bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Cost Benefit Analysis of Industrial Noise Regulation
Authors: Holland Stephen , Cross Jean 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThis paper examines the application of the techniques of economic analysis to occupational health and safety regulations using occupational noise as an example.The paper explores the extent to which economic impact studies are practically feasible and useful in relation to occupational health and safety legislation. Six studies of the same regulatory change, from four countries were analysed. The results of these studies ranged from a strongly negative to a significantly positive net present value, depending on the assumptions made. The factor which had the greatest influence on these differences was the way in which benefits are costed.It is shown that in the field of Occupational Health and Safety, economic analysis does not produce a single valid net present value or benefit to cost ratio on which a decision to legislate can sensibly be based. However the analysis can, if properly directed provide useful information on factors which will enable organisations to optimise their response to the regulation and authorities to introduce regulations in a way which does not bear with unreasonable weight on specific sectors of the community.
Individual Contracts What Do They Mean for Australia?
Authors: Hamberger Jonathan 
Published: March 2013

AbstractCollective bargaining can be of benefit to both employees and employers. Nevertheless, there is growing interest in individual contracts, as part of a broader agenda for labour market flexibility. In particular, individual contracts are being pursued by some companies as part of a human resource management strategy to increase productivity by reducing the role of third parties and promoting ‘common purpose’ between the firm and its employees. There is some evidence that individual contracts can indeed contribute to higher productivity. The challenge for policy makers is to provide sufficient flexibility in the area of individual contracts while preventing employers from using them to reduce wages and conditions.
The Minimum Wage Debate: Politically Correct Economics?
Authors: Valentine Tom 
Published: March 2013

AbstractEconomists have long thought that an increase in minimum wage rates would lead to higher unemployment of unskilled workers. The higher minimum rates would cause employers to substitute other classes of labour or capital for unskilled labour and to contract output. Situations in which an increase in minimum wage rates will not increase unemployment do not seem to be practically relevant. The results of Card and Krueger have reopened this question. In their major study a survey of fast food outlets suggested that an increase in the minimum wage rate actually increased employment. Unfortunately, closer inspection of their results has not justified the attention paid to their study. The quality of their data is suspect and other data support the traditional view. In addition, the interpretation of their results is very questionable. The new material actually gives economists no reason to revise their traditional view on this subject.
Minimum Wages, Equity and Unemployment
Authors: Nevile J.W. 
Published: March 2013

AbstractIncreasing income inequalities in Australia increase the need to protect the incomes of low income families. It is difficult for the taxation and social security system alone to do this. Minimum wage rates have a role to play. Thus, the question of their effects on employment can not be sidestepped Traditional analysis of this question is flawed by the assumption of perfect competition and the use of particular equilibrium analysis. Labour markets have many features which distinguish them from perfectly competitive markets and feedbacks from other markets can not be ignored. Theory alone can not settle this question. A large number of empirical studies are surveyed. A widespread consensus exists that effects of minimum wage rises on adult employment are virtually non-existent A number of studies find effects on teenage employment. A number of others do not. However, even those who find statistically significant effects agree that they are small.
Wage Bargaining and the Efficiency Dividend in Public Enterprises
Authors: Kearney Colm 
Published: March 2013

AbstractAn important aspect of the process of microeconomic reform is the improved operational efficiency of public trading enterprises. This paper argues the importance of appropriately distributing the efficiency dividend amongst the key players including the owners (ie., Governments which expect greater dividends), producers of the output (ie., workers and management who expect greater wages and salaries) and consumers (who expect better quality output at lower prices). The paper first evaluates the currently available measures of the efficiency dividend in public enterprises, including factor productivity and performance indicators. It then demonstrates that inappropriate use of these measures by management and/or workers during the wage bargaining process can lead to misunderstanding of the extent of the dividend and how it should be distributed. This in turn can undermine the reform process. Amongst the conclusions reached are that single factor productivity measures should not be used during the wage bargaining process.
Job Insecurity in the New Model of Public Employment
Authors: Robinson Marc 
Published: March 2013

