The Finnish Developmental State and its Growth Regime

This paper reviews Finland.s growth strategy in the postwar decades. Finland was able to initiate an impressive mobilization of resources during this period, reflected mostly in a high rate of capital accumulation for manufacturing industries. This was achieved by an unorthodox combination of dirigiste means and a basic commitment to upholding the market economy. The state acted as a net saver, and credit was rationed to productive investment outlays. This policy package may have been boosted by the country.s precarious international position during the cold war, so that an economic failure would have been very risky indeed. We argue also that incomes policies and welfare reforms were important in sustaining the necessary political compromise that underpinned the Finnish development state.economic growth, incomes policy, income distribution, labour unions, structural transformation, social contacts, developmental state

Survey Estimates of Wealth Holdings in OECD Countries: Evidence on the Level and Distribution across Selected

This paper discusses issues that arise in the comparison of estimates of wealth holdings and their distribution in light of data for selected OECD countries. We find large differences in the level of wealth, depending on whether the mean or median levels are compared across countries. Sensitivity of wealth estimates to survey design are evident in that even within countries, these ranking of two different surveys depends on how central tendency is measured. Comparisons of the composition of household wealth based on secondary data, as well as the distribution of net worth, are difficult because comparable data are scarce. The evidence suggests that country ranking by level of net worth inequality is similar to that by income inequality, and that net worth inequality has tended to increase across the countries we examine.net worth, wealth level, wealth inequality

Nature and Nurture in the Intergenerational Transmission of Socioeconomic Status: Evidence from Swedish Children and Their Biological and Rearing Parents

This study uses an extraordinary Swedish data set to explore the sources of the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic status. Merging data from administrative sources and censuses, we investigate the association between sons' and daughters' socioeconomic outcomes and those of their biological and rearing parents. Our analysis focuses on children raised in six different family circumstances: raised by both biological parents, raised by the biological mother without a stepfather, raised by the biological mother with a stepfather, raised by the biological father without a stepmother, raised by the biological father with a stepmother, and raised by two adoptive parents. Relative to the existing literature, the most remarkable feature of our data set is that it contains information on the biological parents even when they are not the rearing parents. We specify a simple additive model of pre-birth (including genetic) and post-birth influences and examine the model's ability to provide a unified account of the intergenerational associations in all six family types. Our results suggest substantial roles for both pre-birth and post-birth factors.

Disorders of calcium, phosphate and bone : an overview

Peer reviewe

Measurement and milestones - sustaining improvement

Collection and interpretation of information and data were key elements in a planned change management strategy which, over a period of six years, transformed the University of Wollongong (UOW) Library’s capacity to deliver sustained organisational improvement. Early initiatives in strategic planning, performance management and staff development had delivered a number of improvements to an essentially conservative organisation. Perceptions of Library services were mostly favourable. Success was difficult to measure and promote, however, due to the lack of robust performance indicators and measures. Performance measurement focussed on inputs and outputs, primarily those considered mandatory for reporting purposes, with little or no emphasis on the effectiveness or quality of services offered. In 1994, the decision was made to investigate the potential of the quality movement to underpin the Library’s goal of differentiating itself through external recognition for quality and service excellence. To achieve this ambitious goal, it was imperative to develop the tools which would enable the demonstration and communication of outcomes and the impact of change strategies. The selection of the Australian Business Excellence Framework (ABEF) as the management framework to drive and support transformational change led to the development of a new cultural paradigm. A key feature of this cultural shift was the identification of measurement activities, including the implementation of client surveys and other feedback mechanisms. Although the evidence of performance and success provided by these measures was relatively crude, initial results were sufficient to challenge staff perceptions that had previously relied upon anecdotal evidence. Staff involvement in measuring and analysing results provided the foundations for a change management program which aimed to redress unfavourable client and stakeholder perceptions and to build on perceived strengths. This process was fundamental to the success of UOW Library’s ‘Quality Journey’. Evaluation of data and information can be a powerful catalyst for a change agenda as the assessment process has the potential to provide evidence of what needs to be improved at all levels of the organisation. In our case, recognising and addressing the opportunities for improvement introduced new vitality and innovation in the development, management and delivery of quality services and resources to clients. Within a few years, the Library was positioned for external scrutiny and underwent assessment by third party evaluators using nationally and internationally recognised criteria of business excellence. By the year 2000, the Library was recognised with the prestigious Australian Business Excellence Award. The goal of developing and fostering a culture valuing measurement and evidence had, to a large extent, been achieved. A key outcome of the continued use of the ABEF and other best practice standards has been the ability to sustain commitment to ongoing evaluation and assessment through regular internal and external scrutiny of performance, including benchmarking. The impact of ongoing improvement initiatives, informed through careful analysis of results has been demonstrated through positive trends in client and stakeholder satisfaction with services and access to resources; benchmark comparisons, significant improvement in processing efficiency and costs, enhanced staff satisfaction and morale and the capacity to develop new areas of service offerings to support the research, teaching and learning needs of the University

