Chancellery Research - Research Publications
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ItemNo Preview AvailableMinimum information model for APPRISE Virtual Biobank( 2022-01-21)
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ItemNo Preview AvailablePrinciples of Melbourne Connect( 2021)Melbourne Connect is a new initiative partnership between The University of Melbourne and industry groups. It is the centrepiece of a new innovation ecosystem connected to the university. In this paper we outlined the motivation and methods used to define a set of underlying principles for the operation of the innovation ecosystem.
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ItemDo Underlying Measures of Inflation Outperform Headline Rates? Evidence from Australian Data( 2003-12)Many central banks often focus on underlying measures of inflation when assessing inflation trends. This paper compares the accuracy of underlying measures of inflation relative to the headline rates by using Australian data. It is found that the underlying measures did have smaller errors in predicting the long-term trend in inflation than the quarterly headline rate in the sample period 1977 to 2001 and the inflation targeting subperiod starting from 1993, due to the large volatility of the headline rate. As compared to the year-ended headline rate, the statistical test results , however, support only the measure of market prices excluding volatile items, not the others. There is some weak evidence of the weighted median measure outperforming the headline rate in the subperiod after 1993. With respect to directional accuracy, the test statistics cannot reject the null hypothesis of an equal probability correctly predicting the moving direction of the inflation trend, though the headline rates have a higher probability.
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ItemFamily Structure, Usual and Preferred Working Hours, and Egalitarianism in Australia( 2004-02)Data from a representative survey of adult Australians are analysed for usual and preferred working time across family types. We discover a time divide regardless of gender and family type: many short hours individuals desire longer hours of employment, while many long hours individuals prefer shorter hours. The latter group is larger such that the average employee desires fewer hours across family types, with the exception of lone mothers. For dual-earner couples with children, men average approximately 20 hours more per week than women, a difference that would only decline to 18 hours per week if preferred hours were realized. However, approximately one-fifth of these couples exhibited egalitarian or nearly equal working hours. Egalitarian couples averaged a combined 84 hours per week of employment, tended to share the care of children, were more likely to be non-Australian born, and included marked numbers of women holding degrees and in professional occupations.
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ItemDo Longer Working Hours Lead to More Workplace Injuries? Evidence from Australian Industry-Level Panel Data( 2004-05)Using Australian industry-level data on weekly hours of work and frequency of new workers' compensation claims for work-related accidents over the 1990s, the relationship between working time and work-related injuries is examined. Results using panel data techniques suggest there is no relationship between working time of full-time workers and workplace safety performance. This finding is in contrast to cross-sectional evidence presented by previous researchers showing significant effects of working time on safety performance. Evidence is found in this study, however, that increased working time of part-time employed persons is associated with a greater rate of workplace injuries.
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ItemDoes 'Work for the Dole' Work?( 2004-07)This study examines the effect of a community-based work experience program - Work for the Dole (WfD) - on transitions out of unemployment in Australia. To evaluate the WfD program a quasi-experimental exact matching approach is applied. Justification for the matching approach is a 'natural experiment' - limits on WfD project funding - that it is argued constituted a source of random assignment to the program. Participation in the WfD program is found to be associated with a large and significant adverse effect on the likelihood of exiting unemployment payments. The main potential explanation is existence of a 'lock-in' effect whereby program participants reduce job search activity.
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ItemThe Extent and Consequences of Underemployment in Australia( 2004-08)Underemployment is generally conceived as excess labour supply associated with employed persons; that is, as a situation where employed persons would like to work more hours at prevailing wage rates. Using information collected by the 2001 Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, this study seeks to investigate the extent of underemployment and its effects on outcomes such as income, welfare dependence and subjective well-being. It is found that over one in six employed persons is underemployed, corresponding to a failure to utilise 5 per cent of hours supplied by employed persons. Underemployment is more frequently associated with part-time employment for females, but for males is more frequently associated with full-time employment. Models estimated of the effects of underemployment on outcomes imply that, while unemployment clearly has greater adverse consequences, underemployment is nonetheless associated with significant detrimental effects on the outcomes examined. Negative effects are found for both part-time employed and full-time employed workers who would prefer to work more hours, but effects are greater for underemployed part-time workers, and are particularly large for part-time workers who would like to work full-time. Indeed, for part-time workers seeking full-time employment, effects attributable to underemployment are, for some outcomes, not far short of those attributable to unemployment.
