Higher education, real income and real investment in China : evidence from Granger causality tests

This paper employs cointegration and error-correction modelling to test the causal relationship between real income, real investment and tertiary education using data for the People's Republic of China over the period 1952-1999. To proxy tertiary education we use higher education enrolments and higher education graduates in alternative empirical specifications. One of the paper's main findings is that real income, real investment and tertiary education are cointegrated when real investment is the dependent variable, but are not cointegrated when either tertiary education or real income is the dependent variable. We also extend the in-sample analysis to examine the decomposition of variance and impulse response functions.

What determines migration flows from low-income to high-income countries? An empirical investigation of Fiji-U.S. migration 1972-2001

This article examines the long-run and short-run determinants of migration from Fiji to the United States between 1972 and 2001 using a human capital framework, which is extended to take account of political instability in Fiji. In the long-run the authors find that differences in income levels, disparities in police strength, disparities in the number of doctors, costs of moving, and political instability in Fiji are all statistically significant with the expected sign. In the short run the cost of moving, lagged migration, political instability, and differences in both police strength and medical care are the main determinants of Fiji-United States immigration.

Risk assessment of sexual offenders for extended supervision orders in New Zealand : basic principles and current practice

A growing number of jurisdictions in North America, the United Kingdom, and Australasia have enacted legislation allowing for special sentencing, civil commitment, and community supervision options for high risk sexual offenders. In New Zealand, one example of this concern for public protection is the Parole (Extended Supervision) Amendment Act 2004, which provides for additional supervision of sexual offenders with child victims for up to 10 years after their release from prison. Recent experience with expert evidence and judicial decision making in such cases suggests that those involved in the process might benefit from a more thorough understanding of the current state of sexual offender risk assessment that can be provided by mental health professionals.

Does modifying the household food budget predict changes in the healthfulness of purchasing choices among low- and high-income women?

Food cost has a strong influence on food purchases and given that persons of low income often have more limited budgets, healthier foods may be overlooked in favour of more energy-dense lower-cost options. The aim of this study was to investigate whether modifications to the available household food budget led to changes in the healthfulness of food purchasing choices among women of low and high income. A quasi-experimental design was used which included a sample of 74 women (37 low-income women and 37 high-income women) who were selected on the basis of their household income and sent an itemised shopping list in order to calculate their typical weekly household shopping expenditure. The women were also asked to indicate those foods they would add to their list if they were given an additional 25% of their budget to spend on food and those foods they would remove if they were restricted by 25% of their budget. When asked what foods they would add with a larger household food budget, low-income women chose more foods from the ‘healthier’ categories whereas high-income women chose more foods from the less ‘healthier’ categories. However, making the budgets of low- and high-income women more ‘equivalent’ did not eradicate income differences in overall healthfulness of food purchasing choices. This study highlights the importance of cost when making food purchasing choices among low- and high-income groups. Public health strategies aimed at reducing income inequalities in diet might focus on promoting healthy diets that are low cost.

Targeted disruption of the basic Krüppel-like factor gene (Klf3) reveals a role in adipogenesis

Krüppel-like factors (KLFs) recognize CACCC and GC-rich sequences in gene regulatory elements. Here, we describe the disruption of the murine basic Krüppel-like factor gene (Bklf or Klf3). Klf3 knockout mice have less white adipose tissue, and their fat pads contain smaller and fewer cells. Adipocyte differentiation is altered in murine embryonic fibroblasts from Klf3 knockouts. Klf3 expression was studied in the 3T3-L1 cellular system. Adipocyte differentiation is accompanied by a decline in Klf3 expression, and forced overexpression of Klf3 blocks 3T3-L1 differentiation. Klf3 represses transcription by recruiting C-terminal binding protein (CtBP) corepressors. CtBPs bind NADH and may function as metabolic sensors. A Klf3 mutant that does not bind CtBP cannot block adipogenesis. Other KLFs, Klf2, Klf5, and Klf15, also regulate adipogenesis, and functional CACCC elements occur in key adipogenic genes, including in the C/ebpα promoter. We find that C/ebpα is derepressed in Klf3 and Ctbp knockout fibroblasts and adipocytes from Klf3 knockout mice. Chromatin immunoprecipitations confirm that Klf3 binds the C/ebpα promoter in vivo. These results implicate Klf3 and CtBP in controlling adipogenesis.

