Search

This paper tests for certain benefits of foreign direct investment in the manufacturing sectors of two leading host countries---Canada and Australia. A quest for evidence on the effects of the multinational corporation needs little defense at a time when host and source countries alike incline towards restricting its activities. Economic theory tells us that intramarginal[2] gains from foreign investment take diverse forms. An evident and tangible gain to the host government stems from the corporate income tax collected from subsidiaries (net of the incremental cost of public services supplied to them). Other benefits, conjectural and elusive but possibly large, lie in the effects of direct investment on the value productivity of resources owned by the host economy (Macdougall, 1960; Corden, 1967; Caves, 1971). The host nation's private sector does not benefit directly because the foreign subsidiary is efficient, or brings to its shores skilled entrepreneurship or productive knowledge. Rather its gains depend on spill-overs of productivity that occur when the multinational corporation cannot capture all quasi-rents due to its productive activities, or to the removal of distortions by the subsidiary's competitive pressure. These potential benefits can be divided into three classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The object of this paper is to examine some issues relating to foreign exchange market arrangements and policies which may be significant for the future of trade and other economic relations between Australia and Japan. The issues, for the most part, are not of crucial importance. But some of them have been the subject of rather ill-informed discussion, while others have hardly been considered at all. Such an examination may therefore be informative for both Australians and Japanese concerned with the bilateral economic relationship. The paper will concentrate on the Australian side, but it is hoped that it will stimulate the preparation of a Japanese counterpart, if such is not already on the way. The paper will deal with five main aspects: 1. Foreign exchange market arrangements. 2. Foreign exchange controls. 3. Forward exchange facilities. 4. Transaction currency. 5. International reserves. We will not discuss questions of exchange rate policy which would demand a paper to themselves. We shall merely assume that exchange rates will vary a good deal more frequently than they did before 1971 and that greater uncertainty about exchange rates will be a fact of life from now on. Nor shall we discuss the pros and cons of the new Australian policies on foreign (including Japanese) investment in Australia, though something will need to be said about the nature and consequences of the new system of exchange controls on capital inflow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, numerous references have been made to the cost-price squeeze on farm income in Australia and the decline in farm income, relative to non-farm income. The increase in annual rates and taxes on farm property has contributed to this squeeze on income. In fact, the Bureau of Agricultural Economics index of farm costs indicates that rates and taxes have increased more rapidly than any other item in farm production and marketing expenses, increasing by 53 per cent over the period 1960-63 to 1968. This article looks at local government financing in rural areas of South Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent widespread emergence of wage and price inflation seemingly associated with a slowdown in real activity and rise in unemployment makes an analysis of the determinants of average earnings an important matter. This paper examines the determinants of average weekly earnings in Australia, basing the analysis on the extensive overseas literature and previous Australian work in this area. We present quantitative estimates of the influence of imported inflation and award wage changes, as well as of more traditional variables such as demand pressure and productivity changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Melampsora medusae Thüm. and M. larici-populina Kleb. are the most popular conifer rusts, that have been found in Australia. M. medusae and M. larici-populina differ in the size, shape and wall echinulation of the urediniospores, in the apical wall thickness of their uredinial paraphyses, in the position of the telia on the host leaf, and in their host range. M. medusae has the widest host range, but it occurs mainly on Populus deltoides clones and hybrids. M. larici populina occurs mainly on P. nigra var. italica.