Joint optimization of transmission-order selection and channel allocation for bidirectional wireless links-part II: algorithms

This is the second in a two-part series of papers on transmission order (TO) optimization in the presence of channel allocation (CA), i.e., joint optimization of the TO selection and CA problem, for interfering bidirectional wireless links. Part I of this paper thoroughly analyzes the joint optimization problem from a game theoretic perspective for a general deterministic setting. Here in Part II, we present novel distributed and centralized CA-TO algorithms, together with their performance analysis, for Device-to-Device (D2D) communications underlaying cellular networks based on the findings in Part I of this paper. Here, TO is a novel dimension for optimization. In Part II, we propose and analyze novel two distributed and one centralized joint CA-TO algorithms. Our investigations show that: i) our algorithms contain many of the existing TO algorithms and CA algorithms as its special cases and can thus be considered as a general framework for the joint CA and TO optimization. The computer simulations for TDD-based D2D communications underlaying cellular network show that the proposed distributed and centralized joint CA-TO algorithms remarkably outperform the reference algorithms.IEEE Communications Societ

The tipping point: how granular statistics can make a big difference in understanding and demonstrating value

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce an original, quantitative approach to examining the use of library electronic resources by demographic (or \u27market segment\u27). In turn it provides an innovative way to demonstrate and explore the value of libraries and importantly, electronic collections. Methodology: University of Wollongong\u27s Performance Indicator Unit (PIU), in partnership with the University of Wollongong Library (UWL), has built a data warehouse - the \u27Marketing Cube\u27 that links real time usage of electronic resources (eresources) at a title level, to student demographic data. Findings: The Marketing Cube design provides a robust analytics framework for examining pictures of use of eresources by student demographic. For views explored, the cube reveals rich data for demographical context against number of student logins and engagement with resources in hours. Findings give rise to further questions or hypotheses, requiring further interrogation of the cube or triangulation with other available quantitative data or qualitative inquiry with faculty. Practical Implications: An ongoing commitment to continuous improvement at a university and library executive level is critical. UWL is fortunate to have secured the support of the enterprise Performance Indicator Unit (PIU), for this second UWL performance measurement project. The Marketing Cube also exploits tested system design created for UWL\u27s \u27Value Cube\u27 (Jantti & Cox, 2012). Considerable time has been invested anew to select priority resources and to configure them within the cube. Significant time was also spent on user acceptance testing by both the Library and PIU. Originality / Value: Existing research and literature has more often achieved to demonstrate the value of library collections on a qualitative basis. In contrast, the Marketing Cube offers a quantitative perspective and is focussed solely on student use of resources - the library\u27s broadest client base. Real time use capture and weekly reporting provides UWL with a granular picture of who is using a resource and when; on demand. This contextual insight has strategic value to acquisition and renewal decisions; but most innovatively, such analytics data can inform marketing strategy and provide a method to pre and post-test impact of promotional activity

Unlocking the Potential of Library Generated Data to Assess Value, Impact, and Influence

The University of Wollongong Library (UWL) has initiated an innovative and collaborative research project to unambiguously demonstrate the value that can be provided by academic libraries. The project centres on the integration and interrogation of a series of discrete datasets, e.g. student performance, student attrition, student demographic data, and borrowing and electronic resources usage data. The project has enabled UWL to identify whether a correlation exists between usage of Library resources and academic performance (e.g. grades). Findings reveal a strong and sustained correlation; providing a new facet through which to view and understand the student academic experience.The project is different to other institutions’ efforts to link usage to student outcomes, in that the Library Cube is not a one-off research project, but is now an ongoing part of UOW’s systems and performance reporting. The most recent development centres on the Marketing Cube. This cube will demonstrate whether electronic resources are being used to their optimum. Updated weekly, it’s now possible to assess the uptake of uptake of products (e.g. databases), how often they are being used and to test the impact of marketing and promotion initiatives as to whether user behaviour can be influenced through targeted marketing