Oil price uncertainty and sovereign risk: evidence from Asian economies

In this paper, we test whether oil price uncertainty predicts credit default swap (CDS) returns for eight Asian countries. We use the Westerlund and Narayan, 2011 and Westerlund and Narayan, 2012 predictability test that accounts for any persistence in and endogeneity of the predictor variable. The estimator also accounts for any heteroskedasticity in the regression model. In-sample evidence reveals that oil price uncertainty predicts CDS returns for three Asian countries, whereas out-of-sample evidence suggests that oil price uncertainty predicts CDS returns for six countries.

Alcohol Price Considerations on alcohol and Illicit Drug Use in University Students

Background
This study investigates alcohol price and proposed substance use amongst Australian tertiary students.

Methods
Participants were recruited in 2009 via facebook, and were asked to complete a 34-item internetbased survey. 512 people took part, 485 fit the inclusion criteria.

Results
The sample consisted predominately of young (mean age 20.3 years), female (66%) university students. Higher alcohol prices resulted in increased consideration of illicit substances as an alternative indicating a substitution effect, although the majority (60%) of respondents would never consider using ecstasy.

Conclusion
Results indicate substantial room to increase the price of alcohol to achieve alcohol consumption reduction without likely substitution behavior.

Quantitatively evaluating the effects of price promotions using data mining

Price promotions (also called discount promotions), i.e. short-term temporary price reductions for selected items (Hermann 1989), are frequently used in sales promotions. The main objective of price promotions is to boost sales and increase profits. Quantitative evaluation of the effects of price promotions (QEEPP) is essential and important for sales managers to analyse historical price promotions and informative for devising more effective promotional strategies in the future. However, most previous studies only provide insights into the effects of discount promotions from some specific prospectives, and no approaches have been proposed for comprehensive evaluation of the effects of discount promotions. For example, Hinkle [1965] discovered that price promotions in the off-season are more favourable, and the effects of price promotions are stronger for new products. Peckham [1973] found that price promotions have no impact on long-term trend. Blattberg et al. [1978] identified that different segments respond to price promotions in different ways. Rockney [1991] discovered three basic types of effects: effects on discounted items, effects on substitutes and effects on complementary items.

A just judgement? Considerations on Ronald Srigley’s Camus’ Critique of Modernity

This paper responds critically to Ronald Srigley’s groundbreaking 2011 study Albert Camus’ Critique of Modernity. Srigley’s book reasserts Camus’ credentials as a deeply serious thinker, whose literary and philosophical oeuvre was dedicated to rethinking modernity on the basis of critical reassessments of theWest’s entire premodern heritage. Yet we challenge whether Camus was ever, even in his final writings, so uncompromisingly anti-modern as Srigley contends. Srigley’s attempt to present Camus as committed to a return to the Greeks, on the basis of a total critique of modernity as deleteriously post-Christian, forces him to occlude important distinctions in Camus’ thought: those between unity and totality, rebellion and revolution. By contrast, we compare Camus’ defence of modern rebellion with Blumenberg’s argument in The Legitimacy of the Modern Age: finding justification for this rebellion in the deep problem faced by Christian theology of resolving the ‘problem of evil’. Finally, we suggest that Srigley overplays the extent of Camus’ ‘Hellenic’ critique of the Christian heritage (notably its ethical commitment to protecting the weak), in contrast to Christian theodicy and eschatology, which serve to rationalize avoidable suffering.

Students use a 'just-in-time' approach to accessing online resources

Lecture notes and recordings, tutorial exercises, readings, study questions, revision quizzes, instructional videos and crosswords were provided online so that students who could not attend classes (flexible learners) were not disadvantaged. D2L's progress viewing tool was used to track student access to resources, class attendance was monitored, and a questionnaire asked about the value of the online resources for completing the unit. While students thought it was important to attend classes, attendance was low and centred on tutorials and practical's, rather than lectures. The main reason for non-attendance was employment. Students accessed most of the online resources immediately prior to tests rather than on a week-by-week basis. Both attenders and flexible learners indicated that lecture notes, readings, revision quizzes and study questions were the most useful resources. Attenders accessed online resources more than flexible learners. There was only a weak correlation between class attendance and successful completion of the unit.

