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We use the 2018 survey data from the Household, Income, and Labour Dynamic (HILDA) in Australia and the Household Economic Survey (HES) in New Zealand to investigate the retirement income sufficiency in Australia and New Zealand. Our baseline results indicate that the annuitized net wealth is greater for Australian retirees than for New Zealand retirees. However, New Zealand retirees enjoy a higher level of life satisfaction than Australian retirees. Further analysis reveals a significant greater pre- and postretirement income for the top 10% of wealthy Australian retirees, mainly due to the higher level of homeownership in Australia within this group. Our study fills the gap in the existing literature, which studies the macro- and microlevel influences on Australia and New Zealand retirees, and it also offers important policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environment profession in Australia is well established, and past conjecture about its future has been positive. As with other professions, and areas of the economy generally, future employment will be influenced by pressures from automation and globalization. Building on earlier surveys of the environment profession, this article presents results of a recent survey to provide information about the characteristics of those in the profession, their thoughts about their professional futures, and the skills that are important in their professional lives. The results indicate a maturing profession, generally with little difference from the earlier surveys, However, while most continue to be positive about their place in the profession, there are signs of shifts in the focus of some of the professional's work, and their concern about the general support for the profession in the future. Importantly the skills identified as important for the respondents to carry out their environment roles are compatible with skills considered to be critical for future contributions to the economy and society. This suggests environment professionals could take opportunities to promote the profession, and the range of contributions that the individuals can make in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using panel data for the period 2001–2014 from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, hourly wage equations and probit models of the probability of being employed were estimated. Results show that English-language proficiency, education qualifications and work experience are important positive determinants of both individual wage and of the likelihood of having a paid job. By comparison to many previous studies that find either a negative or no wage gap for migrants, we find that male migrants from OECD and English-speaking countries earn a higher hourly wage than male native-born Australians and female migrants from these countries earn a similar wage as female native-born Australians. Without controlling for the education level, migrants from non-OECD and non-English speaking countries earn a similar wage compared to native born Australians. Controlling for their education level, migrants from non-OECD and non-English speaking countries earn less than native-born Australian workers, but this wage gap diminishes with their length of residency in Australia. We also find that there is no difference between male migrants and male native-born Australians in terms of the likelihood of being employed, but we do find that female migrants are more likely to be unemployed compared to female native-born Australians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Household budget studies in the autonomous British dominions (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa) were carried out sporadically before World War II. The similar history of household budget studies in the dominions reflects the similarity of the dominions' statistical infrastructure and the existence of other data sources that reduced the need to collect household budget studies. The budget studies that were conducted were influenced by the statistical school, and were similar in quality to contemporary European and American surveys. Statistical summaries of results are available, but only limited microdata survives in archives or publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its commencement in 2001, the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey has become a much-used resource by researchers. Over the same time, the Australian population has evolved in a number of ways that the sample, even with 'following rules', cannot emulate. Most notable is the lack of recent immigrants arriving after 2001. A general population-wide top-up of the sample was added in 2011 which allows new population sub-groups to be represented and helps alleviate biases from non-random attrition. This article describes the methodology of the top-up sample, the response rates achieved and the representativeness of the combined sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Conversion franchising is a strategy where franchisors recruit existing franchisees from rival systems or by converting independent businesses to franchisees. The present research aims to investigate the attractiveness of conversion offers and the likelihood of such offers being accepted under different conditions of the franchising agreement. Design/methodology/approach – Based on commitment theory and agency theory, it is hypothesised that conversion likelihood will be larger if the conversion offer is more attractive in terms of relational benefits, relational costs, the management of control in the franchise relationship, or perception of brand strength. The study comprises a qualitative phase followed by a scenario experiment held among 415 Australian business format franchisees across six industries. Findings – The qualitative findings reveal a predominantly calculative attitude towards the franchise relationship. The experimental findings support that relational costs and perception of brand strength are unconditional drivers of conversion likelihood; however, the effects of relational benefits and power and control depend on the details of the conversion offer. Effects of relational benefits depend on the level of power and control. More experienced franchisees and service-based franchisees are more likely to convert. Research limitations/implications – The use of experimental case scenarios limits the external validity but enhances the internal validity by allowing control for factors that are difficult to account for in survey-based approaches. The study includes only franchisees from Australia although from a range of industries. The proposed methodology can be easily modified for other contexts. Practical implications – The results can help franchisors tailor conversion proposals to suit specific conversion targets based on experience and industry type. Franchisors should generally focus on developing conversion proposals that are attractive in terms of perceived brand strength and relational costs. Relational benefits and management of power and control appear to play a role only in particular circumstances. For example, when no other factors differentiate the competitor, the management of power and control can make a difference in indicating franchise support quality and level of control among franchisees. Originality/value – The study extends franchising research to the franchisee perspective and to a non-American context. It utilises an experimental approach that hitherto had not been applied in franchising research, allowing rigorous testing of hypotheses about franchise behaviour. Hypotheses are tested for different industry groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PanelWhiz is a graphical user interface that was written for the statistical software, Stata SE/MP Version 11 (Win/Mac/Linux) or later, which allows users to extract data from complicated multi-level longitudinal datasets in an easy and efficient manner. Specifically, Australian datasets, such as Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey, Medicine in Australia: Balancing Employment and Life, Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, Footprints in Time-The Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children and Consumer Attitudes, Sentiments & Expectations in Australia, have already been integrated into the common platform of the PanelWhiz system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the text of an address by Reserve Bank of Australia assistant governor Guy Debelle to the 50th Anniversary Conference of the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research at the University of Melbourne in Victoria on December 6, 2012. Debelle recognizes the role of the institute in the economic research and policy advice. He explores the institute's contributions to three areas: business cycle analysis; modeling and forecasting; and surveys.