Three desmid taxa, isolated from different parts of Australia, conform to the morphological taxa Pleurotaenium ehrenbergii, P. mamillatum, and P. coronatum. Use of successful zygospore formation between cells of mixed populations as an indication of ability to share a common gene pool shows that all 3 texa are at least closely related and probably are members of the same biological species. Tentatively, we suggest synonymy of these taxa and urge the adoption of sexual criterion in delimiting desmid species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollen analysis of three sites on Wilsons Promontory provides a vegetation record from 6000 B.P. to the present day. No extensive changes in the vegetation have been found over this time period, but local and regional variations in the extent of communities may imply small climatic changes. Moister conditions than at present seem to have prevailed earlier than 4500 B.P., followed by a drier phase till less than 2000 B.P., when an increase in moisture gave conditions similar to those of today. Some evidence exists to support the theory of a relatively steady sea level close to the present level over the last 6000 years along the western Wilsons Promontory coastline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From Australian data an investigation is made of the ages at which children leave home, and the socioeconomic and demographic variables which influence these. Particular emphasis is given to the differences in experience between sons and daughters, and between children who leave home for marriage and those who leave for other reasons. Overall, daughters leave home when about two years younger than sons, and a higher proportion of daughters leave home for marriage than for other reasons compared with sons. For each sex, the average age at leaving home is youngest when the reason for leaving is education or a job, and oldest when the reason is marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several countries in the 1960s underwent what many observers regard as a manpower revolution. Styles varied, particularly between America's remedial approach and a more preventative orientation in Europe. Still, common to all— Sweden, England, Canada, the United States, Germany and the Netherlands—was a sharpened awareness that only through government intervention could acceptable standards of labour market performance be achieved. Australia, on the otherhand, has lagged behind. Even with a sustained effort to catch up, it will be without an active manpower policy well into the 1970s, although employers, trade unions, governments and other labour market interest groups all articulate support. This consensus, however, is superficial and potentially misleading. It rests on the fact that none of these groups has publicly, or perhaps even privately, interpreted what manpower policy entails. So long as the standards by which it is operated or evaluated remain underspecified, all can and do agree that a more active manpower policy is desirable. Similarly underspecified, for example, is the consensus supporting the need for good industrial relations. From an economics orientation, manpower policy can be viewed as an integrated set of conscious acts to raise labour productivity through the rational development and deployment of human resources. Clearly, the process of skill acquisition through training/retraining will be crucial. Since manpower policy is a means rather than an end, certain constraints, particularly on the training function, will exist. In some cases, as with adult apprenticeships and the issue of female employment opportunities, these derive from entrenched attitudes of the various labour market interest groups. In other cases, which are more frequent than is generally recognized, the constraints are rooted in the unique institutions, standards and conventions governing the Australian labour market itself. These, more so than the former,... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses issues raised by the Australian policy on patenting and licensing of government inventions. Government pressure for increased royalty revenues; Argument that royalty revenue is an entirely misleading index of the value of government research; Powers of a patentee; Major research bodies in Australia.

This paper estimates the incidence of total Australian taxation in 1966-67, the incidence of taxation at the Federal, State and local government levels and of some individual direct and indirect taxes. It constitutes the first of a series of studies concerned with the problems of estimating the incidence of taxes and of government expenditures. The aim of the present paper is to provide estimates of Australian tax incidence together with a brief discussion of the nature and reasonableness of the incidence assumptions necessarily adopted in a study of this nature. Consideration of the more fundamental theoretical incidence problems and the formulation of a tax model for tax incidence will be presented in a later paper. There are five sections. The first deals with the data sources and their limitations. The second outlines the methodology decisions made. This is followed by a discussion of the incidence assumptions adopted and a description of the techniques by which each type of tax was allocated to household income classes. In the fourth section the results are presented, and the final section consists of a brief discussion of some policy implications arising from the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on the rate of technological changes in Victorian agriculture for the period of 1870-1910 in Australia. Scrutiny on the major investment plants in the country; Implications of the advancements with the productivity of the rural sector; Consequences of the technological change on the input and output in the country.

The balance of payments in an open economy plays an important role in determining changes in the stock of domestic money. International reserve inflows, for example, will increase the domestic stock of money if they are added directly to the money balances of residents, or if they are exchanged for domestic currency at the central bank. In Australia, reserve flows are an important factor, and occasionally a dominant one, in determining changes in the domestic stock of money. This observation raises the question, what are the major determinants of Australian reserve flows and what role, if any, do policy actions play in affecting reserve flows? In this paper the latter, and simpler, approach is taken. Reserve flows are related to factors determining growth in demand for money, and to policy and other domestically determined factors that contribute to growth in the stock of money. This money-market approach to the balance of payments is a slightly modified version of a model developed by H. G. Johnson (1972). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As difined in the first part of these papers, the distribution of MS does not really correlate well with broad geoclimatic factors. Specifically there is little evidence for a direct correlation with latitude, and such correlations, to be meaningful, need to consider longitude as well. At latitude 40 degrees north, for example, MS is high frequency in America, medium in Europe, and low in Asia. Accordingly the world-wide distribution of MS is best regarded as comprising three bands or zones of high medium, and low risk or frequency as delineated here. All the high and medium regions are at present found in Europe or in areas colonized by Europeans. It seems likely then that MS originated in western Europe and has spread from there to the United States and Canada as well as to New Zealand and Australia. The disorder may well have "taken" also in South Africa and Hawaii, but at considerably lower levels. Further attention to the character and timing of the depresion of this disease may well provide clues vital to determining its cause.