Rating downgrade and the price impact of CDS spread on stock return

We investigate the time-varying informativeness of credit default swap (CDS) trading on stock returns for 302 US firms from July 2004 to August 2010. Using the Acharya and Johnson (2007) measure, we find that CDS trading becomes informative for an increasing number of firms as we approach the global financial crisis (GFC). Firm numbers gradually decline post-GFC, but remain high compared to the pre-GFC period. furthermore, CDS trading imposes the largest conditional price impact on firms that are recently downgraded, regardless of rating levels. Interestingly, this holds during and after the GFC, but not before. We offer two implications. First, despite post-GFC outcry against the CDS market, our results suggest it exhibits enhanced price discovery during the GFC. Second, our findings support criticism that, in the lead-up to the GFC, rating agencies are slow in downgrading firms. However, if downgrade decisions made during and after the GFC induce informed trading in the CDS market, this necessarily implies that during the midst of the GFC, rating agencies have got their act together.

'Global’ is not just ‘out there’ but also ‘right here’: expectations and experiences in internationalised and globalised higher education

This paper reports on a study that took a cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional approach to investigate postgraduate student expectations and experiences in internationalised and globalised higher education. The researchers drew on Giddens’ theory of structuration1. They explored the way samples of specialist medicine trainees in the UK and pre-service teacher education students in Australia identify and make meaning of their circumstances in an era that is increasingly characterised by greater internationalisation of the student body and more globalised curricula. In this paper, we discuss some of the tensions students reported encountering, and propose several ways in which such tensions might be counteracted.

Just call me dad: health and social benefits to fathers and their children

In the past 20 years, social change and expectations for both maternal and paternal responsibilities have highlighted the need for services for families to better understand the role of a father in family relationships. In Australia, as well as internationally, there have been many contested understandings about what constitutes ‘good fathering’ in research, social media and in the political sphere. More specifically, there has also been an emerging trend to understand the challenging task of recruiting and maintaining men's involvement in child and family services programmes, particularly those fathers who are deemed a risk to children and mothers, violent or have been separated from their children. That many child and family/welfare services have exercised dedicated effort to work with fathers is still a relatively recent phenomenon, and has only emerged following criticism that services have been too geared towards working only with mothers. Despite this increasing interest, there is still ongoing need for more research to be undertaken in Australia. An important area of focus is the views of professionals about their perception and engagement of fathers, particularly the views of fathers who are described as being absent from family-based services. The purpose of this article is to report briefly on a study undertaken to examine how child and family welfare workers engage fathers in their work. First, this paper will describe some of the social and health benefits to fathers and their children, focusing on the key role of attachment through play. Research into effective service delivery involving fathers will then be presented, concluding with key practice factors necessary for fathers to be involved in family life.

‘Global’ is not just ‘out there’ but also ‘right here’

This paper reports on a study into how the cultural expectations of the roles of students and teachers impact on the lived experience of higher education students. Specifically, the paper discusses ways in which academics and students perceive the theoretical and practical sides of the front-end loading programs in which they are involved. The paper takes an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approach in drawing from data sets collected from students and staff in both a UK medicine program and also an Australian teacher education program. As such, it responds to the aim of the AARE-APERA conference to enrich global cooperation in educational research. Giddens’ (2003) sociological theory of “structuration” was selected as a framework for the study because it enables insight into how individuals make meaning and identity through their circumstances and endeavours. The theory provided useful in demonstrating how we understand, and thus educate for, the roles of professionals, including doctors and teachers, in society. The discussion and findings of the paper contribute to the international literature on professional culture and identity, work-integrated learning and the enactment of theory and practice in university front-end loading programs.