Resale price maintenance - in need of further reform

The Competition Policy Reform Act extended the resale price maintenance provisions of the Trade Practices Act 1974 to include services and provide for authorisation where the conduct can be shown to benefit the public such that it should be allowed. This article explores the scope of these changes and their shortcomings. It also seeks to provide some guidance as to their likely application and makes recommendations for further reform.

Price exhaustion and number preference : time and price confluence in Australian stock prices

Confluence occurs when different trading filters generate signals that point to the same directional move. Using regression analysis, this paper investigates confluence trading signals associated with number preference and price exhaustion, for a sample of Australian stocks. The results show that certain price levels tend to act as psychological barriers, and that price exhaustion signals are a real phenomenon in the Australian stock market. It is shown also that confluence exists in the Australian stock market. Importantly, confluence is associated with price retracements that are of economic and statistical significance, offering profitable trading opportunities. The results suggest that Australian stocks do not follow a random walk.

If the price is right : vagueness and values clarification in contingent valuation

The use of willingness to pay to value the benefits of health care is increasing. Much of this work assumes that health preferences are well formed or complete and readily revealed if the right question is asked in the right way. We examined this assumption, seeking evidence in a mixed-methods study that explored the meaning and implications of vague responses to a payment-scale based willingness to pay exercise.

One-half of the sample said that their vagueness meant that their maximum willingness to pay was actually greater than the amount that they had previously said it was. Thirty percent agreed that they would probably pay £10 more than a sum that they had previously said they would most definitely not pay, if they found this to be the cost of the vaccine. Interview data supported the view that the payment scale had failed to elicit the maximum willingness to pay and that some participants used the information on cost to help clarify their values, in contrast to the theory underpinning willingness to pay. The results suggest a need to consider values-clarification in health economic evaluations. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Examination of environmental beliefs and its impact on the influence of price, quality and demographic characteristics with respect to green intention

Research indicates that the environment has had a definite impact on consumer behaviour whereby suggesting to target consumers according to their environmental beliefs. This study investigated the consumers' green purchase behaviour using price and quality attributes as contributors to the formation of purchase intention. It attempts to construct a model that may facilitate the better understanding of green consumers' market segments through the use of an intelligent soft computing model. The model is designed to incorporate knowledge, beliefs, demographic profiles and situational variables. This potentially provides a more direct method for companies to gauge consumers' intention to purchase green products. The results showed strong preference for companies to place higher priority on reducing pollution than on increasing profitability. It highlighted different clusters that demonstrate various levels of the strength of intention to purchase and market segment profiles.

Granger causality among house price and macroeconomic variables in Victoria

This study analyses the dynamic causality of four macroeconomic variables on house prices. The four macroeconomic variables have interrelationships with house prices in certain lagged terms, but these relationships are not always the same as the notions put forward in prior research. The relationships are detected to be unstable in the three observation periods. The instability of these relationships would cause difficulty in predicting house prices in the market, especially for policy makers and market participants.

Housing price diffusion pattern of Australia's state capital cities

The ripple effect of house prices within metropolitan areas has recently been recognised by researchers. However, it is very difficult to formulate and measure this effect using conventional house price theories particularly in consideration of the spatial locations of cities. Based on econometrics principles of the cointegration test and the error correction model, this research develops an innovative approach to quantitatively examine the diffusion patterns of house prices in mega-cities of a country. Taking Australia's eight capital cities as an example, the proposed approach is validated in terms of an empirical study. The results show that a 1-1-2-4 diffusion pattern exists within these cities. Sydney is on the top tier with Melbourne in the second; Perth and Adelaide are in the third level and the other four cities lie on the bottom. This research may be applied to predict the regional housing market behavior in a country.

Modelling oil price volatility

In this paper, we examine the volatility of crude oil price using daily data for the period 1991–2006. Our main innovation is that we examine volatility in various sub-samples in order to judge the robustness of our results. Our main findings can be summarised as follows: (1) across the various sub-samples, there is inconsistent evidence of asymmetry and persistence of shocks; and (2) over the full sample period, evidence suggests that shocks have permanent effects, and asymmetric effects, on volatility. These findings imply that the behaviour of oil prices tends to change over short periods of time.

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.

Fundamental determinants of the Australian price-earnings multiple

This paper is the first attempt to investigate the factors fundamental to the setting of the price–earnings (P–E) multiple for the Australian stock market. The quarterly P–E ratio for the ASX 200 index is used as a measure of the market wide P–E multiple. It is demonstrated that a large portion of the variation in the P–E multiple can be explained by the dividend payout ratio, interest rates and GDP growth rates. In addition, consumers' confidence—a leading indicator of future growth opportunities, the Australian–US exchange rate—a key determinant of the competitiveness of domestic companies, and volatility of domestic market returns—a risk factor, have incremental explanatory power.

Construction of extrusion limit diagram for AZ31 magnesium alloy by FE simulation

The maximum speed at which magnesium can be extruded is considerably slower than that of many common aluminium extrusion alloys. This affects both the economies of production and the final mechanical behaviour. The present work quantifies the limiting extrusion speeds and ratios of magnesium alloy AZ31 as a function of billet temperature. This is done by combining hot compression test results, FE simulations and extrusion trials. Hot working stress–strain curves displayed a distinct dynamic recrystallisation peak. These data were used as a “look-up” table for the FE simulations in which the cracking limit was assumed to occur when the surface temperature reaches the incipient melting point. The maximum extrusion ratio predicted using FE analysis dropped from 90 to 40 when the extrusion ram speed was raised from 5 to 50 mm/s. The predicted limits agree well with the occurrence of cracking in both a laboratory and a commercial extrusion trial.

An empirical study on the influence of environmental labels on consumers

Purpose - Despite research studies indicating strong support for labelling information, uncertainty remains with respect to how labels influence consumers. This paper attempts to empirically investigate how consumers who differ in terms of environmentalism respond to labels.

Design/methodology/approach - The data were collected on an Australian sample using a structured questionnaire administered on the phone using quantum research (CATI) data collection services. A total of 155 questionnaires were completed and used for data analysis. The data were analysed using both descriptive measures and correlations between variables.

Findings - There appears to be a proportion of consumers that find product labels hard to understand. The research found that there are consumers who will buy green products even if they are lower in quality in comparison to alternative products, but would look for environmental information on labels. With respect to price sensitive green consumers, there appears to be a relationship between price sensitivity and 'always' reading labels as well as indicating that there is 'sufficient' information on product labels to make informed purchase decisions.

Research limitations/implications - It was beyond the scope of the research to account for some of the utilitarian approaches to interpretation or in-depth comprehension of label information. The sample size of 155, although selected using a probability method, may, to some extent, limit the overall accuracy of the results.

Practical implications - Offers some important information on different green consumer segments that would alert managers on how best to position environmental labels. Findings such as 'Satisfied with labels' correlates with 'Labels are accurate', which suggests that businesses need to provide a clear, accurate and easily legible label design to encourage satisfaction with the accuracy of content and the communication aspects of a label.

Originality/value - Contributes to better understanding of green customers purchase intentions and the usefulness of ecological product labels. It offers some insights and assistance to businesses in planning their green product/labelling strategies.