Staff development at RMIT: Bottom‐up work serviced by top‐down investment and policy

Effective staff development is the weaving together of many strands. We need to support staff in their current work, while providing them with ideas, incentives and resources to look for new ways to design learning environments which will enhance student learning. Staff development must be combined with specific projects where change is occurring. Ideas are not hard to find Incentives and resources are another matter. The paper will outline some general principles for effective staff development. These principles will be applied in the description of the substantial investment RMIT has made in order to realize our teaching and learning policy. We have a model of ‘grass‐roots’ faculty‐based work funded by large‐scale corporate ‘investment’. ‘Bottom‐up’ meets ‘top‐down’

Data Uncertainty in Real Estate Forecasting

The rapid expansion of the TMT sector in the late 1990s and more recent growing regulatory and corporate focus on business continuity and security have raised the profile of data centres. Data centres offer a unique blend of occupational, physical and technological characteristics compared to conventional real estate assets. Limited trading and heterogeneity of data centres also causes higher levels of appraisal uncertainty. In practice, the application of conventional discounted cash flow approaches requires information about a wide range of inputs that is difficult to derive from limited market signals or estimate analytically. This paper outlines an approach that uses pricing signals from similar traded cash flows is proposed. Based upon ‘the law of one price’, the method draws upon the premise that two identical future cash flows must have the same value now. Given the difficulties of estimating exit values, an alternative is that the expected cash flows of data centre are analysed over the life cycle of the building, with corporate bond yields used to provide a proxy for the appropriate discount rates for lease income. Since liabilities are quite diverse, a number of proxies are suggested as discount and capitalisation rates including indexed-linked, fixed interest and zero-coupon bonds. Although there are rarely assets that have identical cash flows and some approximation is necessary, the level of appraiser subjectivity is dramatically reduced.

Data dilemmas in forecasting European office market rents

This paper uses data provided by three major real estate advisory firms to investigate the level and pattern of variation in the measurement of historic real estate rental values for the main European office centres. The paper assesses the extent to which the data providing organizations agree on historic market performance in terms of returns, risk and timing and examines the relationship between market maturity and agreement. The analysis suggests that at the aggregate level and for many markets, there is substantial agreement on direction, quantity and timing of market change. However, there is substantial variability in the level of agreement among cities. The paper also assesses whether the different data sets produce different explanatory models and market forecast. It is concluded that, although disagreement on the direction of market change is high for many market, the different data sets often produce similar explanatory models and predict similar relative performance

IDENTIFICATION OF MARKET POTENTIAL FOR PASTURE-RAISED PORK IN THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA OF ARKANSAS-1998

Agribusiness,

TRUSTWORTHINESS AS AN ECONOMIC ASSET

The evaluation of trust in economic decision making remains on the periphery of mainstream economic analysis and teaching. Yet business managers use trustworthiness in daily exchanges to create competitive advantages for their firms. An exploratory empirical test of Barney and HansenÂ’s three levels of trust (weak, semistrong, and strong) and Lewicki and BunkerÂ’s portfolio of governance mechanisms revealed that strong-form trust exists in day-to-day business relationships along with other governance mechanisms. Identity-based transactions were more prevalent than were weak trust market exchanges in important economic transactions.Institutional and Behavioral Economics, International Relations/Trade,

Waterfowl Harvest and Hunter Use at Carlyle Lake During the 1973 Season

Division of Wildlife Resources Migratory Bird Section, Periodic Report No. 7Report issued on: April 15, 197

Data Dilemmas in Forecasting European Office Market Rents

This paper uses data provided by three major real estate advisory firms to investigate the level and pattern of variation in the measurement of historic real estate rental values for the main European office centres. The paper assesses the extent to which the data providing organizations agree on historic market performance in terms of returns, risk and timing and examines the relationship between market maturity and agreement. The analysis suggests that at the aggregate level and for many markets, there is substantial agreement on direction, quantity and timing of market change. However, there is substantial variability in the level of agreement among cities. The paper also assesses whether the different data sets produce different explanatory models and market forecast. It is concluded that, although disagreement on the direction of market change is high for many market, the different data sets often produce similar explanatory models and predict similar relative performance.

Dialogue of the deaf? How Catalonia and Spain can be brought back from the brink

All eyes remain on Catalonia, with speculation that the Catalan government will soon issue a unilateral declaration of independence. Paul Kennedy writes that a further revision of Catalonia's regional Statute, or even an amendment of the constitution, could be possible options for enabling both sides to come to a solution. But it remains to be seen whether the Spanish and and Catalan governments are capable of improving on the largely inadequate response they have so far produced to the crisis