This paper discusses and tests the relevance of the theory of efficient capital markets on Australian stock exchange prices using a financial type filter procedure. The efficient markets theory is most commonly associated with Sharpe [18], Lintner [10], [11] and Fama [6]. It simply states that a market in which prices fully reflect all available information is regarded as efficient. To make this proposition testable, it is necessary to specify a model of price formation in terms of expected returns, which depend on the risk vis-a-vis other securities and conditional on an information set (S). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a demographic framework, based on Australian experience, to indicate periods during the life cycle of the family when children are likely to be making a financial contribution to the family's needs, and stages during which the wife or mother has the opportunity to go out to work. The economic value of children to the family depends largely on how many children have started work and are still living at home, on the assumption that children who are working but have left home are unlikely to be contributing to the family's income. The economic contribution of the wife is to a large extent associated with whether or not she has infants or pre-school children in the family who require her continual attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the Australian Council for Educational Research's (ACER) Mechanical Comprehension Test. The test, used in conjunction with the AH4, was one of the two most popular ways of assessing applicants' capabilities. Although the ACER Mechanical Comprehension Test is recognized to have been useful in its original setting, it was first prepared for use with the Australian Armed Forces in World War II. In the study presented in this article, 221 school leavers completed the ACER Mechanical Comprehension Test on at least one occasion as part of their applications for apprenticeships. Their test scores were provided by the firms concerned, which were chosen because they had testers who had been trained on courses approved by the British Psychological Society. Not all the applicants were successful. sophistication. A marked discrepancy is observed. The British craft apprentice applicants obtained on average only about half the score of the Melbourne students. There is then a clear need for British norms oriented to the test market, and it is hoped that a suitable study will be carried out soon.

Little formal empirical research has been carried out on the extent of economies of scale in Australian manufacturing industries, in comparison with the large amount of research done in this field in the United States (for example, by Bain and many others) and in Britain (especially by Pratten and Pratten and Dean. Several Australian economists have commented over the years, on this shortcoming of Australian applied economic research. The main reason for this has not been lack of interest, but rather an absence of suitable data for analysis. This lack of empirical research is of some concern, as economies of scale are widely regarded in Australia as presenting a major barrier to the entry of new firms in many important industries, both on a national and on a regional scale. With increasing attention being devoted to problems of monopolization in Australia, it is important to discover whether the high levels of concentration which exist in many Australian industries can be justified on the grounds of the need to achieve scale economies. Several methods are available to measure the extent of economies of scale in an industry. The analysis can be carried out by looking at the relationship between firm size and profitability, through statistical cost analysis or through what is known as the engineering approach. Stigler pioneered the use in modem economics of a fourth method of measuring optimal scale. The technique was called the survivor principle, and has been applied to many American industries and recently to industries in the United Kingdom. It is this method which will be used in the following analysis of optimal plant size in Australian manufacturing industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent, and continuing, debate has been concerned with the importance of price expectations as a determinant of price and wage adjustment and with their relationship to employment. As a by-product of this debate it has been suggested that previously accepted approaches to the measurement of price expectations, which involved "indirect" proxy variables, were not adequate for testing the propositions around which this debate revolved. This paper summarises the debate and its lessons for the measurement of price expectations and develops a series which directly measures price expectations in Australia. This series is then used to test some traditional hypotheses about price expectation formation. Finally there is a short discussion of the "rationality" implicit in this series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on Michael Parkin's article about short- and long-run trade-offs between inflation and unemployment in Australia published in the 1973 issue of 'Australian Economic Papers' periodical. Growth of earnings; Excess demand for labor; Prices of goods.

Replies to the comment of J. Nevile concerning the author's article about short- and long-run trade-offs between inflation and unemployment in Australia published in the 1973 issue of 'Australian Economic Papers' periodical. Equilibrium analysis; Phillips curve; Excess demand for labor.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships amongst the demand for workers, overtime, and inventory investment in the Australian economy. The basic argument of the paper is that these variables are closely related and that this relationship is particularly strong in the short run; the paths by which these variables are adjusted to theft equilibrium or long-run levels are closely related. These assertions are supported by the empirical evidence presented in the paper. It is assumed that the generalized adjustment model provides an adequate representation of the process by which the variables are adjusted to their equilibrium values. The empirical equations which result from this assumption indicate that there are relationships amongst the paths of adjustment of these variables; some of the cross-adjustment coefficients are significantly different from zero. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study on the ecology of tetranychid mites in Australian commercial orchards. Influence of Dechloro Diphenyl Trichloro Ethane on the abundance of Tetranychus urticae and Bryobia rubrioculus; Relative importance of various predators; Impact of pesticides on predators.

