Australian Migration and Dwelling Prices

Residential dwelling prices have been increasing over the last few decades in Australia. Many empirical researches have demonstrated that population and demographics are the main factors of contributing to upward trend of dwelling prices. In Australia, migration plays an important role in the nation’s population growth and economic development. The Australian government currently receives overseas migrants from countries around the world every year on different schemes such as skilful migration, family reunion and so on. On average there are around 200,000 overseas migrants settling as permanent residents in Australia according to the migration data provided by the Australian Department of Immigration. This paper studies how new migrants contribute to demand shock and how much impact they have on the residential dwellings market. Yearly time series data will be collected from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and Australian Department of Immigration. Statistical models will be derived using the changes of dwelling prices as the dependent variables; and net migration, changes of household income and dwelling supplies as the independent variables. The research is considered important as it addresses the economic fundamental of demand and supply issues. The research findings also help to validate the Australian migration policies

Measurement of house price bubbles: A case in Sydney

Recent debates have been focusing on whether there is a housing-price bubble in Sydney. The Median Multiple (median house price divided by gross annual median household income) for Sydney is nine times, compared to 6.2 times in New York and 7.3 times in London (Demographia, 2014). The median price of an established home in Sydney has now reached $811,837, i.e., 17 per cent increase in the year to June 2014 (APM, 2014). A US economist and demographer (Dent, 2014), predicts that Australia’s property prices could drop by as much as 50 percent in the coming years. In contrast, others believe that the Sydney housing price will not fall dramatically. Real estate markets play an important role in the overall economy. The unsustainable housing prices greatly impact on the banking industry, distort consumer confidence and induce collapse or instability into the normal economic activities. Changes in housing prices are caused by the fundamental factors of demand and supply. An unsustainable bubble exists when ‘fundamental’ factors do not seem to be justified; i.e., the high prices today are caused by investors who believe that the selling price is higher tomorrow. This research analyses the Sydney housing price performances over the last ten years and compares the local rentals and income to detect indicators which lead to overheating in the housing market. The analysis will contribute to the prediction of house price trends for the future and assist government to formulate relevant housing policies

Black Holes, Entropy Bound and Causality Violation

The gravity/gauge theory duality has provided us a way of studying QCD at short distances from straightforward calculations in classical general relativity. Among numerous results obtained so far, one of the most striking is the universality of the ratio of the shear viscosity to the entropy density. For all gauge theories with Einstein gravity dual, this ratio is \eta/s=1/4\pi. However, in general higher-curvature gravity theories, including two concrete models under discussion - the Gauss-Bonnet gravity and the (Riemann)^2 gravity - the ratio \eta/s can be smaller than 1/4\pi (thus violating the conjecture bound), equal to 1/4\pi or even larger than 1/4\pi. As we probe spacetime at shorter distances, there arises an internal inconsistency in the theory, such as a violation of microcausality, which is correlated with a classical limit on black hole entropy.Comment: 8 pages, no figures; Invited contribution to appear in the Proceedings of the 75 Years since Solvay, Singapore, Nov 2008, (World Scientific, Singapore, 2009

Effects of turbulent dust grain motion to interstellar chemistry

Theoretical studies have revealed that dust grains are usually moving fast through the turbulent interstellar gas, which could have significant effects upon interstellar chemistry by modifying grain accretion. This effect is investigated in this work on the basis of numerical gas-grain chemical modeling. Major features of the grain motion effect in the typical environment of dark clouds (DC) can be summarised as follows: 1) decrease of gas-phase (both neutral and ionic) abundances and increase of surface abundances by up to 2-3 orders of magnitude; 2) shifts of the existing chemical jumps to earlier evolution ages for gas-phase species and to later ages for surface species by factors of about ten; 3) a few exceptional cases in which some species turn out to be insensitive to this effect and some other species can show opposite behaviors too. These effects usually begin to emerge from a typical DC model age of about 10^5 yr. The grain motion in a typical cold neutral medium (CNM) can help overcome the Coulomb repulsive barrier to enable effective accretion of cations onto positively charged grains. As a result, the grain motion greatly enhances the abundances of some gas-phase and surface species by factors up to 2-6 or more orders of magnitude in the CNM model. The grain motion effect in a typical molecular cloud (MC) is intermediate between that of the DC and CNM models, but with weaker strength. The grain motion is found to be important to consider in chemical simulations of typical interstellar medium.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures and 2 table

Chiral structures of lander molecules on Cu(100)

Supramolecular assemblies of lander molecules (C$_{90}$H$_{98}$) on Cu(100) are investigated with low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy. The energetically most favourable conformation of the adsorbed molecule is found to exist in two mirror symmetric enantiomers or conformers. At low coverage, the molecules align in enantiomerically pure chains along the chiral directions $[01\bar{2}],[02\bar{1}],[012]$ and $[021]$. The arrangement is proposed to be mainly governed by intermolecular van-der-Waals interaction. At higher coverages, the molecular chains arrange into chiral domains, for which a structural model is presented.Comment: to appear in Nanotechnology vol. 15 (2004

Graded reflection equation algebras and integrable Kondo impurities in the one-dimensional t-J model

Integrable Kondo impurities in two cases of the one-dimensional $t-J$ model are studied by means of the boundary ${\bf Z}_2$-graded quantum inverse scattering method. The boundary $K$ matrices depending on the local magnetic moments of the impurities are presented as nontrivial realizations of the reflection equation algebras in an impurity Hilbert space. Furthermore, these models are solved by using the algebraic Bethe ansatz method and the Bethe ansatz equations are obtained.Comment: 14 pages, RevTe

Rail accessibility on property value: Zuoying Station

Problem/Purpose: Accessibility to transport infrastructure is one of the factors that affects property value. A number of researchers have found positive and negative effects on how improvement in public transportation has on property value (Chau and Ng, 1998). In Taiwan, little research has been carried out in this area. This research seeks to contribute to the understanding of the effect of rail accessibility on property value. Specifically, this study investigates the impact on property value located in close proximity to Zuoying station in Taiwan. Hedonic price theory is used and 5,478 data sets including property transaction prices, house or unit size; distances to the rail station, amenities, parklands and main roads were used for the testing. Before and after the commencement of the rail systems has also been considered in this study. Design/methodology/approach: Hedonic analysis is a well-established technique that is applied in this study. Findings: The estimation results suggest that accessibility to train station is one of the important factors affecting property values. It is found that the shorter distance and easier access the rail station, the higher the property values. Research limitations/implications (if applicable): This research has considered the elements of before and after the opening of the Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR) and Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit (KMRT). However, a comparison study on the effects of before and after the completed rail development is not included in this study. Takeaway for practice (if applicable) Originality/value: No study has been conducted in the past on Zuoying station in the area of rail accessibility and property values. This is the only rail station in southern Taiwan where three railway systems converge. The investment of new transport infrastructure has positive impact on the land values in the locality and the economic and social aspects of the built environment