AbstractSince the late eighties, a new model of public sector employment has swept a number of the States in Australia, initially at the senior executive level and now increasingly at non-executive level. This model of ‘contract’ employment is one in which employees may be terminated at short notice, for no reason, and with very limited termination compensation. This paper analyses the consequences of this new model and, specifically, of dramatically increased exposure to the risk of arbitrary termination or termination flowing from the impact of an ‘exogenous’ financial or policy shock upon Government. It also reflects on the prospects for the construction of a new ‘implicit contract’ which might mitigate the adverse consequences of the new model by facilitating the re-establishment of trust in the public sector employment relationship.
Approaching the 21st Century: Perspectives on Korean Industrial Relations
Authors: Woo Seoghun 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThis paper argues that the future direction for the development of Korean industrial relations will evolve through direct interaction between employers and trade unions (either conflictual or cooperative). The government is likely to play a less interventionist role in industrial relations, compared with the past, and to adopt the role of mediator between unions and employers. Characteristics of Korean industrial relations during the pre- 1987 period is firstly examined; four major factors are used to explain the industrial relations practice during this time. Changes after 1987 are also considered. Special consideration is given to interaction between the environment and the three major industrial relations participants, and the interactions between them. Both macro and micro aspects of industrial relations are examined. The special Presidential Address (26/04/1996), known as New Conception of Industrial Relations, is also analysed in terms of its implications for future industrial relations issues in Korea.
Deficiencies in the Current Tax System
Authors: Smith Julie 
Published: March 2013

AbstractInternational mobility of capital and competitive pressures are challenging Australian governments to reduce taxes, especially on capital, while conflicting demands, from deregulation, concerns about national savings, and pressures to reform indirect taxes, heighten the need for higher revenues and more progressive taxes.We risk becoming a society of ‘rational fools’, where citizens value government services, but governments lack revenue to fund them. Taxpayers see the system as unfair and see others dodge taxes; tax resistance increases, and the revenue base further declines. Rational behaviour from an individual viewpoint is foolish from a communal perspective.Deficiencies in the tax system must be remedied to break the cycle. The inability to raise adequate revenue is fundamental. Federal/state financial imbalance is intrinsic to the problem and must be addressed. Removing opportunities for ‘tax shirking’, and addressing major inequities and concessions in direct taxes would improve prospects for indirect tax reform. Increasing overall progressivity by asset or inheritance taxes would balance regressive effects of indirect taxes.
Labour Market Gross Flows and Transition Rates 1980–1992
Authors: Leeves Gareth D. 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThis paper examines the cyclical properties of gross flows and transition rates between the alternative labour market states of ‘employed’, ‘unemployed’, and ‘not in labour force’ for Australian workers for the period 1980–1992. The study is based on ABS monthly gross flow data, disaggregated by gender, and with the employment status disaggregated into part-time and full-time work. The principal finding is that the somewhat surprising pattern, of counter-cyclical monthly flows from unemployment to employment, is primarily the result of counter-cyclical male transitions to full time employment. The results are compared with those from European empirical studies. The paper also considers the consistency of the results with thé implications of theoretical models which emphasise the counter-cyclical ‘quality’ of the unemployment pool.
‘Stolen Entitlements’: The 1997 Living Wage Case
Authors: Dabscheck Braham 
Published: March 2013

AbstractIn April 1997 the Australian Industrial Relations Commission established a federal minimum award wage of $359.40 per week, and awarded a $10 per week safety net increase for workers who had been unable to obtain wage increases under the regime of enterprise bargaining. The Commission produced a split decision, the first time this has occurred in twenty years. This article provides a commentary on the respective decisions of the majority and minority. It examines the background or context of the case, the claims of the parties, and the reasoning of the majority and minority in their respective decisions. The case reveals a widening gap in the income of workers. Those without bargaining power are falling behind in both real and relative terms, in the regulatory world of enterprise bargaining. The situation has only been partially addressed by the decision in this case.
Implications for Wages Policy in Australia of the Living Wage Case
Authors: Stegman Trevor 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThis paper considers the implications of the decision of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission in the April 1997 wage case (the ‘Living Wage Case’) for wages policy. The recent history of wages policy in Australia is analysed in terms of competing goals for wages policy and the changing priorities for these goals. The Living Wage Case decision is a continuation of developments in the Australian labour market that worsen the relative income position of the low paid, tend to create a two-tier wage structure, and worsen the prospects for reductions in unemployment because responsibility for the control of wage based inflation has been given to restrictive monetary policy.
Industrial Relations in the U.S. Automobile Industry: An Illustration of Increased Decentralization and Diversity
Authors: Katz Harry C. 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThis paper traces the evolution of employment relations in the U.S. auto industry over the post World War II period with particular emphasis on recent developments. There is a strong movement toward growing variation in employment relations within both the assembly and parts sectors of the auto industry. Variation appears both through the spread of more contingent compensation and team systems of work organization. There is also wide variety across plants and industry segments in basic employment systems including low wage, human resource, Japanese-oriented, and joint team-based approaches. Declining unionization is a particularly strong influence in the parts sector although nonunion operations have now spread to the assembly sector. While these trends are well illustrated by developments in the auto industry, they are trends common to other parts of the U.S. economy.
Employment Relations in the Korean Automotive Industry: Issues and Policy Implications
Authors: Park Young-Bum , Lee Byoung-Hoon , Woo Seog-Hun 
Published: March 2013

