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This study examines how Australian public universities have a presence in the various discipline areas recognised by the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Using the prism of public value, we interpret how universities articulate the legitimacy of teaching humanities. Through a careful audit of available secondary data, we advance a typology of humanities education. Our principal finding is that Australia's humanities presence is surprisingly homogenous, with only a few universities proposing a specialised offering. We contend that this creates an environment where universities may be forced to consider abandoning their humanities offerings unless a higher degree of differentiation takes place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A broad consensus exists that Australian economic activity is too heavily concentrated in capital cities, and regional employment creation should be encouraged. Given the magnitude of international migration to Australia, it is important to determine the impact of migration on regional development by investigating business ownership and job creation by international migrants in regional areas. This paper examines the probability that regional migrant business owners are employers – and thereby employment generators – using a multivariate logit model. We find that migrant business owners with staff are more likely to be male, married and live in regional NSW, metropolitan Victoria and regional and metropolitan Queensland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australian business schools are often viewed by senior university managers as 'cash cows' because of their revenue‐raising capacity. However, a competing view has emerged that challenges their status as 'cash cows' and contends, instead, that business schools should focus on maximising 'public value' as a means to enhance their legitimacy. Using the analytic framework of 'public value,' a broad cross section of Australian business schools deans was interviewed. These interviews afforded a greater understanding of how the tensions inherent in these competing narratives are reconciled, and how they impact on the day‐to‐day management of business schools in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the literature on the perceived individual‐level demand‐side barriers to and benefits from seeking and following financial advice. Our review reveals that poor financial literacy, lack of trust and financial adviser anxiety have all been found to dissuade individuals from pursuing professional financial advice. The limited literature on the effectiveness of financial advice in terms of financial well‐being suggests a positive link. However, no study has collectively examined the influence of financial literacy, trust and financial adviser anxiety on financial advice seeking and well‐being in Australia. We conclude by discussing further gaps, policy recommendations, the recently introduced amendments to the Australian Corporations Act and several directions for future research, which may provide theoretical and practical benefits to policy‐makers, industry professionals, academics and individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Road congestion and infrastructure funding challenges have become a major concern in urban centres in Australia. Recent debates pertaining to private motor vehicle usage have renewed interest in alternative road user charging (RUC) to internalise the external costs associated with private motor vehicle usage. One possible solution is distance‐based charging (DBC), which could provide a more transparent road pricing system. We review the salient features of RUC and DBC, the costs associated with private vehicle usage that DBC is expected to capture, and undertake an analysis of existing vehicle classification systems that underpin current RUC schemes within Australia. Based on this, we propose a new vehicle classification system that could be used to support the design of a workable DBC scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to review empirical findings in the literature relating to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and real estate investment trust (REIT) performance. Specifically, we synthesise CSR‐focused REIT performance studies in an attempt to establish empirical approaches utilised in the academic literature, present findings, identify relevant gaps and reveal themes for future research. The literature focusing on the CSR of REITs to‐date has primarily focused on corporate governance, sustainability and performance, with the latter concentrating on firm‐level financial consequences rather than investment return performance. The review showed that there has been limited empirical research conducted on the relationship between CSR and risk‐adjusted returns of REITs, particularly in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public policy is based increasingly on the 'externalisation' of policy advice by means of reports commissioned from commercial consulting companies, sometimes termed the 'invisible public sector.' The literature examining the accuracy and analytical rigour of such public policy advice suggests that there are moral hazards flowing from externalisation. This paper critically examines the 2016 PricewaterhouseCoopers report, Marriage Equality in Australia: The Cost of Holding a Plebiscite, by evaluating the merits of the economic analysis and the underlying motivation for a private for-profit consulting company to prepare and release the report gratis. It finds that the costings are seriously flawed, with evidence of 'selection bias,' and argues that the report represents an exercise in 'virtue-signalling' rather than sound economic analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the evolution of asylum policy under the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd governments between 2008 and 2013 and evaluates its impact on irregular maritime arrivals and deaths at sea. In