Modelling income group differences in the health and economic impacts of targeted food taxes and subsidies

Objective : To examine the effects, by income group, of targeted food taxes and subsidies on nutrition, health and expenditure in the UK.

Methods : A model based on consumption data and demand elasticity was constructed to predict the effects of four food taxation-subsidy regimens. Resulting changes in demand, expenditure, nutrition, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer mortality were estimated.

Data : Expenditure data were taken from the Expenditure and Food Survey; estimates of price elasticities of demand for food were taken from a report based on the National Food Survey 1988–2000. Estimates of effect on CVD and cancer mortality of changing fat, salt, fruit and vegetable intake were taken from previous meta-analyses.

Results : (i) Taxing principal sources of dietary saturated fat is unlikely to reduce cardiovascular disease (CVD) or cancer mortality. (ii) Taxing ‘less healthy’ foods (defined by the WXYfm nutrient profiling model) could increase CVD and cancer deaths by 35–1300 yearly. (iii) Taxing ‘less healthy’ foods and subsidising fruits and vegetables by 17.5% could avert up to 2900 CVD and cancer deaths yearly. (iv) Taxing ‘less healthy’ foods and using all tax revenue to subsidize fruits and vegetables could avert up to 6400 CVD and cancer deaths yearly. Few obesity-related CVD deaths are averted by any of the regimens. All four regimens would be economically regressive and positive health effects will not necessarily be greater in lower-income groups where the need for dietary improvement is higher.

Conclusions : A targeted food tax combined with the appropriate subsidy on fruits and vegetables could reduce deaths from CVD and cancer.

The influence of child support and welfare on single parent families

Many single parent families in Australia are on low-incomes and many depend on Centrelink Parenting Payments as their main source of income which is comparatively low to meet their basic living costs. The impact of low income on child health and social inclusion is discussed.

Financial statements in less developed countries : what do preparers demand?

This study reports on an empirical investigation of the characteristics, attitudes, and beliefs of preparers of external financial reports in a less developed country. The basic research instrument consisted of a questionnaire in two parts: the first addressing attitudes of professional accountants toward annual financial reports generally; the second, more specifically measuring the importance of the information items to preparers. Our results suggest that the independent auditor is the most influential group in decision-making processes. As in many developed countries, the auditor’s report and the regulatory framework are considered to have a major influence on financial reporting practices. Preparers believe that a lack of knowledge of external users’ needs and lack of reporting standards and accepted accounting principles are the main concerns with corporate financial reports in Iran. The results showed that the balance sheet, auditors’ report, and income statement in that order are the three most important parts of the annual reports.

Not measuring up : low-income women on welfare

The central notion of this chapter is that every person has the right to an elemental standard of social life, as a citizenship entitlement. However, segments of our society, such as women who rely on government payments as their primary source of income, do not enjoy full social citizenship entitlements and are instead socially excluded. Using data from in-depth qualitative interviews, I outline participants’ experiences of stigma, marginalisation and exclusion. I posit that these experiences are the result of policy failure as financial assistance policies fail to fully provide these women with their social citizenship entitlements.

Interjurisdictional allocation of multinational banking income : aligning taxation principles with economic activity

This thesis argues that one type of multinational entity – the multinational bank – poses particularly significant challenges to the international tax regime in terms of its current profit allocation rules. Multinational banks are a unique subset of multinational entities, and as a consequence of their unique traits, the traditional international tax regime foes not yield an optimal interjurisdictional allocation of taxing rights. The opportunity for tax minimisation, achievable because of the unique traits, and realised through exploitation of the traditional source and transfer pricing regime, results in a jurisdictional distribution of taxing rights which does not reflect economic reality. There are two distinct ways in which the traditional international tax regime fails to reflect economic activity. The first way that economic activity may not be reflected in the distribution of the taxing rights to income from multinational banking is through the application of traditional source rules. The traditional sources rules allocate income where transactions are completed rather than where the intermediation services are arranged. As a result of their unique commercial role as financial intermediaries, by separating intermediary economic activity from legal transactions with third parties, multinational banks may distort the true location of the activity giving rise to income. The second way in which the traditional tax regime may fail to reflect economic activity is through the traditional transfer pricing regime requiring related or internal transaction to be undertaken at an arm’s length price. The arm’s length pricing requirement is theoretically deficient in its failure to recognise the highly integrated nature of multinational banking. In practice, the arm’s length pricing requirement is also difficult, if not impossible, to apply to multinational banks because of the requirement of comparability. The difficulties associated with the current model have resulted in a subtle move by multinational banks towards global formulary apportionment. This thesis concludes that, for the international taxation of multinational banks, the current source regime should be replaced with a system that allocates profits for tax purposes on the basis of income source, with source determined using a unitary taxation or global formulary apportionment system. It is argued that global formulary apportionment is a theoretically superior model that provides both jurisdiction to tax and allocated profits on the basis of the economic activity that generates the income.