Investigates climate of opinion in Australia on recreational usage of marihuana, a narcotic drug and establishes approval of legal status of the drug with biographic and social correlation. Identification of the drug in social and political terms; Distribution of the drug in the population of attitudes; Observance of congruence between public opinion relating to penalty and trends in sentencing for marihuana offences.

The article presents an analysis of the influence of company size, year-end closing date, and relative profitability on trends of corporate reporting delays in Australia. The significance of timeliness within the field of accounting and legitimate financial analysis is stressed and empirical research is presented to quantify and examine noncompliance within several companies of the Australian stock exchanges in the 1970s. The factors and causes of preliminary, auditors' signature, and total lag-times for financial statement publications are each explored in turn. Conclusions are also given highlighting the majority influence of the year-end closing date on reporting delay.

The article presents an argument in favor of the direct market share price influence of accounting method shifts and asset revaluation reports by public companies. Previous research denying the influence of accounting methods on securities prices is reviewed and challenged, citing several examples within Australian companies experiencing distinct upward movements in the 1960s as a result of revaluation announcements. Additional commentary is offered suggesting that the research implies a lack of systematic an regular information revaluation can have negative stock effects.

Focuses on federal-level public sector industrial relations experience in Australia. Application of interest arbitration; Formal provisions for compulsory arbitration; Impact of institutional variables in determining the effect of arbitration on negotiating behavior.

This article looks at the supply characteristics of the overseas transport network and the cost of shipping in Australia. Shippers of colonial produce required two essential services: a supply of tonnage both sufficiently large to convey the bulk of all exports and suitable for the respective needs of the individual articles, and transport at a cost which would allow them to compete in the British market. An adequate response from the shipping industry to these demands would inspire confidence, and not only allow exporters to establish and maintain relations with their customers, but also induce them to plan ahead on a longer term, e.g. through investment in land or the granting of credit to primary producers. Persons involved in South Australian copper mining, which had started production in the early 1840s, claimed that for lack of tonnage copper ore at times had had to wait several months for shipment to Swansea, while on the other hand the Navigation Acts prohibited German vessels, which arrived from Bremen with migrants, to load for Great Britain.