addition to providing an account of asylum policy during this political epoch - and the dramatic rise in irregular maritime arrivals and deaths at seas - we also evaluate these policies in an effort to distil some broader public policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data envelopment analysis ( DEA) has the potential to make strong contributions to the formulation of public policy. In particular, DEA can be used to identify the determinants of efficiency and this information can be used to inform debate around municipal boundary reform and other matters. However, there is a dearth of empirical literature on the accurate and correct specification of DEA. We use conceptual considerations to posit an ideal specification for Australian municipal DEA before estimating a number of models to demonstrate the effect of specification on the identification of determinants. Our evidence suggests that incorrect specification may well produce spurious associations and lead to poor public policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In common with many other countries, Australian local government policymakers have focussed heavily on improving financial sustainability and operational efficiency through structural change and other modes of systemic reform. However, this system-wide approach cannot adequately deal with small island councils due to their sui generis characteristics. In an effort to fill this gap in the literature, this article examines the financial sustainability of Australia's three island councils - Flinders, Kangaroo and King - over the period 2008-2013 in order to determine whether alternative organisational arrangements may be better suited to their unique circumstances. In so doing, our study contributes to the literature by providing the first empirical analysis of the financial viability of Australia's island councils while considering the need for an alternative organisation entity in an effort to enhance their long-term financial sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New South Wales ( NSW) local government is in the throes of a vigorous debate over the best methods of improving its operations through a comprehensive reform programme. An Independent Local Government Review Panel, set up by the NSW Government, has proposed addressing the 'key challenge' of local environmental sustainability by forcibly amalgamating local councils, especially in the metropolitan regions of the state. Using the community participation model, local co-governance structures established by Lake Macquarie City Council (LakeMac) in its Sustainable Neighbourhoods Program ( SNAP) as a case study, this study argues that co-governance programmes of this kind represent by far the most promising avenue for tackling the environmental challenges facing NSW local government. We seek to demonstrate that the ground-breaking efforts being undertaken by LakeMac show that NSW local government already enjoys the necessary legislative foundations to initiate successful local co-government initiatives through local community participation. Rather than divisive and expensive compulsory council mergers, we contend that the Panel should instead have recommended that the NSW Government focus on encouraging NSW local government to emulate LakeMac's example in discharging its environmental responsibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between wages and religious affiliation for Australian women using a human capital earnings function corrected for selectivity in labour force participation. Data drawn from the 2004, 2007, and 2010 waves of the Household Income Labour Dynamics Australia (HILDA) Survey were analysed for women between the age of 25 and 54. Our results indicate that women who identify as being Catholic benefit from a wage premium of 4.5 per cent relative to women who identify as being Anglican-the largest Protestant denomination in Australia-even after controlling for a range of demographic, social and economic characteristics. Potential explanations such as the attitude of women towards work and returns to education and experience do not appear to be major determinants of this wage-differential. Thus, it appears other unobservable traits may be a key factor in explaining the observed Catholic wage premium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Roads to Recovery (R2R) Program is an Australian Government policy which has provided billions of dollars to local government for local roads investment and maintenance. The R2R Program is controversial insofar as it may be unconstitutional and it may not have delivered 'value for money'. This article evaluates the R2R Program taking into account evidence from the Australian National Audit Office Report Management of the AusLink Roads to Recovery Program. This Report found that local government had engaged in 'revenue-shifting' by substituting Commonwealth funds for its own hypothecated expenditure on local roads. This had partly undermined the intended benefits of the R2R Program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of national and state public inquiries into the financial sustainability of local government have demonstrated that all Australian local government jurisdictions face a daunting local infrastructure maintenance and renewal backlog. Various solutions to the problem have been advanced in the literature, including the establishment of an Australian municipal bond market to facilitate the use of private sector finance to fund the remediation of the infrastructure shortfall (Byrnes et al., 2008). However, despite the conceptual attraction of this particular policy proposal, as a majority of Australian local authorities are small, with limited administrative and technical capacity, they would have great difficulty in securing access to a municipal bond market. In this paper, we consider municipal banks and bond banks as alternative institutional solutions to the Australian local government infrastructure backlog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]