The Forgotten Second Quartile: Parental Income and Youth Post-secondary Education Enrolment in Australia

The relationship between parental income and the post-secondary education enrolment of youth aged 18-19 in Australia is investigated. Firstly, Census data from 1991 to 2006 are employed using the sample of youth still residing with parents. HILDA data are then used to analyze all youth over the 2004-2008 period, irrespective of living arrangements. The estimates highlight a strongly convex relationship for university enrolment, with enrolment rates essentially the same for the lowest two parental income quartiles, rising moderately for the third quartile then steeply for the top income quartile. This pattern is also observed if either parental occupation or postcode-based SES measures are employed rather than parental income. For other post-secondary enrolment, the relationship is an inverted U-shape. Parental education levels may have a large role in understanding these relationships.university enrolment; parental income; equity

The Effects of Competition Policy on TFP Growth: Some Evidence from the Malaysian Electricity Supply Industry

The main objectives of this paper are to measure total factor productivity (TFP) growth in the electricity supply industry in Peninsular Malaysia from 1975 to 2005 and to assess the impact of private entry reforms upon TFP in this industry. Prior to 1995, a government-linked, vertically-integrated electricity utility, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), was essentially the sole operator. However, since 1995 privately-owned Independent Power Producers (IPPs) have also begun generating electricity, all of which is purchased by TNB under fixed Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). The introduction of IPPs has reduced the need for TNB to find finance for new power plants. It has been argued that the participation of IPPs in the electricity generation industry should also facilitate improvements in industry productivity; however this proposition is yet to be tested. In this study we calculate TFP growth using Törnqvist index methods, finding that there is no direct evidence of productivity improvements attributable to the privatization. Furthermore, it is not clear that consumers have benefited from this, since the PPAs have generally been quite generous to the IPPs in terms of risk sharing and prices paid.

Sources of Productivity Growth in Health Services: A Case Study of Queensland Public Hospitals

Improving the performance of health sector is one of the most popular issues in Queensland, Australia. This paper contributes to this important policy debate by examining the efficiency of health facilities in Queensland using the Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI). This method is selected because it is suitable for the multi-input, multi-output, and not-for-profit natures of public health services. In addition, with the availability of panel data we can decompose productivity growth into useful components, including technical efficiency changes, technological changes and scale changes. The results revealed an average of 1.6 per cent of growth in total factor productivity (TFP) among Queensland public hospitals in the study period. The main component contribute to the modest improvement of TFP during the period was catching-up at an average of 1.0 per cent. SFA estimates suggest that the number of nurses is the most influential determinant of output.Public health services, productivity growth, Queensland

DIVERSIFICATION ECONOMIES AND SPECIALISATION EFFICIENCIES IN A MIXED FOOD AND COFFEE SMALLHOLDER FARMING SYSTEM IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Smallholder farming systems in Papua New Guinea are characterised by an integrated set of cash cropping and subsistence food cropping activities. In the Highlands provinces, the subsistence food crop sub-system is dominated by sweet potato production. Coffee dominates the cash cropping sub-system, but a limited number of food crops are also grown for cash sale. The dynamics between sub-systems can influence the scope for complementarity between, and technical efficiency of, their operations, especially in light of the seasonality of demand for household labour and management inputs within the farming system. A crucial element of these dynamic processes is diversification into commercial agricultural production, which can influence factor productivity and the efficiency of crop production where smallholders maintain a strong production base in subsistence foods. Data are used on coffee and food crop production for 18 households in the Benabena district of Eastern Highlands Province to derive technical efficiency indices for each household over two years. A stochastic input distance function approach is used to establish whether diversification economies exist and whether specialisation in coffee, subsistence food or cash food production significantly influences technical efficiency on the sampled smallholdings. Diversification economies are weakly evident between subsistence food production and both coffee and cash food production, but diseconomies of diversification are discerned between coffee and cash food production. A number of factors are tested for their effects on technical efficiency. Significant technical efficiency gains are made from diversification among broad cropping activities.Farm Management,

Credential Changes and Education Earnings Premia in Australia

We find that post-school education earnings premia have remained strikingly stable over the 1981 to 2003-04 period in Australia. This stability is in sharp contrast to the rising college premium observed in the US. The observed stability in Australia may in part be due to changes in the credentials earned by individuals entering certain professional occupations during the 1980s and early 1990s, particularly for females. We provide an estimate of the potential effect of within-occupation credential changes on estimates of education earnings premia in Australia over time. Our focus is on credential changes within the nursing and teaching professions, which have moved from predominately certificate and diploma qualifications to university bachelor’s degree or higher as the standard qualificationeducation; earnings structure; wage premium; credentials; Australia

On the welfare state performance in the European Union

In this paper we use data on five social inclusion indicators (poverty, inequality, unemployment, education and health) to assess and compare the performance of 27 European welfare states (EU27) in 2008. Aggregate measures of performance are obtained using index number methods similar to those employed in the construction of the widely used Human Development Index (HDI). These are compared with alternative measures derived from data envelopment analysis (DEA) methods. We are particularly interested by the comparison between EU15 and the 12 newcomers (EU12). As it will appear among the newcomers some countries are ranking among the top performers and others are relegated in the bottom of the ranking.