Estimating the fiscal costs of long‐term jobless families in Australia

Despite substantial costs to society associated with the adverse consequences of joblessness, studies estimating actual costs are rare. This paper identifies the main costs to the Government of long‐term jobless families in Australia. The costs were split into three groups: immediate support costs, immediate opportunity costs, and indirect/intergenerational costs. Using a microsimulation model, the paper estimates the fiscal costs, which include immediate support costs such as the welfare system, and the immediate opportunity costs such as potential revenue from the tax system. We estimate that welfare payments and lost taxation revenue from long‐term joblessness cost the Government AU$5.55 billion per year.     

基于DEA的政府协助产业集群可持续成长相对有效性的评价——以吴江市为例

应用DEA（C2R）模型引入非Archimedes无穷小量ε,就吴江市政府的相关政策在协助集群产业的可持续成长相对有效性方面进行实证评价分析。就总体而言,吴江市政府的相关政策可以满足该区域集群产业的可持续成长,但在实际利用外资方面有待进一步巩固加强。同时,数据指出吴江市电子信息集群产业的运行还处于一种相对稳定的状态,需要吴江市政府对该集群产业进行有效地协助指引从而进入良性的可持续成长轨道。     

Industrial structure and economic fluctuation—Evidence from China

Industrial structure evolves with economic development. Since the reform and opening up of the economy in 1978, China has undergone rapid economic growth and dramatic industrial restructuring, with the proportion of the primary, secondary and tertiary industry changed respectively from 28%, 48% and 24% of GDP in 1978 to 11%, 49% and 40% in 2008. Using panel data from 31 provinces in the past three decades, this paper empirically examined the relationship between economic growth and industrial structure. Based on results from unit root test, cointegration test, and Granger causality test, this paper concluded that the two variables are order-1 integrated, short-run economic fluctuation causes industrial structure disproportion, while a long-run bidirectional causal relationship exists between industry structure disproportion and economic aggregate fluctuation. This paper also investigated the determinants of China's industrial structure and found that influential factors include per capita GDP, domestic consumption propensity, urban–rural disparity, scale of the labor force and capital stock, property right protection, and administrative effectiveness.     

印度产业升级的路径依赖和路径创新——一基于新制度经济学视角的探讨

产业升级是一个国家经济持续增长的必经之路，实质上也是一个制度变迁的过程。按照新制度经济学的观点，建立在自然资源禀赋、技术、制度、环境等因素基础上的路径依赖已经将印度锁定在“逆工业化”这条路径上。要想破除锁定，实现产业升级，就必须分析印度产业结构中产生路径依赖的各种因素，比如报酬递增、利益集团、初设成本、学习效应、协调效应、适应性预期、思想观念等，实现路径创新，增加经济发展的内源动力，实现国民经济可持续增长的目的。这一思路对中国的产业升级也具有启示作用。     

Brace yourselves: Reporting of rising food costs in the Australian print media

This paper explores media reporting of the rising food costs in five Australian newspapers in the 12 month period from 1^st September 2007 to 31^st August 2008. This period encompassed a Federal election in which rising food costs were identified as an election issue and a national inquiry into grocery pricing established to honour pre‐election promises. Content analysis of newspaper articles demonstrates an increasing interest in the print media in food prices at this time, with thematic analysis revealing the dominance of political concerns and the economic fears of the Australian public. This paper explores these issues. It compares the rhetoric and reality of rising food costs through reporting of the causes and impact of increased food prices and explores the apportioning of blame for rising food prices and the solutions which arise from this through media reporting of political and personal strategies for managing the risk of food insecurity. The paper will also identify the social processes that contributed to the newsworthiness of rising food costs at this time.     

Involving Young Service Users as Co-Researchers: Possibilities, Benefits and Costs

This article seeks to contribute to the debate concerning thebenefits and costs of involving young service users in research.The paper locates involvement within a continuum of consultation,collaboration and user-controlled research. The mandate forchildren and young people’s involvement is identified.In particular, the paper focuses on the benefits and costs inrelation to: research and development, research disseminationand service development, service users and researchers. Thepaper does not suggest that these benefits and costs can bemeasured arithmetically but argues that if the costs in termsof resources, training, support, timescale and remunerationare not addressed, the research will be undermined and in dangerof becoming tokenistic. The article argues that the involvementof young service users as co-researchers is worthwhile, butthat it should not be entered into lightly and that furtherwork needs to be undertaken on which parts of the process youngservice users can be included in and where their involvementresults in change in service delivery or service outcomes.     

