Haunting the knowledge economy

This highly original book provides an engaging and critical introduction to the knowledge economy. The knowledge economy is a potent force pervading global and national policy circles. Yet few people outside the field of economics understand its central ideas and practices. This book makes these accessible. But it does much more. It provokes 'conversations' between the knowledge economy and those marginalized economies that haunt it: the risk, gift, libidinal and survival economies. These illuminate the knowledge economy's shortcomings and point to alternative possible systems of exchange and sets of values. This multi-disciplinary study takes the knowledge economy out of the hands of the economists and brings it into creative tension with the ideas of key thinkers from sociology, anthropology, philosophy and ecology. Illustrating the benefits of conversing with the ghosts of alternative economies, this provocative book will unsettle the way in which the knowledge economy is understood. Groundbreaking and globally applicable, it has been authored by internationally respected authors and its conceptual breadth pertains to a range of disciplines and gives it its wide appeal.

Exploring the oil price and real GDP nexus for a small island economy, the Fiji Islands

The goal of this paper is to examine the relationship between real GDP and oil prices using time series data for the period 1970–2005. Our main finding is that an increase in oil has a positive, albeit inelastic, impact on real GDP, inconsistent with the bulk of the literature. We argue that this is not a surprising result for the Fiji Islands. Our central argument focuses on two aspects of the Fijian economy: (1) the fact that actual output in Fiji has been around 50 per cent less than potential output; thus, Fiji's actual output has not reached a threshold level at which oil prices can negatively impact output; and (2) a rise in oil prices filters through to value added, which in turn is reflected in a larger actual output.

The bio-economy and the competition state : transcending the dichotomy between coordinated and liberal market economies

This article examines the role of the state in the emerging bio-economy. The starting point is that state interventions, including supportive regulatory arrangements and the shaping of public attitudes, constitute core assets in the evolution of bio-industrial complexes. Public policy in the bio-economy, across advanced industrial countries, is well captured by the “competition state” concept. This type of state takes different forms, analogously with the historical variants of the Keynesian welfare state. The article compares patterns of governance of the biotechnology sector in Finland and Sweden, the USA and the UK, and Australia. It is concluded that the bio-industry sector does not fit with the “models of capitalism” paradigm which postulates coherence within, and systemic divergences between, national models of economic governance. The bio-economy displays trends toward convergence, in particular mounting public investments in health care and in research and development. On the other hand, countries differ in their approach to market regulation, industrial support, and ethical restrictions. These differences do not follow the dichotomy between “liberal” and “coordinated” models of capitalism.

Hot issues, new economy stocks and Australian industry IPO returns in the late 1990s

This paper analyses Australian IPOs at an industry level for the period 1994 to 1999. We find a significant relationship between capital weighted IPO industry returns and contemporaneous index returns suggesting that capital raising and money left on the table arguments matter. We do not find any hot issue years at an industry level. Further at an industry level we find that new economy listings are not different to listings from other sectors of the economy.

Tourism and economic development in a cash-in-advance economy

This paper examines the impact of tourism on welfare in a cash-in-advance economy. As a result of the expansion in tourism, the price of the non-traded good increases. This gives rise to a terms-of-trade improvement. However, the cash-in-advance constraint causes a distortion in consumption. For tourism demand, where the gain from the terms-of-trade improvement dominates (does not dominate) the loss from the consumption distortion, tourism is welfare-improving (welfare-reducing). A similar condition for welfare improvement (deterioration) holds for a model of capital inflow and endogenised tourism.

Government revenue, private welfare, and tax reform in a small open economy

This paper examines the welfare and revenue effects of consumption and income taxes in a general equilibrium model with variable supply of labour and public goods. We derive the optimal consumption and income tax rates for such an economy. It is established that it is better to lower the income tax rate and increase the rate of consumption tax when this economy is in a downturn.

Economy-based data replication broker

Data replication is one of the key components in data grid architecture as it enhances data access and reliability and minimises the cost of data transmission. In this paper, we address the problem of reducing the overheads of the replication mechanisms that drive the data management components of a data grid. We propose an approach that extends the resource broker with policies that factor in user quality of service as well as service costs when replicating and transferring data. A realistic model of the data grid was created to simulate and explore the performance of the proposed policy. The policy displayed an effective means of improving the performance of the grid network traffic and is indicated by the improvement of speed and cost of transfers by brokers.