Do you really want to ask an underwriter how much money you should leave on the table?

This paper analyses whether the owners of companies seeking to list will leave less money on the table if underwriters are employed to price and market the issue. Our findings indicate that limited liability and Industrial company initial public offerings (IPOs) that have used underwriters have left
more money on the table than those not employing underwriters. Not only is there a direct cost in employing an underwriter but this study suggests there might also be an indirect cost. We also find that a positive forecast earnings per share yield may be useful in reducing the amount of money left on the table.

Promise more, leave less

Following Kim and Ritter (1999) who find that earnings forecasts provide more accurate valuations of IPOs, this paper analyses whether the owners of companies seeking to list will leave less money on the table if positive dividend per share (DPS) yield forecasts are made in the prospectus. Our findings indicate that DPS yield forecasts by directors of Industrial company IPOs have been an important ingredient in the amount of money left on the table. A similar result is found for Limited Liability IPOs and those that do not offer options to subscribers to buy more shares. The offer of an operational dividend reinvestment plan in the prospectus does not appear significant in reducing the amount of money left on the table.

Portable sick leave in the Victorian building industry : managing cumulative employee benefits in the absence of employment security

The trend away from full-time permanent employment raises questions about the relevance of traditional approaches to managing and compensating employees. Employment in the Australian building industry is characterised by short-term, project-based employment. Employers and unions in the industry have adopted alternative compensation models to accommodate the short-term nature of employment, most notably through portable benefit schemes. In 1997, the Victorian building industry extended the range of portable benefits to include sick leave. Empirical evidence suggests a relationship between employee absence behaviour and accrual entitlement models. Research reported here supports this link, and suggests that both employers and employees can benefit from an alternative, portable, approach to accrued entitlements. Employers can benefit because employees may be less likely to take an instrumental approach to their entitlements. Employees benefit because they are able to accrue entitlements for the period they remain in the building industry, irrespective of the extent to which they change jobs.

Why did they leave and what can they tell us? Allied health professionals leaving rural settings

The aim of this paper is to explore the lack of retention of allied health professionals in rural areas in Victoria, Australia. A structured telephone interview was used to elicit responses from 32 allied health professionals from south-west, central-west and north-east Victoria about their working experiences and reasons for resignation. The data revealed that work experiences in rural areas can be summarised within three domains: organisational, professional and personal/community. Under the organisational domain the participants were mainly focussed on the way in which their work arrangements require them to be both more generalist in their approach to day-to-day work, and more expansive in shouldering management style functions in the workplace. Under the professional domain there were three major issues; clinical, career and education/training. The personal/community domain focussed on issues to do with their affinity for their workplace as well as their location in a rural place. The attempts by government to address some of the leading factors for retention of allied health professionals are perhaps too narrowly focussed on the public sector and could encompass a wider approach.

What is known about the topic? Although recruitment and retention of allied health professionals in rural areas is widely discussed, the professionals have not been interviewed about their experiences once they have left rural employment.

What does this paper add? This paper provides detailed insights into the reasons why allied health professionals leave their positions in rural areas and the positive and negative aspects of living and working in a rural area. The results of this study contribute to the development of better policy models for recruitment and retention of allied health professionals in rural areas.

What are the implications for practitioners? The factors that influence whether allied health professionals stay or leave rural areas is of concern for health policy makers at state and federal levels. This paper provides information for the extension and development of programs to attenuate rural leakage of professionals.

Factors influencing the planning undertaken by women during pregnancy for their return to work after maternity leave

The planning women (N = 199) do during pregnancy for their return to work post birth and the factors that influence employment planning during late pregnancy were investigated in this study. The findings revealed three components of planning: Planning for Childcare, Planning with Partner, and Planning with Employer. Several factors emerged as consistent cross-sectional predictors of these components (work satisfaction, hours worked before commencing maternity leave, anticipated weeks of maternity leave and anticipated hours per week on the return to work). Anticipated support from family and friends, and from the workplace also predicted Planning with Partner and Planning with Employer, respectively. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Determinants of maternity leave duration in Australia : evidence from the HILDA survey

We use the first five waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey to examine what determines the maternity leave taken by pre-birth employed mothers of newborn children in Australia. We find that the difficulties faced by mothers in finding appropriate child care in terms of both cost and quality hinder them from returning to the labour market following childbirth. Maternity leave entitlements lead to an earlier return to the labour market following the birth of a child, relative to those who have no leave rights at all. Mothers with higher wages in their pre-birth employment and mothers with higher education levels tend to return to the labour market earlier than their lower wage and less educated counterparts. More flexible pre-birth jobs are associated with an increase in the likelihood of mothers returning to the workforce earlier than the average. Household wealth, however, seems to play a facilitating role in mothers taking a longer period of maternity leave to look after the newborn child. That is, mothers who have higher wealth levels can ‘afford’ to stay on maternity leave longer, to look after their children better during their primary developmental months. We believe that this article provides useful insights into the employment transitions of Australian mothers after having a baby.