One of the purposes of this paper is to examine the basis of these conclusions in some detail. This seems to be desirable for two reasons. The first is that they are significant conclusions with important policy implications. The second is that because Professor Parkin's work represents the first serious attempt to deal with the trade-off question in the Australian context and is far in advance of all previous contributions, the conclusions which he presents are likely to be accepted somewhat uncritically. The distinguished place which Professor Parkin occupies in the recent literature on inflation theory and policy makes this all the more likely. This inspection of foundations is undertaken in section III and reveals certain faults which considerably weaken the above conclusions. Accordingly, in section IV, we take a fresh look at the trade-off question. Here we follow Parkin's broad approach while removing the defects revealed by the critical discussion of section III. Finally, in section V we consider the conclusions which emerge from this new empirical work. Before proceeding with this programme, however, it seems desirable to remind the reader of the main outline of Parkin's analysis which, unavoidably, is rather intricate and detailed in character. This we do in section II. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Michael Parkin's paper [9] on the trade-offs between inflation and unemployment is .of significance because it is one of the first attempts to specify a coherent model of wageprice determination in Australia and to analyse the empirical evidence within the context of the model. Other researchers in the area have tended to take a rather more informal approach to the interpretation of data. At the core of Parkin's model is the expectationsaugmented Phillips analysis developed by Phelps [l0, 11]: The main innovation is the method suggested for proxying the expected rate of change of wage earnings. In the paper estimates of the important relationships are given and earlier published empirical studies are re-interpreted in terms of the model. The paper is an heroic attempt to unify the literature on the relationship between inflation and unemployment in Australia. Knowledge develops through the refinement of ideas in the light of empirical observation. If the ideas are only vaguely specified it may take some time to discover their significance. On the other hand, if, as in Parkin's exposition, a model is specified formally, then it is easier to expose logical inconsistencies and difficulties of interpretation. The purpose of this paper is to discuss some problems of this type. In section II, Parkin's basic model is reviewed. The three methods suggested for estimating the natural unemployment rate are re-considered in section III and in section IV there is a discussion of Parkin's method of proxying the expected rate of change of earnings. In order that the expectations variable coefficient can be identified, Parkin makes an assumption which we have called "The Reserve Bank 9-4-1 Rule". Its plausibility and significance is considered in section V. In section VI we give our inferences from the data used by Parkin and in section VII we discuss whether the data is appropriate. Some implications of using an overlapping annual percentage change specification are discussed... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The critical question, that is central to this paper, is how to determine the extent of the effective revaluation or devaluation arising from such multiple realignments. The extent of the changes in the price of the Australian dollar in terms of individual currencies is known, in some cases it has increased, in others it has decreased. The problem is how to weight these individual changes in order to determine the effective revaluation or devaluation, and the impact on the overall balance of payments. The problem is a universal one, not one confined to Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over fifty per cent of Australian beef production is exported and in 1971-72 sixtyfive per cent of these exports went to the United States, the world's largest beef importer. To a large degree the upsurge in recent years of U.S. beef imports facilitated the dramatic rise in Australian meat prices despite increased production levels. Seen in this light future developments in U.S. beef import demand, which is influenced by that country's underlying supply and demand forces for livestock products and by meat import trade policy, may be expected to have significant influences on Australian meat costs, livestock producers' returns and meat export receipts. In this paper a stochastic control model is employed to analyse U.S. beef import demand. The stochastic control analysis may be characterised in terms of the basic components of the model. First, a linear econometric model describing the U.S. livestock sector delineates a policy possibility set. It is recognised that the econometric model has additive error terms and that there is uncertainty about the values of its parameters and the future values of non-policy exogenous variables. Secondly, a set of objective functions parametising the trade-off between consumer meat costs and beef producer returns is considered. Given the constraint set and the set of objective functions, U.S. beef trade policy is characterised as a social welfare maximising problem. Solution of the resulting stochastic control problem provides feedback decision strategies in which the U.S. sequentially revises beef import requirements with reference to forthcoming observations measuring the recent performance and current state of the livestock sector. Such a sequential policy process has typified U.S. beef import policy over the 1960s and the early 1970s. The plan for the remainder of the paper is as follows. Section II contains an outline of the stochastic control model employed. In sections III and IV, respectively, estimates of the... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article was prepared by Professor R. Mathews of the Australian National University. It is based on a paper presented to the Public Forum on Company Taxation and Economic Recovery, Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne, 14 November 1975. In this article, I propose to review the recommendations on company taxation which were made by the Committee of Inquiry into Inflation and Taxation, and to examine the comments which have been made on those recommendations since the Committee's Report was tabled in Parliament at the end of May. I am afraid that many of the comments — both favourable and unfavourable — have reacted to the conclusions reached by the Committee rather than the arguments used to support those conclusions, and have therefore been lacking in critical perception. It seems from the discussion that the nature and extent of the problems which the Committee identified are not yet fully understood. Many people in both business and government still seem to believe that Australia's economic recovery depends merely on the restoration of business confidence, and that this can be achieved by stimulating consumer demand, reducing rates of taxation and providing incentives to business investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents some results from a study of costs and benefits for different courses in Australian post-secondary education. Courses were taken as the most homogeneous unit available,[1] The study refers to courses provided in the academic and calendar year 1969, where a course refers to a specified formal education, defined by its type and academic level.[2] 1969 was the latest year for which financial information was available when the investigation began, but the late 1960s saw major changes in Australian post-secondary education and more were in prospect. There has been no completely 'normal' year since before 1969 and there is unlikely to be for some years yet. Total costs, which are referred to as social costs in this paper, are defined as the sum of financial costs and earnings forgone. The financial costs include such items as the salaries of academic and non-academic staff; administrative costs; the provision of class materials, water, light and heating; and the annual cost of providing land, buildings and equipment. The earnings forgone by students while studying in post-secondary education (which are assumed equal to the output sacrificed by having the students absent from the labour force) are defined as equal to the earnings of individuals equivalent in terms of age, sex and previous educational attainment. When examining the distribution of these social costs, those costs which are borne by students or their families are termed private costs. Private costs are defined as the sum of earnings forgone (sometimes called imputed costs), fees paid and any additional expenses incurred because of attendance in post-secondary education (e.g. for textbooks) less any living allowance received. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies the effect of high temperature and soil moisture on survival of first-instar larvae of the Scarab Anoplognathus Porosus at the Pastoral Research Laboratory, Chiswick, Australia. Leaves that these larvae feed on; Increase in the mortality due to moisture content for all exposure periods at all temperature; Information on the highest survival rate of the larvae.