Migration status has been neglected both theoretically and empirically in the financial discrimination literature. Drawing on data from a comprehensive survey of small- and medium-sized businesses in Australia, this paper tests whether Australia's migrant entrepreneurs have greater difficulty accessing external business finance than their Australia-born counterparts. In doing so, it tests the theoretical proposition that the passage of time (or time spent in Australia) mediates a relationship between migration status and access to business finance by determining borrow-lender information asymmetries. We find that long-term migrant entrepreneurs are more likely than Australia-born entrepreneurs to: (1) report access to finance as an obstacle, (2) pass up investment opportunities because of inadequate access to finance, and (3) have obtained funding from family and friends. However, no significant differences are found between migrant and Australia-born entrepreneurs in terms of denial and discouragement rates, or their past use of bank finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We estimated the relationship between religion and the rate of return to human capital for Australia. Data from the Household Income Labour Dynamics Survey were analysed for men aged between 25 and 54 years. Conventional human capital functions were estimated using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS). Our results suggest that Catholic men benefit from a wage premium of 6.7%, controlling for an extensive range of controls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses Confidentialised Unit Record Files (CURF) data from the 2009 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Survey of Ageing, Disability and Carers (SDAC) to estimate the proportion of Australians with disability and an employment restriction who are not in the labour force and who want to work. This result was 24-26 per cent depending on the treatment of various survey responses. This represents a pool of 200,000 persons not in the labour force with disability who state they can work. This work intention rate is higher than the EU average overall, but tends to be lower than the EU average for older men and higher for younger women with disability outside of the labour market. The OECD integration model for persons with disability has relied upon the EU average work intention rate. This analysis applies the SDAC work intention rate to the OECD model. The SDAC data combined with updated population and labour force projections validate the previous conclusion of the OECD model: that in Australia allowing people with disability who want to work to enter find employment would reduce the fiscal gap caused by the ageing of the population by roughly a quarter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the threat of cyberspace to financial and insurance industry in Australia. It says that the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) has conducted a survey in 2008 that aims to identity the effects of computer security in the Australian businesses which reveals high risks for financial and insurance industry's exposure to computer-based criminal activities due to the growing dependence on information and communications technologies (ICT). It discusses various types of cyber threats such as malware, phishing, and loss of confidential information due to data breaches. It suggests that businesses seeking for the best technology should also be aware of cyber threats as well as preventive responses, particularly the financial and insurance sectors.

In this paper, we focus on the effects of macroeconomic conditions on commercialisation. Using survey data on the activities of Australian inventors who attempted to commercialise 3,736 inventions over the period 1986–2005, we find evidence that macroeconomic conditions have a pro-cyclical effect on commercialisation activities. Such a finding has important policy implications since it suggests that recessions have both short-term effects (on employment, income) and long-term effects (on productivity). However, the magnitude of the supply-side effects—the cost of finance and level of public sector research—are estimated to be larger than the growth in aggregate or industry demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article assesses the predictive ability of the survey-based business performance indices produced by the Australian Industry Group with respect to 'official' Australian economic data. The index related to manufacturing sector performance is a useful predictor of official economic data for the manufacturing sector. This usefulness is both in terms of providing early information on current period economic conditions and providing information regarding future period economic conditions. The results for the services and construction sector indices are mixed, with limited evidence of Granger causality from the services sector index to the corresponding official economic data for the services sector. There is some value in the construction sector index as both a leading indicator as well as a timelier contemporary indicator of construction sector economic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This 2009 survey-based study describes how large global funds manage investment risk from strategy to implementation. In total, fifty-eight funds with assets aggregating to almost U$2 trillion participated in the survey. Almost all large funds (over U$25 billion) use some form of risk budgeting, whereas smaller funds are less likely to do so. Most funds (88%) manage active management risk (usually through controlling tracking error), whereas only 48% of funds manage balance sheet (surplus) risk. The sample size is perhaps too small to draw firm conclusions, but preliminary indications suggest that funds that believe in managing both active and surplus risk have generated better risk / reward tradeoffs. Per dollar invested, American corporate and public funds have the lowest average number of staff dedicated to risk management, whereas Australia / New Zealand and Canada have the highest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article introduces the Cross-National Equivalent File (CNEF) and the survey within it: the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA). The panel data that was acquired through the HILDA survey is one of many that is used to understand and track the economic well being of a country, in this case Australia. In the article, the creation, details and release of the CNEF and HILDA data are discussed. The author makes it clear that Australia can now compete on the world stage with nations using similar surveys as frames of reference.