AbstractSince the late 1980s there have been significant problems in the Korean auto industry related to employment relations. This paper focusses on the experience of three companies: Hyundai, Daewoo and Kia, which have pursued somewhat different strategies in industrial relations and human resource management. Hyundai, which is the largest auto producer, has experienced major labour disputes almost every year since 1987, but has reached an accommodation with its union in the past couple of years. Daewoo and Kia have both faced militant union leadership since the early 1990s. Kia’s management was rather indecisive, but Daewoo was more decisive and industrial relations appear to have stabilised. However, major industrial conflicts at the end of 1996, following the government’s attempt to reform labour laws, and the formation of a new independent peak union council, indicate that industrial relations in the Korean auto industry are likely to remain unsettled for some time.
Philosophical Foundations of the Wallis Report
Authors: Carmichael Jeffrey 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThe Wallis Report, adopted by the Government in September of this year, contained a wide-ranging set of reforms that are likely to alter significantly the style and structure of financial regulation in Australia. This survey offers some reflections on the Wallis Report, its key recommendations and the thinking underlying them.The Committee saw market failure as the primary rationale for regulation. Markets fail to produce efficient, competitive outcomes for one or more of the following reasons: anti-competitive behaviour; market misconduct; information asymmetry; and systemic instability.The Committee’s recommended reforms were designed to create a regulatory structure that matched the four motives for regulation. This will create a regulatory structure based on regulatory functions rather than institutions. The new structure should be more efficient, less duplicative and better able to cope with the regulatory pressures that are likely to emerge in coming years from on-going technological innovation.
The Wallis Inquiry: An Assessment
Authors: Kearney Colm 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThe Wallis Report is a substantial document with many useful insights into the workings of the financial system and its interactions with the regulatory and deregulatory process. This article provides a brief review of the Wallis Report. It argues that the Report could have been improved by first, including a more sophisticated evaluation of prior deregulatory experience, second, providing a more thorough explanation of how its recommendations will work in the areas of systemic stability and depositor protection, and third, including recommendations for a formal and rigorous monitoring of he outcomes of the recommended legislative changes.
The MUA Affair: The Role of Law vs. The Rule of Law
Authors: Glasbeek H.J. 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThis paper focusses on what the judicial battles in the waterfront dispute tell us about the role of law and what implications this has for labour relations and corporate law. For labour law, the significance is that reliance on liberal law has limited potential for workers seeking to pursue their causes through the courts. For corporate law, the Court’s decision makes it plain that, when there is an overt conflict between wealth owners and workers, the courts will try to obfuscate this, while ensuring the security of property owners. To this end, the High Court-despite scolarly criticism-treated each corporation in the Patrick group as if it were an independent atom. This ruling will be a green light to other anti-union employers and will disadvantage workers in a system which increasingly makes their rights dependent on the legal identity of their employer.
Outsourcing, Employment and Industrial Relations in the Public Sector
Authors: Burgess John , Macdonald Duncan 
Published: March 2013

AbstractOutsourcing is very much part of the neo-liberal agenda for the public sector. The rationale for transferring the provision of goods and services, traditionally the responsibility of governments to private enterprise lies in the perception of public sector inefficiency and the philosophy that reducing the role of government, is essential for the optimal performance of the economy. While the impact of outsourcing is not always easy to isolate given its coexistence with a variety of complementary neo-liberal strategies such as legislative attacks on trade unions, there is strong evidence to suggest that it has contributed significantly to the reduction of employment, wages and working conditions. This has occurred both as functions are transferred to the less regulated private sector and as those left in government employment are subjected to the impact of ongoing financial stringency in their struggle to compete with the private sector and hold on to their jobs.
‘Contestability’ in Competitive Tendering and Contracting: A Critique
Authors: Pancharatnam Kuru 
Published: March 2013