Discusses the establishment of drug beetles from Africa within the pasture ecosystems in Australia. Effect of the introduction of beetles in Australia; Information on various papers presented on the topic at a symposium during the meeting of the Australia and New Zealand Association for the advancement at Australia in 1975; Effect of beetle activity on flies.

The aim of this paper is to examine the demand for deposits in the Australian manufacturing sector. It therefore deals with a comparatively small component of the Australian money supply. Goldfeld [6] has argued that it is desirable to disaggregate money holdings by type of asset and holder. A complete model can then be developed for each category, allowing us to determine the appropriate explanatory variables for each case. This study deals with one type of holder and with two classes of deposits which form part of the money supply. It therefore represents a first step in the complete analysis suggested by Goldfeld. This study and the study of Albon and Valentine [1] represent the only work which has been done on the Australian demand for money based on a disaggregation by holder. However, the analysis reported by Albon and Valentine covers all the nonfarm sectors and it is directed towards measuring the effect of price expectations on the demand for money. Therefore, a complete theoretical framework is not developed for each sector. An attempt has been made in this paper to develop such a framework for the manufacturing sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the problem of holding risk constant while performing studies on samples of business firms. The problem has three aspects: (1) development of meaningful techniques for the measurement of risk, (2) whether 'homogeneous' risk groups are homogeneous within themselves, and (3) whether 'homogeneous' groups are significantly different from each other. A controversy about the use of homogeneous risk groups has arisen from empirical studies concerned with the effects of financial leverage (financial risk) on the cost of capital to firms. Since it is the effect of leverage that is undergoing observation, it is important that all other factors (business risk) affecting the earnings of firms, before interest payments and taxation, be held constant. In the present effort a discussion of major contributions with respect to this controversy is made, together with a description of recent attempts to make meaningful risk groupings. In addition, empirical work has been performed by the present authors using Australian company data in an examination of the usefulness of industrial groupings published by the Statex Service of the Sydney Stock Exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EACH year Australian firms spend ever larger sums on advertising, yet little progress has been made in the study of the profitability of advertising. The advertising campaigns of one particular product (washing powder) in this country were criticized by economists and politicians as being 'too excessive and 'misleading'. The aim of this paper is to investigate the question of 'excessiveness' of advertising related to this product. Since the firms producing and selling the product are private firms, we have assumed that their object is to maximize their profits. Hence, advertising would be considered 'excessive' if the sums spent exceed those warranted by the object of profit maximization or if advertising has a negative return. However, we shall consider both short- and long-term optimal criteria. The paper is divided into three sections. In the first, short- and long-term optimization models are developed to derive the necessary criteria to be used in the empirical investigation. In the second section, an evaluation of the statistical results of the regression analysis is made, and the most promising model is chosen. Lastly, an economic interpretation of the results and an evaluation of advertising investment profitability is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the distribution of wealth derived from the Australian Survey of Consumer Finances and Expenditures, 1966-68, carried out jointly by Macquarie University and the University of Queensland. It analyzes the composition of net worth, assets, and liabilities by socio demographic characteristics and over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ever since the first isolation of Trichophyton soudanense in Australia in 1970, it was expected that more cases would follow. This article gives a report on the recovery of Trichophyton soudanense from five more patiets. Cultures from both scalp lesions were apricot coloured with radial furrows and heaped, folded centres. The reverse was brownish-red. Cultures from tinea cruris produced a violet strain of Trichophyton soudanense. Those from tinea pedis and tinea corporis were first white and fluffy without grooves but after 14 days appeared yellowish with an irregular folded surface and a slightly raised centre. With age, the reverse became bright golden yellow.

This paper and the one that preceded it1 have traced the development of the design and use of negative pressure ventilators from their origins in the early nineteenth century to the present day. Their maximum use was in the nineteen-forties and the early fifties after which they were quite rapidly replaced in the treatment of acute respiratory disease by intermittent positive pressure ventilators-the turning point being the severe poliomyelitis epidemic in Copenhagen in 1952. Negative pressure ventilators, particularly cuirass ventilators, still have a place in the treatment of chronic respiratory disease.