From the Cradle to the Grave: Funeral Welfare from an International Perspective

This article reports on a pilot study examining funeral welfare for citizens from low income backgrounds. Through a review of funeral welfare provision in 12 capitalist democratic countries it seeks to inform the current system of state support in Britain, arguing that insufficient attention has been given to funeral costs as a policy issue. Mindful of the British welfare state's original ‘cradle to grave’ ethos, such attention is ever more pressing in light of rising funeral costs, an ageing population and projected increases in the death rate. Arguing that funeral costs are an issue of income support, the article draws on Esping‐Andersen's threefold welfare‐regime typology to situate the British system within a comparative study of funeral welfare that identifies similarities and differences both within and between the three welfare‐regime types. On the basis of an empirical example, the article further argues that systems of funeral welfare reflect the relationship between culture, politics and local practice. The findings indicate that the British system is hampered by a discourse of welfare dependency rather than entitlement, which stigmatises those who need support with funeral costs at a time when they are under pressure to ensure that the deceased person receives a ‘dignified’ send‐off.     

Families on the brink: the effectiveness of family support services

This paper presents findings from a study of the costs and effectiveness of family support services offered to 40 families with a high level of need, in two neighbouring local authorities in North Wales. It describes the level and type of services offered by different agencies in each of the authorities, estimates the costs of these services, and assesses outcomes for the families receiving them after three months. Information is also provided about families’ experience of the support they received, and the kind of help they would have liked. Parents’ well‐being and family functioning were found to improve over the intervention period in both authorities, although only to a limited extent. Improvements were greater among those who were living with partners, and less among families identified by social workers as having financial difficulties or problems with drug or alcohol abuse. Respondents who rated their problems as very severe showed less improvement. The pattern of service provision and the costs involved turned out to be similar in both authorities, so it was not possible to reach conclusions about the relationship between services and outcomes. However, a number of themes emerging from the data are discussed, including the role of day care services in supporting families with young children, the impact of poverty and deprivation on parents’ ability to provide good care for their children, and the importance of an interagency response to children's and parents’ needs. The article also includes a discussion of problems encountered in undertaking comparative outcomes‐based research and cost‐effectiveness analyses in the social welfare field.     

产业集聚的原动力与广西产业集群的培育策略研究

产业集聚的原动力来自于产业转移的外向型拉动和内源性产业集聚的自然禀赋。广西的产业集群培育还存在一些不足之处,主要表现在产业集群的培育没有完全依托广西的资源禀赋,而在承接东部产业转移时也没有充分地与当地的资源优势相结合。广西产业集群的培育策略应该依托产业禀赋优势,并结合产业集聚的两种原动力。政府应靠市场无形之手培育产业集群。     

Estimates of trade-related adjustment costs in Syria

The scope and complexity of international trading arrangements in the Middle East, as well as their spotty historical record of success, underscore the urgent need for an adequate understanding of the relative costs and benefits of participation in preferential trading arrangements and, more generally, of changes in the domestic import regimes. This paper seeks to address this problem by providing estimates of the adjustment costs associated with two broad classes of hypothetical trade policy scenarios for Syria: participation in the proposed EU-Syria Association Agreement, and border tax-related changes affecting the domestic import regime. We find that the revenue consequences of the first scenario are likely to be low if an appropriate stepwise implementation of the agreement can be ensured; our analysis of the second scenario suggests that all border taxes can be eliminated, and the number of tariff bands reduced, while ensuring revenue neutrality, if a VAT of a reasonable size is introduced.     

Paved with Good Intentions: The Pathway to Adoption and the Costs of Delay

The thrust of UK adoption policy is to promote adoption as thebest route to a stable family life for children in the caresystem unable to return to their birth families. However, whatwe know about outcomes for adopted children comes mainly fromstudies that report on children already in placement. This articlereports on the findings of a study that examined the outcomesof a complete sample of 130 older looked after children whohad all been the subject of an adoption best interest decision.Many were successfully placed but, of those who were not, thestudy was able to identify factors that influenced placementoutcome. The negative impact on placement outcomes and the increasedfinancial costs of poor assessment and delays in planning andaction are highlighted in this paper. The reasons why delaysoccurred, the costs of those delays and the impact on childoutcomes lend support to recent government attempts to reducedelay by the introduction of timescales into the adoption process.     

A Tale of Two Communities: Refugee Relocation in Australia

Refugees are forced to leave their homes and countries to start anew in a different place. This paper outlines the key challenges and issues facing those Australian regional communities focussing on refugee relocation projects as a labour and population renewal strategy. This discussion arises from a two year evaluation project which examined two refugee relocation projects in the communities of Swan Hill and Warrnambool situated in different regional areas of Victoria, Australia. The project was supported with funds from VicHealth, a statutory body funded by the Victorian State Government with a particular focus on groups in society who are likely to be at greater risk. Refugee communities have a higher risk of mental health problems and higher rates of unemployment and as such, the importance of relocation programs is commensurate with the opportunity and risk they present. Governments, communities and service providers all need to acknowledge the potential benefits refugee relocation programs may bring as well as recognising that the consequences of failure can be ominous for all concerned.     