AbstractAcademic and policy discourse about Competitive Tendering and Contracting (CTC) derives its intellectual legitimacy from the theory of contestable markets. Applying contestability to CTC implies that efficiency gains generated through the initial open tender are repeated at successive stages of tendering. This paper presents a theoretically and pragmatically grounded critique of the application of this theory to CTC by focusing on the Re-Opened Tender (ROT) stage. Working within the neo-classical economic paradigm, contestability will be shown to be constrained at ROT, resulting in the most inefficient and worst possible welfare outcome for the buyer.
Globalisation, Neoliberalism and Inequality in Australia
Authors: Quiggin John 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThe paper has two main objects. The first is to discuss the nature of (economic) globalisation and the extent to which it can be considered an exogenous development. Globalisation since 1970 is contrasted with that in the 19th century. It is argued that the current experience of globalisation is simply the international manifestation of the swing towards neoliberal policies of market oriented reform that hag taken throughout the world since 1970. The second object is to consider the relationship, if my, of globalisation to the increase in inequality evident in a number of developed countries. It is argued that increased inequality is the result of the neoliberal reform program as a whole and that the role of globalisation per se has been overstated.
Australia’s Current Account Deficit, National Savings and Industry Policy
Authors: Hart Neil , Marks Andrew 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThe argument that there exist a causal link between national savings and current account deficits is often simplistically formulated in terms of national income accounting identities. However the validity of formulating national saving-argmenting policies to target current account deficits is open to much debate when the possible theoretical linkages between these aggregates are investigated more closely. In particular; if the adjustment mechanism to external balance is expenditure driven rather than relying on exchange rate induced relative price changes, the alternative case of interventionist policy to promote net exports is strengthened. Theoretical arguments opposing the use of interventionist trade policies are often derived form inappropriately constructed, or simplistically interpreted, economic models.
Australian Labour Market Institutions, ‘Deregulation’ and the Open Economy
Authors: Gahan Peter , Harcourt Tim 
Published: March 2013

AbstractLabour market ‘deregulation’ is a major economic policy issue in Australia. Some of the desire for deregulation has been part of a worldwide trend in OECD countries whilst some comes from more localised disquiet about the alleged effect of Australia’s industrial relations institutions on the economy. This article looks at the evidence em Australian labour market regulation and its relation to economic performance. The article finds that Australian labour market institutions have had little effect on efficiency but have provided important distributional outcomes. Furthermore it is argued that with ‘globalisation’ there is more reason to continue labour market protection not less to enhance Australia’s capacity to trade and invest in the global economy.
The influence of sensitisation to pollens and moulds on seasonal variations in asthma attacks
Authors: Canova Cristina , Heinrich Joachim , Anto Josep Maria , Leynaert Benedicte , Smith Matthew , Kuenzli Nino , Zock Jan-Paul , Janson Christer , Cerveri Isa , de Marco Roberto , Toren Kjell , Gislason Thorarinn , Nowak Dennis , Pin Isabelle , Wjst Matthias , Manfreda Jure , Svanes Cecilie , Crane Julian , Abramson Michael , Burr Michael , Burney Peter , Jarvis Deborah 
Published: March 2013

No large study has described the seasonal variation in asthma attacks in population-based asthmatics in whom sensitisation to allergen has been measured.2637 young adults with asthma living in 15 countries reported the months in which they usually had attacks of asthma and had skin-prick tests performed. Differences in seasonal patterns by sensitisation status were assessed using generalised estimating equations.Most young adults with asthma reported periods of the year when their asthma attacks were more common (range: 47% in Sweden to 86% in Spain). Seasonal variation in asthma was not modified by sensitisation to house dust mite or cat allergens. Asthmatics sensitised to grass, birch andAlternariaallergens had different seasonal patterns to those not sensitised to each allergen, with some geographical variation. In southern Europe, those sensitised to grass allergens were more likely to report attacks occurred in spring or summer than in winter (OR March/April 2.60, 95% CI 1.70–3.97; OR May/June 4.43, 95% CI 2.34–8.39) and smaller later peaks were observed in northern Europe (OR May/June 1.25, 95% CI 0.60–2.64; OR July/August 1.66, 95% CI 0.89–3.10). Asthmatics reporting hay fever but who were not sensitised to grass showed no seasonal variations.Seasonal variations in asthma attacks in young adults are common and are different depending on sensitisation to outdoor, but not indoor, allergens.