Total factor productivity and efficiency in Australian colleges of advanced education

The former colleges of advanced education were an important component of the higher education sector in Australia. Uses the Malmquist total factor productivity index to investigate the efficiency and productivity of Australian colleges of advanced education during the 1980s. The results from this analysis indicate that these colleges recorded modest growth in technical change and total factor productivity, but did not fare all that well in terms of growth in technical and scale efficiency during the 1980s. As a group, however, the former colleges of advanced education had attained high levels of technical and scale efficiency.

Incorporating environmental impacts into productivity analysis: the case for nitrogen leaching in the Australian dairy industry

This paper examines how the adoption of a system's perspective to the use of both marketed and public resources can be incorporated into an analysis of productivity measurement.  A biophysical model is used to measure the environmental inputs which are combined with conventional marketed inputs to develop a Malmquist Productivity Index to determine social productivity growth over the perios under study.  The analysis is applied to data collected from selected farms in south west Victoria and includes a measure of leaching and run-off as a proxy measure of the impact the application of fertilizers has on ground and surface water.  Although the sample is small, the results show measured productivity growth differs when environmental factors are considered.

Labour productivity measurement with variable returns to scale in Australia's construction industry

As an important productivity indicator, the change of labour productivity is one indispensable marker in determining the rise or fall of overall industrial performance. This study aims to address whether the labour productivity level of the Australian construction industry has, in fact, shown a huge improvement during the last few decades. This article constructs a measuring method estimating labour productivity changes based on the data envelopment analysis technique with variable returns to scale. By adopting a production frontier approach, the labour productivity index can be broken down into components attributable to efficiency change, technological progress and capital accumulation. The numerical results exemplified by a single-input and single-output system indicate that the average annual labour productivity levels of the construction industry are slowly growing in all the Australian states and territories. However, the year-on-year change in the overall labour productivity performance does not maintain a long-term increase over the period 1990–2008. The study forms the basis for further industrial productivity research. Proposals and recommendations are expected to be beneficial for making policy and strategic decisions to improve the performance of the construction industry.

Energy productivity and total-factor productivity in the Australian construction industry

There is urgent need to consider energy consumption when measuring total-factor productivity in the construction industry. This paper adopts the Malmquist index method to investigate the factors affecting the energy productivity of the Australian construction industry and compares them with those decomposed from the total-factor productivity. An input-oriented distance function and a contemporaneous benchmark technology are employed to develop the data envelopment analysis models. The Malmquist productivity index is decomposed into the technological change, pure technical efficiency change and activity effect to gain comprehensive insights into changes of construction productivity in the Australian states and territories over the past two decades. Research results show that both energy productivity and total-factor productivity improved in Australia, particularly related to technological development. The pure technical efficiency and activity indices changed slightly over time or across regions. This study demonstrates that there exists a linkage between energy productivity and total-factor productivity through their technological and technical efficiency changes. The Australian construction industry could enhance these two productivities by introducing advanced technologies and implementing them efficiently.

Reforestation with native mixed-species plantings in a temperate continental climate effectively sequesters and stabilizes carbon within decades.

Reforestation has large potential for mitigating climate change through carbon sequestration. Native mixed-species plantings have a higher potential to reverse biodiversity loss than do plantations of production species, but there are few data on their capacity to store carbon. A chronosequence (5-45 years) of 36 native mixed-species plantings, paired with adjacent pastures, was measured to investigate changes to stocks among C pools following reforestation of agricultural land in the medium rainfall zone (400-800 mm yr(-1) ) of temperate Australia. These mixed-species plantings accumulated 3.09 ± 0.85 t C ha(-1)  yr(-1) in aboveground biomass and 0.18 ± 0.05 t C ha(-1)  yr(-1) in plant litter, reaching amounts comparable to those measured in remnant woodlands by 20 years and 36 years after reforestation respectively. Soil C was slower to increase, with increases seen only after 45 years, at which time stocks had not reached the amounts found in remnant woodlands. The amount of trees (tree density and basal area) was positively associated with the accumulation of carbon in aboveground biomass and litter. In contrast, changes to soil C were most strongly related to the productivity of the location (a forest productivity index and soil N content in the adjacent pasture). At 30 years, native mixed-species plantings had increased the stability of soil C stocks, with higher amounts of recalcitrant C and higher C : N ratios than their adjacent pastures. Reforestation with native mixed-species plantings did not significantly change the availability of macronutrients (N, K, Ca, Mg, P, and S) or micronutrients (Fe, B, Mn, Zn, and Cu), content of plant toxins (Al, Si), acidity, or salinity (Na, electrical conductivity) in the soil. In this medium rainfall area, native mixed-species plantings provided comparable rates of C sequestration to local production species, with the probable additional benefit of providing better quality habitat for native biota. These results demonstrate that reforestation using native mixed-species plantings is an effective alternative for carbon sequestration to standard monocultures of production species in medium rainfall areas of temperate continental climates, where they can effectively store C, convert C into stable pools and provide greater benefits for biodiversity.