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ItemEffects of activity test arrangements on exit from payments: the 9-month intensive review( 2003-09)Since 1996, recipients of unemployment-related welfare payments in Australia have been subject to a review process when their payment spell duration reaches 9 months. This review process is both a monitoring and counselling device: payment recipients are required to provide details of job search activity, while the payments administrator (Centrelink) provides job search advice and assistance. Using Centrelink administrative data over the period 1995 to 2000, this study examines the effects of these reviews on exit from unemployment-related payments. Limitations of the administrative data – in particular, the absence of information on the review process and the nature and precise timing of the review for each recipient – constrain the choice of empirical method. We therefore use duration analysis methods – specifically, estimation of empirical hazards and hazard models – to indirectly infer the impact of the review. Two alternative empirical approaches are taken. The first compares the hazard rate at the 9-month spell duration with hazard rates at 'nearby' spell durations. The second approach exploits a policy change which occurred in March 1996, when the review timing changed from 12 months to 9 months spell duration. For this approach, we compare the 9-month hazard rate in the post-March 1996 period with the 9-month hazard rate in the pre-March 1996 period. We do not find compelling evidence of a substantial or significant effect of the 9-month review using either of the empirical approaches.
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ItemInvestigating the role of neighbourhood characteristics in determining life satisfaction( 2003-09)This paper reports on an analysis of life satisfaction data collected as part of the first wave of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. More specifically, the clustered nature of the HILDA sample was used to test the role of neighbourhood effects in accounting for inter-personal differences in self-reported life satisfaction scores.A regression model predicting individual differences in life satisfaction was developed and tested for men and women separately. When this model was estimated allowing for fixed neighbourhood effects (based on the Census Collection District in which a sample member resides), strong support for sizeable effects were found. Indeed, observable individual and household characteristics (such as age, sex, employment status and household income) were only found to account for about 12 to 14 per cent of the variation in measured life satisfaction. Of the vvariance unexplained, close to 10 per cent could be accounted for by unobserved differences across neighbourhoods. While identifying the presence and magnitude of neighbourhood effects proved to be relatively straightforward, determining the source of these neighbourhood differences is a very different matter. Essentially, these neighbourhood effects can arise either because individuals in the same neighbourhood tend to behave similarly because they face similar environments or have similar characteristics, or because the behaviour of individuals is affected by the behaviour of other residents of the neighbourhood. Some evidence was uncovered to suggest that the latter type of effect might be relatively more powerful in explaining differences in life satisfaction. Unfortunately, this conclusion is tentative at best, with measurable neighbourhood characteristics only found to have a relatively small impact on the overall explanatory power of the regression models
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ItemCompetition, agency and productivity( 2003-07)This paper tests a set of hypotheses relating to agency and Schumpeterian views on how competition affects performance. A survey data set of Australian workplaces is used, with the change in labour productivity growth as the dependent variable. The results show strong support for the idea that intense competition raises productivity growth in managerial workplaces, but not in non-managerial workplaces (i.e. where the principal owner also works). Testing the agency theories in more detail we find no evidence that the number of competitors, the price elasticity of demand or a proxy for bankruptcy (pre-tax losses) are the mechanisms behind the process. For nonmanagerial workplaces the results indicate support for the idea that greater demand uncertainty reduces productivity growth. In contrast, for managerial workplaces greater demand uncertainty tends to raise productivity growth
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