss of $42,100 annual income for men and$86,300 annual income for women. Thus, the drop in life satisfaction, after controlling for unobserved time invariant characteristics, associated with unemployment is larger for women than men. The impact of unemployment on life satisfaction is large compared to the drops in life satisfaction associated with changes in income and disability status. It is found that unemployment is less painful for men in Australia than for men in Germany and the United Kingdom. The paper hypothesises that the large fall in life satisfaction may be the result of a drop in life-time earnings, as well as a ‘psychological’ effect.well-being, happiness, unemployment

The Health Status of Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians

We use unique survey data to examine the determinants of self-assessed health of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. We explore the degree to which differences in health are due to differences in socio-economic factors, and examine the sensitivity of our results to the inclusion of ‘objective’ health measures. Our results reveal that there is a significant gap in the health status of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, with the former characterised by significantly worse health. These findings are robust to alternative estimation methods and measures of health. Although between one third and one half of the health gap can be explained by differences in socio-economic status - such as income, employment status and education - there remains a large unexplained component. These findings have important policy implications. They suggest that, in order to reduce the gap in health status between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, it is important to address disparities in socio-economic factors such as education. The findings also suggest that there are disparities in access to health services and in health behaviour. These issues need to be tackled before Australia can truly claim to have 100% health-care coverage and high levels of health and life expectancy for all of its population.self-assessed health, Indigenous health

Unemployment and psychological well-being

Who records the largest drops in life satisfaction when they move into unemployment? Do men experience a larger drop in life satisfaction than women? Do Australians and Americans record a larger drop than Europeans? Using an Australian panel data-set (the Household Income and Labour Dynamics Survey of Australia), this paper finds that the unemployed in Australia report lower life satisfaction than observationally equivalent employed people (holding current income constant). Being currently unemployed is estimated to be equivalent to the loss of $42,100 annual income for men and$86,300 annual income for women. Thus, the drop in life satisfaction, after controlling for unobserved time invariant characteristics, associated with unemployment is larger for women than men. The impact of unemployment on life satisfaction is large compared to the drops in life satisfaction associated with changes in income and disability status. It is found that unemployment is less painful for men in Australia than for men in Germany and the United Kingdom. The paper hypothesises that the large fall in life satisfaction may be the result of a drop in life-time earnings, as well as a ‘psychological’ effect

The New Zealand Labour Market: Recent Trends and Future Prospects

This paper outlines developments over the past 15 years in the New Zealand labour market, concentrating on the recent period, and discusses the likely outlook for the next few years. Changes in the labour market in the past two years have, to varying degrees, reflected recovery in the New Zealand economy from the weakness that was recorded during 1997-98. One common theme in the labour market over the past two years has been the uneven nature of the recovery, both across sectors and over time

Towards Anticipating IS Consequences: An Anatomy of Sociotechnical Interaction Networks (STINs)

In this paper we examine questions of how the unintended impacts of information and communications technology can be examined in order to anticipate and safeguard against negative consequences. Using the domain of the eGovernment impacts on marginalized members of the community, we examine the theoretical basis of the sociotechnical interaction network (STIN) approach and its applicability to identifying and ameliorating negative impacts of ICT-based systems. We illustrate the STIN modelling approach with reference to a case study of an integrated eGovernment system and based on our evaluation of the approach, make recommendations regarding future developments with respect to the STIN framework

An Analysis of Benefit Flows in New Zealand using a Social Accounting Framework

This paper presents a social accounting model to examine the entrants, exits and transitions of individuals among a wide range of benefit categories in New Zealand. Transition rates and flows are estimated separately for periods before the global financial crisis (GFC) and periods following the crisis. The data were obtained from the Benefit Dynamics Dataset maintained by the Ministry of Social Development. The model is used to examine, using simulations, the implications for the time profile of changes in the stock of benefit recipients under a range of counterfactual situations. It is suggested that the model can provide a useful tool for policy analysis

Amphibious Drone

This report details the progress made in continuing the UPLOAD Amphibious Drone Capstone project. Alex Desilets has tasked the team with improving last years design and has offered support with financial and technical matters through the design process. The UPLOAD MK. II team has been tasked with improving the design made by the original UPLOAD team from last year. The team from last year designed a UAV capable of delivering a payload over both land and sea over a range of 5 miles. The drone was to take off and land vertically but y horizontally for better efficiency. UPLOAD was able to successfully design a working control system, unfortunately it was unable to y successfully. UPLOAD MK.II will be focusing on improving last year\u27s design using the control systems designed last year will produce a working prototype by May 2017. 120 concepts were combined and reduced into preliminary prototypes of a winglet, testing rig, and landing system. These designs were modeled through CAD and realized through rapid prototyping. Wind tunnel testing was preformed on the winglet to test for increased efficiency, and stress tests have been preformed on the testing rig and the landing gear to ensure safety