The impact of quasi-markets on processes and factors affecting the costs of contracting

The aim of this paper is to ascertain the impact of quasi-markets on contracting processes and factors affecting the costs of contracting in Finnish health care in the specific case of laboratory services. By means of a comparative case analysis, we ascertained the changes in organizational contracting practices and identified the actions affecting the transaction costs of contracting in the case of an autonomous municipal enterprise laboratory compared with the same laboratory as a hierarchically run municipal unit. The research was conducted during the years 2007–2011. The results suggest that introducing quasi-markets into laboratory services increased the cost factors of contracting; and had a negative impact on the laboratories’ willingness to create new market relationships.     

天津民办博物馆产业化发展的状况及对策研究

本文在研究天津民办博物馆产业化发展现状的基础上,针对天津民办博物馆产业化发展的问题,提出政府干预,民办博物馆经营和管理的产业化,以及开发多渠道营销是天津民办博物馆实施产业化发展的主要策略。     

基于“理性人”视角的产业集群形成研究

本文认为,政府也是追求自身效用最大化的"理性人"。以此假设为前提,本文先对产业集群本质属性进行了简要的文献述评,然后从"理性人"追求自身利益(效用)最大化的角度,分析了企业走集群化道路和政府推动产业集群形成的动机,并分起步、积累、形成三个阶段详细阐述了产业集群的形成过程。     

Modeling offset policy in government procurement

This paper develops an empirical model to examine offset arrangements in government procurement. Offsets are non-standard contracts that governments use to extract rents from multinational corporations. Previous contributions focus on the transaction cost Taylor (2003); Udis and Maskus (1991); Liesch (1991) and bundling Hall and Markowski (1996) rationale for offsets. These studies are meaningful, but are devoid of quantitative models needed to test the theoretical claims. This study fills part of the gap in the literature. The results suggest that while economic variables (transaction costs, price, quality) are part of the offset selection process, political economy variables (security alliances and rent-seeking) tend to exert more influence on policy.     

基于资源观的产业集群竞争力探究

产业集群是个特殊结构的组织,我们可以运用战略管理学有关组织竞争的理论探索产业集群的竞争问题。产业集群持久竞争力实现的根本在于其特定的资源和能力,尤其在动态竞争环境中,动态能力理论更好的解释了产业集群竞争力的来源,产业集群的竞争力可以从动态能力分析模型的三个层面来获得。     

论区域农业虚拟产业集群的信息管理

区域农业虚拟产业集群突破了农产品改良、生产、销售在自然气候与地理条件上的限制,实现了组织之间跨地域的合作与竞争,促进了集群内部各成员的良性发展。鉴于我国目前在集群信息管理上存在着资源共享深度广度欠佳、产业人才匮乏、供求信息不畅的现状,提升集群的生产经营效率与核心竞争力,应采取的措施为:通过构建信息平台,提高对资源整合与共享程度;拓展外部网络,促进科技成果转化;掌握消费者消费需求与消费心理,扩大产品销售;与政府进行及时沟通与反馈,为集群的发展提供良好的软硬件环境。     

北京CBD产业集群效应

现代商务中心区 (CBD)对于城市、区域经济发展的重要作用在于其产业集群效应的充分发挥。本文通过实地调研 ,对北京CBD的产业集群现状及其效应、机制进行了深入分析 ,认为 ,北京CBD最基本的特征是现代高端服务业的集群 ,北京CBD的产业集群具有混合产业区的特征 ;目前北京CBD的产业集群的发展存在脆弱性 ,即 :虽已形成较明显的产业集聚的特征 ,但产业集群的机制还不健全、产业集群效应具有很大的局限性。文章对这些问题的成因及对策进行了分析     

Defamilisation and welfare state regimes: a cluster analysis

The role of gender as a source of social stratification within and between welfare states is increasingly being paid attention to in the welfare state regimes debate. Defamilisation has emerged as a potentially important concept in this context, as it enables the comparison and classification of welfare states in terms of how they facilitate female autonomy and economic independence from the family. However, the methodology used, or the understanding of the concept, limits existing defamilisation typologies. These typologies have therefore been unable to provide an accurate examination of welfare state variation using this concept and, indeed, have in some ways undermined and devalued the usefulness of defamilisation. This article uses cluster analysis to build upon previous research and resurrect the concept of defamilisation. In contrast to existing work in this area, the analysis produces a five-fold typology of welfare state regimes. This typology differs in many ways from existing models of welfare state regimes, although some core countries emerge as regime ideal types. The article concludes by reflecting on the broader implications of cluster analysis, and defamilisation, for welfare state modelling and future research in this area.