Frank Neri

Trade reforms and breakpoints in Australia's manufactured trade: an application of the Zivot and Andrews model

Kankesu Jayanthakumaran et al. — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 17:30:19 PDT

Trade liberalization is expected to increase imports but also exports via reduced input costs and increased domestic competition. This paper investigates whether this is the case for Australian manufactured goods. We begin by briefly describing the trends in the effective rate of protection, imports and exports in Australia over the last 30 years and then investigate the existence of major structural breaks in the imports and exports series by applying the Zivot and Andrews (1992 )test, using annual time series data from 1968/69 to 2003/2004. We find that a significant structural break occurred for imports in 1988/1989, which coincides with the introduction of major trade liberalization policy. We also find a significant structural break for exports with the three-year lag in 1992/1993.

Human capital externalities, departmental co-authorship and research productivity

Frank Neri et al. — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 17:30:18 PDT

Lucas (1988) hypothesised that human capital externalities explain persistent productivity growth and become manifest via interactions between workplace colleagues. Consistent with the first part of this hypothesis, Fox and Milbourne (2006) concluded that an increase in the average level of human capital in Australian economics departments raised the research productivity of departmental members. This paper tests the robustness of this finding by using a direct, rather than a proxy, measure of human capital and confirms the existence of human capital externalities within Australian economics departments. But we go further by investigating the second part of Lucas’ hypothesis. Whilst there are numerous ways in which departmental colleagues may interact, we investigate whether the externality becomes manifest via co-authorship. We find no evidence that this type of interaction significantly enhances research productivity, especially for higher quality outputs.

Trends in Manufactured Exports Across the States and Territories of Australia 1989/1990-2000/2001: A Shift-Share Analysis

Kankesu Jayanthakumaran et al. — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 17:30:17 PDT

Comment on 'Measuring Victoria's genuine progress: a Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) for Victoria'

Frank V. Neri et al. — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 17:30:16 PDT

Ranking Australian Economics Departments by Research Productivity

Joan R. Rodgers et al. — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 17:30:15 PDT

Attendance and performance in a large economics class

Yumiko Meloche et al. — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 17:30:14 PDT

In this paper we investigate whether lecture attendance is related to student performance in the multiple choice component of the final exam, for a large class of first year economics students. Our findings indicate that in this learning environment, lecture attendance was not statistically significantly related to academic performance. This result may cast doubt on calls to make attendance compulsory.

Macroeconomic aspects of substance abuse: diffusion, productivity and optimal control

A. Levy et al. — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 18:18:01 PDT

This paper deals with macroeconomic aspects of widespread substance abuse with a reference to illicit drugs as an example. Substance abuse impedes the productivity of the labor force and reduces economic growth. Workers are either nonusers and therefore fully productive, a number of whom are employed by the government in drug-control activities, or users who are only partially productive. Efficient management of the nation’s portfolio of workers involves eradicating drug use when initial user numbers are lower than a critical level, but allows user numbers to rise to, and be accommodated at, a stationary level when initial user numbers exceed a critical level.

Social Capital Renewal and the Academic Performance of International Students in Australia

Frank V. Neri et al. — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 18:18:00 PDT

Many believe that social capital fosters the accumulation of human capital. Yet international university students arrive in their host country generally denuded of social capital and confronted by unfamiliar cultural and educational institutions. This study investigates how, and to what extent, international students renew their social networks, and whether such investments are positively associated with academic performance. We adopt a social capital framework and conduct a survey of international students at a typical Australian university in order to categorise and measure investments in social capital renewal, and test a multivariate model of academic performance that includes social capital variables, amongst others, as regressors. Our survey results reveal a high degree of variability in social capital investment across students and, amongst the more active, a tendency to build close networks in the main with students from their own country of origin. Our empirical results suggest that such investments are not associated with improved academic performance but are associated with increased well being.

Research Productivity of Australian Academic Economists: Human-Capital and Fixed Effects

Joan R. Rodgers et al. — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 18:17:59 PDT

This study investigates why some economics departments in Australian universities are more research productive than others. The hypothesis is simple: research productivity depends upon the human capital of department members and the department-specific conditions under which they work. A Tobit model is used to estimate the magnitude of the two effects. Both are found to be important. Our results help explain why a small number of departments consistently outperform the others in studies that rank Australian economics departments according to research output.

Ranking Australian economics departments by research productivity

Frank Neri et al. — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 18:17:58 PDT

This study ranks Australian economics departments according to their average research productivity during 1998–2002. The highest ranked departments are those at ANU, JCU, Melbourne, Tasmania and UWA. We also rank departments according to the variability of research productivity among their members, the assumption being that, other things being equal, the less variable is productivity within a department, the better. Research productivity is found to be highly skewed within all departments. However, in general, research productivity is more (less) evenly distributed within those departments that have relatively high (low) average research productivity.

Research Productivity of Australian Academic Economists: Human-Capital and Fixed Effects

J. R. Rodgers et al. — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 18:17:57 PDT