The aim of this paper is to discuss cyclical and seasonal movements in the share of the gross operating surplus of companies in the Australian national income and to attempt to provide some explanation for these movements. Regression techniques are used for this purpose; seasonal dummy variables are used to measure quarterly seasonal variation and a standard Australian business cycle indicator is used to measure cyclical variation. The paper is divided into two parts. In the first part we describe the data and the estimation procedures used in the study and in the second part we present equations describing the cyclical and seasonal variation in income shares and attempt to explain these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper then addresses these two sets of questions. In Part I the criticisms of Challen and Hagger and McDonald are examined and evaluated, while Part II considers how the history of the past two years affects our view of the inflation-unemployment trade-offs and suggests (but does not test) a variety of further hypotheses on which work is needed. My tentative conclusions are scattered throughout the paper and are brought together here. Those recitative conclusions—and I emphasise their tentative nature and urge that further work be done either to reject or to strengthen them—are as follows:first, although some of the criticisms of Challen and Hagger and McDonald are correct and well taken, there is no reason to reject the "no long-run tradeoff" hypothesis. However, more work is needed to raise the degree of confidence which attaches to the hypothesis. Secondly, the short-run trade-off is weak in the sense that it seems to be moving around a good deal, especially over the past two years, but its slope seems to be sufficient to be exploitable for policy purposes. Thirdly, the natural unemployment rate, which I always maintained was a variable, has probably increased in the past two years. It is certainly not now as low as my 1973 guess and could be as high as 3.5 per cent. However, I suspect that it is lower than this and lies somewhere around 2.5 per cent. This guess however, needs checking by a careful systematic study of the determinants of variations in Australia's natural unemployment rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between business cycles in the key industrial countries and economic fluctuations in Australia over the period 1959 to 1974. In particular, it attempts to analyse the nature of Australia's dependence on economic fluctuations in the rest of the world and the ways in which foreign impulses are transmitted to Australia.
Increasingly, international factors are being given more attention in discussions of the economic experiences of many countries. There has been a good deal of discussion in recent years of the growing integration of the Australian economy with those overseas [31]. Much emphasis has been placed on the phenomenon of imported inflation [15], the restricted ability of monetary policy to affect the internal economy in the face of increasing financial market integration and fixed exchange rates [26] [32] and the operations of multinational corporations and banks. As a result, there has been much more discussion of the effects of balance of payments developments on the domestic economy and consequently of external economic policy making, particularly exchange rate policy [16]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the description of the seasonal growth characteristics of perennial legumes and annual grass pasture ecosystem in the dry monsoonal region of northern Australia. Identification of phases during which the botanical composition of the ecosystem may change; Presentation of a conceptual model with general applicability for a pasture of perennial and annual species; Examination of the inter-relationships between the identified phases.

The growth and survival of Eucalyptus obliqua seedlings from twenty-two provenances throughout the range of the species in south-eastern Australia were studied in three field trials in Tasmania and Victoria. Early results indicated significant variation among provenances for several growth parameters and for survival. Ranking for height was consistent on the two low-altitude planting sites and similar to that in previously reported glasshouse studies. Within provenances there were also significant differences between families for growth and survival. These results suggest that genetic improvement of the species is possible, not only by selection of the most suitable provenances for particular sites, but also by the selection of superior individual trees within a provenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines germination effects on pasture composition in a dry monsoonal climate in Australia. Conceptual model of germination; Germination during the transition from the dry winter to the wet summer season; Seed bed environment and seed characteristics.

The pollen diagram from Lynch's Crater extends the climatic and vegetation record for the Atherton Tableland back to about 60,000 years B.P. Subtropical rain forest, with abundant Araucaria, was present around the site from before 60,000 B.P. to about 38,000 B.P. and existed under about half the present-day annual rainfall. This was replaced by sclerophyll vegetation between 38,000 and 27,000 B.P. as a result of a decrease in precipitation, a decrease in temperature or the activities of aboriginal man. In any case the agent of rain forest destruction was probably fire. The record for the last 10,000 years or so is probably incomplete and radiocarbon dates unreliable, but changes during this period are in broad agreement with those evidenced from previously described sites within the area. The sequence from Lynch's Crater provides a basis for the interpretation of many problematical features of present-day vegetation distributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]