Extending the Workers' Compensation Act 1987 (N.S.W.) to include independent contractors and to allow more highly paid workers to insure fully their income, with particular reference to engineers

In mid-1987, the existing workers’ compensation system in New South Wales was replaced by a new Scheme, called ‘WorkCover’. While WorkCover solved a number of the financial problems that had plagued its predecessor, its enactment created other issues. Furthermore, WorkCover has failed to deal with a number of gaps in providing compensation for occupational injuries, most notably those suffered by independent contractors. By combining a study of aspects of industrial law and industrial relations, this thesis will examine some of those problems and gaps, in particular: (a) Should WorkCover be amended to enable independent contractors to come within its ambit? (b) Should there be additional insurance cover available (known as ‘top-up’ insurance) to insure those parts of workers’ wages presently left unprotected by WorkCover? (c) Should workers be permitted to take out another form of ‘top-up’ insurance to increase the quantum of death cover presently provided by the Scheme? (d) Should independent contractors who arc permitted to enter WorkCover also be permitted to obtain the extended cover set out in (b) and (c) above? Where appropriate, the thesis compares WorkCover to the workers’ compensation schemes in other Australian jurisdictions. It develops each of the matters referred to above by referring to the results of the writer’s survey of members of the Institution of Engineers (NSW Branch) which was conducted in May and June 1991.

Income distribution in Australia 1986

This thesis focuses on the distribution of income across income units, as defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in Australia in 1986. An examination of the conceptual issues involved in analysing income distribution is followed by a description of the various statistical and normative inequality measures that may be used to determine the level of inequality. Previous Australian studies is reported on before analysing the 1986 Income Distribution Survey. The analysis focuses on the summary statistical measures of the Gini coefficient the coefficient of variation and the percentile shares. In addition, the contribution of income of various population sub-groups to overall inequality is examined to provide insight into the sources of inequality. To this end, the Gini coefficient is decomposed using a method developed by Fodder (1991), whereby the population is divided into a number of subgroups based on one socio-demographic characteristic at a time. The exact effects of a percentage change in income for a particular sub-group to overall inequality, as well as the elasticity of the Gini coefficient with respect to a sub-group can be computed. The decomposition is undertaken using both the unadjusted and the equivalent gross weekly income. Policy considerations and conclusions regarding the level of inequality as existed in 1986 are suggested in the final chapter.

Within and against performativity : discursive engagement in adult literacy and basic education