The article analyzes service quality and customer satisfaction as causal factors of relationship quality, and discusses the impact of relationship quality on customer loyalty and customer commitment in Australia. A hypothesis was formed that links the relationship quality, service quality, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and customer commitment. Findings and recommendations of the empirical investigation are also presented.

The article presents four decades of research on poverty in Australia. At first glance, poverty does not feature prominently among the many articles that have appeared in The Australian Journal of Social Issues (AJSI). The article reviews how the published material has contributed to the literature in this important but controversial area of research and policy. Australian poverty research was also about to take a quantum leap in terms of its sophistication and impact. In 1962 Ronald Henderson migrated to Australia to become the Director of the Institute of Applied Economic Research and the famous Melbourne poverty survey began under his leadership and inspiration. Some critics have argued that the growing importance of non-standard forms of income such as superannuating, in-kind fringe benefits have made cash income an increasingly unreliable indicator of well-being, undermining its use in studies of poverty. The foundations of the Henderson approach to the measurement of poverty were set out in an excellent AJSI paper by Alison Harcourt, one of the contributors to the original Melbourne poverty study. The results presented by Harcourt also illustrate how supplementary (qualitative) evidence can be used to flesh out the statistical profile of poverty and point to areas of policy failure.

This article aims to provide an update on progress with the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, including the changing nature of the survey content, the evolution of the sample, the many uses that have already been made of the data by researchers, and possible enhancements to the survey. The HILDA Survey is a broad social and economic survey, with a particular focus on family and household formation, income and work. Since the HILDA Survey has a longitudinal design, most questions are repeated each year, thus constraining the ability to vary content. Nevertheless, within each survey wave, scope exists for asking questions on topics that will not be covered every year. The HILDA Survey began with a large national probability sample of Australian households occupying private dwellings. All members of households providing at least one interview form the basis of the panel to be pursued in each subsequent wave. Given the desire that the HILDA sample should retain contemporary cross-sectional representativeness, there is clearly a need for the sample to be extended at some future date to include immigrant arrivals. The HILDA team will thus be developing and testing different approaches to this sampling problem with a view to having in place a workable plan for implementation by wave 9.

The Business Longitudinal Survey (BLS) was designed to provide information on the growth and performance of Australian employing businesses and to identify selected economic and structural characteristics of these businesses. The coverage of the survey is extremely broad; it includes new and existing businesses, industrial relations and business operational information, business practices and intentions and business performance and competitiveness. The unit of reference for the BLS is the management unit. The management unit is the highest level accounting unit within a business, having regard for industry homogeneity, for which accounts are maintained. The aim of the BLS was to provide information on the growth and performance of Australian employing businesses and to identify selected economic and structural characteristics of these businesses. To a large extent, these aims have been met by the BLS. Although the coverage of the survey is extremely broad, the information released from the BLS is of a high quality.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the forecast of Australian inflation based on four alternative procedures: a univariate time series model, an interest rate model, an error correction model and a public survey of inflation forecasts. We derive estimates of expected and unexpected inflation from each of the methods and compare the out-sample forecasting results. Based on a range of evaluation criteria, the time series model dominates the other models, with the interest rare model, the error correction model and the survey forecasts following in that order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides an overview of Australian Bureau of Statistics' (ABS) data on economic, social and demographic issues affecting the government of Australia. ABS publication and products; Methods used by ABS to disseminated its statistical and related information; Other facilities for the storage of ABS data.

Analyzes the surveys of consumer sentiment in Australia conducted quarterly since 1973. Theory of consumer surveys; Analysis of the sentiment data; Australian index of consumer sentiment and its components; Analysis of data from 1973 to 1976.

Focuses on the impact of quantitative predictions of future business and economic events on business management and government policy making in Australia. Extent on usability of survey to estimate changes on economic statistics; Result on industrial trend survey conducted by Associated Chambers of Manufactures of Australia; Uses of industrial trend survey.

Highlights a survey which outlined the extent to which medium- and long-term economic and social forecasts have been prepared by government departments and instrumentalities in Australia during the early 1970s. Forecasts on production of power, fuel, timber, minerals and other resources; Projections on treasuries, finance, industrial development, labor and productivity, agriculture, housing and transport.