Polymerization in emulsion microdroplet reactors

The goal of this research project is to utilize emulsion droplets as chemical reactors for execution of complex polymerization chemistries to develop unique and functional particle materials. Emulsions are dispersions of immiscible fluids where one fluid usually exists in the form of drops. Not surprisingly, if a liquid-to-solid chemical reaction proceeds to completion within these drops, the resultant solid particles will possess the shape and relative size distribution of the drops. The two immiscible liquid phases required for emulsion polymerization provide unique and complex chemical and physical environments suitable for the engineering of novel materials. The development of novel non-ionic fluorosurfactants allows fluorocarbon oils to be used as the continuous phase in a water-free emulsion. Such emulsions enable the encapsulation of almost any hydrocarbon compound in droplets that may be used as separate compartments for water-sensitive syntheses. Here, we exemplify the promise of this approach by suspension polymerization of polyurethanes (PU), in which the liquid precursor is emulsified into droplets that are then converted 1:1 into polymer particles. The stability of the droplets against coalescence upon removal of the continuous phase by evaporation confirms the formation of solid PU particles. These results prove that the water-free environment of fluorocarbon based emulsions enables high conversion. We produce monodisperse, cross-linked, and fluorescently labeled PU-latexes with controllable mesh size through microfluidic emulsification in a simple one-step process. A novel method for the fabrication of monodisperse mesoporous silica particles is presented. It is based on the formation of well-defined equally sized emulsion droplets using a microfluidic approach. The droplets contain the silica precursor/surfactant solution and are suspended in hexadecane as the continuous oil phase. The solvent is then expelled from the droplets, leading to concentration and micellization of the surfactant. At the same time, the silica solidifies around the surfactant structures, forming equally sized mesoporous particles. The procedure can be tuned to produce well-separated particles or alternatively particles that are linked together. The latter allows us to create 2D or 3D structures with hierarchical porosity. Oil, water, and surfactant liquid mixtures exhibit very complex phase behavior. Depending on the conditions, such mixtures give rise to highly organized structures. A proper selection of the type and concentration of surfactants determines the structuring at the nanoscale level. In this work, we show that hierarchically bimodal nanoporous structures can be obtained by templating silica microparticles with a specially designed surfactant micelle/microemulsion mixture. Tuning the phase state by adjusting the surfactant composition and concentration allows for the controlled design of a system where microemulsion droplets coexist with smaller surfactant micellar structures. The microemulsion droplet and micellar dimensions determine the two types of pore sizes (single nanometers and tens of nanometers). We also demonstrate the fabrication of carbon and carbon/platinum replicas of the silica microspheres using a lost-wax\u27 approach. Such particles have great potential for the design of electrocatalysts for fuel cells, chromatography separations, and other applications. It was determined that slight variations in microemulsion mixture components (electrolyte concentration, wt% of surfactants, oil to sol ratio, etc.) produces strikingly different pore morphologies and particle surface areas. Control over the size and structure of the smaller micelle-templated pores was made possible by varying the length of the hydrocarbon block within the trimethyl ammonium bromide surfactant and characterized using X-ray diffraction. The effect of emulsion aging was studied by synthesizing particles at progressive time levels from a sample emulsion. It was discovered surface pore size increases after just a few hours, with high number of hollow particles observed. After 3 days, the particles were irregular shaped with little surface porosity observed via scanning electron microscopy. This may indicate that the microemulsion in the standard synthesis is not at equilibrium and that the alkoxide monomer, tetraethylorthosilicate, may change surface activity over time as additional levels of hydrolysis are obtained. Monodisperse, microemulsion nanoporous particles were synthesized utilizing a microfluidic platform. Emulsification of silica precursor in a pure oil phase at the microfluidic orifice, with infusion of surfactant-laden oil phase into the device downstream of the orifice, allows for successful fluidic treatment of a low interfacial tension system and the formation of monodisperse particles. Temperate evaporation of the solvent from the droplets at ambient conditions preserves the excellent size distribution of the fluidic-formed precursor droplets during gelation. Successful synthesis of monodisperse silica particles with bimodal nanoporosity demonstrates engineering control at three different length scales: the nanoscale via surfactant molecular templating, tens of nanometers via spontaneous microemulsion templating and at the micron level through control of overall size distribution via a microfluidic platform.\u2