The field of adult literacy and basic education (ALBE) has undergone dramatic changes in recent years with the advent of labour market programs, accreditation, competency-based assessment and competitive tendering for program funds. Teachers' working conditions have deteriorated and their professional autonomy has been eroded. ALBE has been increasingly instrumentalised to fulfil the requirements of a marketised economy and conform to its norms. The beliefs and value systems which traditionally underpinned the work of ALBE teachers have been reframed according to the principle of 'performativity' and the demands of the 'performative State' (Lyotard, 1984: 46, Yeatman 1994: 110). The destabilisation of teachers' working lives can be understood as a manifestation of the 'postmodern condition' (Lyotard 1984; Harvey 1989): the collapse of the certainties and purposes of the past; the proliferation of technologies; the impermanence and intensification of work; the commodification of knowledge and curricula; and the dissolving of boundaries between disciplines and fields of knowledge. The critiques of the modernist grand narratives which underpin progressivist and critical approaches to adult literacy pedagogy have further undermined the traditional points of reference of ALBE teachers. In this thesis I examine how teachers are teaching, surviving, resisting, and 'living the contradictions' (Seddon 1994) in the context of struggles to comply with and resist the requirements of performativity. Following Foucault and a number of feminist poststructuralist authors, I have applied the notions of 'discursive engagement' and 'the politics of discourse' (Yeatman 1990a) as a way of theorising the interplay between imposed change and teachers' practice. I explore the discursive practices which take place at the interface between the 'new' policy discourses and older, naturalised discourses; how teachers are engaged by and are engaging with discourses of performativity; how teachers are discursively constructing adult literacy pedagogy; what new, hybrid discourses of 'good practice' are emerging; and the micropractices of resistance which teachers are enacting in their speech and in their practice. My purpose was to develop knowledge which would support the reflexivity of teachers; to enrich the theoretical languages that teachers could draw upon in trying to make sense of their situation; and to use those languages in speaking about the dilemmas of practice. I used participatory action research as a means of producing knowledge about teachers' practices, structured around their agency, and reflecting their standpoint (Harding 1993). I describe two separate action research projects in which teachers of ALBE participated. I reflect on both projects in the light of poststructuralist theory and consider them as instances of what Lather calls 'within/against research' (Lather 1989: 27). I analyse written and spoken texts produced in both projects which reflect teachers' responses to competency-based assessment and other features of the changing context. I use a method of discourse mapping to describe the discursive field and the teachers' discursive practices. Three main configurations of discourse are delineated: 'progressivism', 'professional teacher' and 'performativity'. The teachers mainly position themselves within a hybridising 'progressivist /professional teacher' discourse, as a discourse of resistance to 'performative' discourse. In adapting their pedagogies, the teachers are in some degree taking the language and world view of performativity into their own vocabularies and practices. The discursive picture I have mapped is complex and contradictory. On one hand, the 'progressivist /professional teacher' discourse appears to endure and to take strength from the articulation into it of elements of performative discourse, creating new possibilities for discursive transformation. On the other hand, there are signs that performative discourse is colonising and subsuming progressivist /professional teacher discourse. At times, both of these tendencies are apparent in the one text. Six micropractices of resistance are identified within the texts: 'rational critique', 'objectification', 'subversion', 'refusal', 'humour' and 'the affirmation of desire'. These reflect the teachers' agency in making discursive choices on the micro level of their every day practices. Through those micropractices, the teachers are engaging with and resisting the micropractices and meanings of performativity. I apply the same multi-layered method of analysis to an examination of discursive engagement in pedagogy by analysing a transcript of the teachers' discussion of critical incidents in their classrooms. Their classroom pedagogies are revealed as complex, situated and eclectic. They are combining and integrating their 'embodied' and their 'institutional' powers, both 'seducing' (McWilliam 1995) and 'regulating' (Gore 1993) as they teach. A strong ethical project is apparent in the teachers' sense of social responsibility, in their determination to adhere to valued traditions of previous times, and in their critical self-awareness of the ways in which they use their institutional and embodied powers in the classroom. Finally, l look back on the findings, and reflect on the possibilities of discursive engagement and the politics of discourse as a framework for more strategic practice in the current context. This research provides grounds for hope that, by becoming more self-conscious about how we engage discursively, we might become more strategic in our everyday professional practice. Not withstanding the constraints (evident in this study) which limit the strategic potential of the politics of discourse, there is space for teachers to become more reflexive in their professional, pedagogical and political praxis. Development of more deliberate, self-reflexive praxis might lead to a 'postmodern democratic polities' (Yeatman 1994: 112) which would challenge the performative state and the system of globalised capital which it serves. Short abstract Adult literacy and basic education (ALBE) teachers have experienced a period of dramatic policy change in recent years; in particular, the introduction of competency-based assessment and competitive tendering for program funds. 'Discourse politics' provides a way of theorising the interplay between policy-mediated institutional change and teachers' practice. The focus of this study is 'discursive engagement'; how teachers are engaged by and are engaging with discourses of performativity. Through two action research projects, texts were generated of teachers talking and writing about how they were responding to the challenges, and developing their pedagogies in the new policy environment. These texts have been analysed and several patterns of discursive engagement delineated, named and illustrated. The strategic potential of 'discourse polities' is explored in the light of the findings.