Malmquist indices of total factor productivity changes in the Australian construction industry

Construction is an important industry and forms a vital part of national economics in the world. Factors affecting the productivity of the construction industry should be measured appropriately to reflect its development situation and economic performance. The Malmquist index method with a novel decomposition technique is employed to estimate the total factor productivity of the Australian construction industry during the period 1990-2007 and to analyse the factors affecting the technological change in the industry. Research results exemplified by two input variables and one output variable elaborate how construction technology, pure technical efficiency and scale economy take effect in the change of construction productivity. In addition, based on temporal and spatial comparisons, the analysis for construction productivities reveals their changes over time and across the country. Proposals and recommendations are expected to be beneficial for policy making and strategic decisions to improve the performance of the Australian construction industry.

Economic freedom and productivity growth in resource-rich economies

The focus of this paper is to test whether free market institutions that protect property rights and support freedom of choice and voluntary exchange can change the curse of natural resources into a blessing. To examine the above question, this paper uses the Fraser Institute's economic freedom index and its five sub-indices, namely government size, property rights, access to sound money, freedom to trade, and setting proper regulations. Using data from 99 sample countries over the period 1970-2010, the system GMM estimates suggest that the negative growth effects of resource rents may turn positive in countries with greater economic freedom.

Labour productivity in Iranian construction projects perceptions of chief executive officers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it aims to highlight the main factors and items affecting the productivity of construction projects, based on the perceptions of CEOs in construction companies in Iran. Second, the study compares the elicited CEOs’ perceptions against the findings of studies based on the views of such as project managers, middle managers and employees in other levels. Design/methodology/approach – The study drew upon literature on construction work to develop a conceptual model. Further, a total of 60 CEOs from road construction companies were surveyed using a five-point Likert scale questionnaire to generate the data. The collated data were categorised and ranked according to the CEOs perceived level of importance using the relative importance index. Findings – The findings highlight the main factors and items affecting labour productivity in construction projects in Iran as perceived by CEOs, which are mainly of human resources management nature and could be attributed to motivation and managerial policy aspects. The study also recognises that factors associated with the working environment particularly safety and health are perceived as insignificant by Iranian CEOs which could be a concern for the Iranian construction industry. The discussions shed some light on the discrepancies between the perceptions of CEOs and previous studies in regards to major determinants of productivity in the construction context. Originality/value – This study is the first study aiming at discussing the perceptions of CEOs of construction companies active in construction projects in Iran. As such, the study highlights the standpoint of the main decision makers in construction companies in regards to labour productivity in the construction sector. Thus, the key contribution of the present study is providing insight into the perceptions of CEOs, who play the most vital role in strategic development of construction companies whereas previous studies have mostly focused on project or middle managers having a lower influence in determining the strategic plans of companies.

Carbon productivity: a case study in the Australian construction industry

Climate change is a severe threat to human development. Environmental protection and economic growth are two significant dimensions of promoting sustainable global development. In this research, a two-step procedure has been applied to investigate carbon productivity, which is deemed an appropriate indicator to measure sustainable development in conjunction with carbon reduction and production advancement. A decomposition method with the Log Mean Divisia Index has been applied to explore the factors influencing carbon productivity change, including technological innovation and regional adjustment. The carbon productivity of the Australian construction industry from 1990 to 2012 was then investigated. Research results indicate that carbon productivity in Australian construction had increased significantly and could be further improved. Technological innovation has played an important role in promoting carbon productivity, while regional adjustment has remained roughly steady. Based on correlation analyses, scale of the construction market and stock of machinery and equipment had shown weak correlations with carbon productivity changes, and it was clear that improvement in carbon productivity could benefit capital productivity and investment return. The research has systematically defined carbon productivity and for the first time measured it for the construction industry. The results are expected to assist construction industries worldwide to investigate productivity performance and to identify the influencing factors for improving development sustainability.

Implementing the international benchmarking labour productivity theoretical model

Purpose – Building upon the results of a critical review of previous studies, the purpose of this paper is to present a framework to enhance the reliability of the theoretical model for international benchmarking of labour productivity (TMIBLP) method for construction project activities. The next part of the paper presents the results of implementing the proposed framework for construction activities in the Iranian construction industry. Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws upon a critical review of the literature to highlight the drawbacks of the previous studies concerning implementing TMIBLP within the construction industry. Identifying these shortcomings, the authors propose a framework for construction projects, which presents the procedure for deploying TMIBLP for construction activities in a reliable manner. The final section of the paper demonstrates the empirical implementation of the proposed framework within the Iranian construction industry. Findings – The primary contributions of the paper include: identifying the drawbacks of previous studies within the construction context, the framework that would lead construction managers towards more reliable implementation of benchmarking for construction projects, and determining the baseline of erecting steel structures in a developing country. Practical implications – A practical implementation of the TMIBLP method was presented to address the lack of research in Iran and to show the feasibility of using the framework developed. The authors investigated the daily labour productivity for the activity of structural steel erection for six projects in Tehran in order to determine the values of the baseline productivity for each project. Accordingly, the disruption index, performance ratio and project management index as the project benchmarks were calculated for all six projects. Originality/value – Underlining the necessity of implementing methods such as TMIBLP, this study outlines the outcomes of the first study on the benchmarking of construction activities deploying the proposed framework and using the data on erecting steel structures from six construction projects in Iran. The discussions provide guidelines for construction project managers regarding benchmarking labour productivity. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research opportunities.