In the shadow of the welfare state : the role of payday lending in poverty survival in Australia

A defining characteristic of contemporary welfare governance in many western countries has been a reduced role for governments in direct provision of welfare, including housing, education, health and income support. One of the unintended consequences of devolutionary trends in social welfare is the development of a ‘shadow welfare state’ (Fairbanks, 2009; Gottschalk, 2000), which is a term used to describe the complex partnerships between statebased social protection, voluntarism and marketised forms of welfare. Coupled with this development, conditional workfare schemes in countries such as the United States, Canada, the UK and Australia are pushing more people into informal and semi-formal means of poverty survival (Karger, 2005). These transformations are actively reshaping welfare subjectivities and the role of the state in urban governance. Like other countries such as the US, Canada and the UK, the fringe lending sector in Australia has experienced considerable growth over the last decade. Large numbers of people on low incomes in Australia are turning to non-mainstream financial services, such as payday lenders, for the provision of credit to make ends meet. In this paper, we argue that the use of fringe lenders by people on low incomes reveals important theoretical and practical insights into the relationship between the mixed economy of welfare and the mixed economy of credit in poverty survival.

Parameter estimation of structural commodity price models

Commodity price modeling is normally approached in terms of structural time-series models, in which the different components (states) have a financial interpretation. The parameters of these models can be estimated using maximum likelihood. This approach results in a non-linear parameter estimation problem and thus a key issue is how to obtain reliable initial estimates. In this paper, we focus on the initial parameter estimation problem for the Schwartz-Smith two-factor model commonly used in asset valuation. We propose the use of a two-step method. The first step considers a univariate model based only on the spot price and uses a transfer function model to obtain initial estimates of the fundamental parameters. The second step uses the estimates obtained in the first step to initialize a re-parameterized state-space-innovations based estimator, which includes information related to future prices. The second step refines the estimates obtained in the first step and also gives estimates of the remaining parameters in the model. This paper is part tutorial in nature and gives an introduction to aspects of commodity price modeling and the associated parameter estimation problem.

A securities market operator's use of the "please explain" price query and its impact on compliance

Market operators in New Zealand and Australia, such as the New Zealand Exchange (NZX) and the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), have the regulatory power in their listing rules to issue queries to their market participants to explain unusual fluctuations in trading price and/or volume in the market. The operator will issue a price query where it believes that the market has not been fully informed as to price relevant information. Responsive regulation theory has informed much of the regulatory debate in securities laws in the region. Price queries map onto the lower level of the enforcement pyramid envisaged by responsive regulation and are one strategy that a market operator can use in communicating its compliance expectations to its stakeholders. The issue of a price query may be a precursor to more severe enforcement activities. The aim of this study is to investigate whether increased use of price queries by the securities market operator in New Zealand corresponded with an increase in disclosure frequency by all participating companies. The study finds that an increased use of price queries did correspond with an increase in disclosure frequency. A possible explanation for this finding is that price queries are an effective means of appealing to the factors that motivate corporations, and the individuals who control them, to comply with the law and regulatory requirements. This finding will have implications for both the NZX and the ASX as well as for regulators and policy makers generally.

Experience has no shadow

This research is situated in the field of practice-led research investigating embodied perspectives on the performance of dance making. In the stock of choreographic literature, the celebrated ‘creativity’ label is associated predominantly with the choreographer and is discussed in terms of product rather than process (Lussier-Ley and Durand-Bush 2009; Hennessey 2003). A reliance on the mystery of inspiration or choreographic genius (Penty 1998) for the production of ‘great’ dance works does not acknowledge the complex and timely process common in the creation of dance (Mace and Ward 2002) nor provide a true representation of the creative contributors (Farrer 2014). The failure to attribute creative impulses and skills to dancers is reminiscent of a time when they were thought of only as instruments in the creative process not active participants and collaborators (Jowitt 2001a; H’Doubler 1957). This project asked the question, to what end do dancers contribute to choreography and how is this contribution valued and recognised? Dancers are integral to the creative process. The research found that the scope of a dancers’ creative involvement in the development of a new work is dependent on: the individual choreographers approach to creating movement; the relationship between dancer and choreographer, and dancer and fellow company members; and the dancers collaborative skills and interpretive skills, versatility, and initiative. Recognition and attribution of dancers’ creative input is dependent on a choreographer’s viewpoint, generosity, and prior creative experiences. The work was created as a part of the Ausdance Queensland 2010 Bell Tower III Choreographic Residency program. Applicants were peer reviewed and vetted by a panel of local and national dance producers. The creative work was presented at the Judith Wright Centre for Live Arts. The project was funded by Ausdance Queensland and Arts Queensland. https://es-es.facebook.com/events/106661226023025/?hc_location=stream

Does the price of oil interact with clean energy prices in the stock market?

In this paper, we analyze the relationships among oil prices, clean energy stock prices, and technology stock prices, endogenously controlling for structural changes in the market. To this end, we apply Markov-switching vector autoregressive models to the economic system consisting of oil prices, clean energy and technology stock prices, and interest rates. The results indicate that there was a structural change in late 2007, a period in which there was a significant increase in the price of oil. In contrast to the previous studies, we find a positive relationship between oil prices and clean energy prices after structural breaks. There also appears to be a similarity in terms of the market response to both clean energy stock prices and technology stock prices. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

Effect of Oil Price on Emissions Trading Market: VAR Analysis

In this study, we investigated the relationship of European Union carbon dioxide CO2 allowances EUAs prices and oil prices by employing a VAR analysis, Granger causality test and impulse response function. If oil price continues increasing, companies will decrease dependency on fossil fuels because of an increase in energy costs. Therefore, the price of EUAs may be affected by variations in oil prices if the greenhouse gases discharged by the consumption of alternative energy are less than that of fossil fuels. There are no previous studies that investigated these relationships. In this study, we analyzed eight types of EUAs EUA05 to EUA12 with a time series daily data set during 2005-2007 collected from a European Climate Exchange time series data set. Differentiations in these eight types were redemption period. We used the New York Mercantile Exchange light sweet crude price as an oil price. From our examination, we found that only the EUA06 and EUA07 types of EUAs Granger-cause oil prices and vice versa and other six types of EUAs do not Granger-cause oil price. These results imply that the earlier redemption period types of EUAs are more sensitive to oil price. In employing the impulse response function, the results showed that a shock to oil price has a slightly positive effect on all types of EUAs for a very short period. On the other hand, we found that a shock to price of EUA has a slightly negative effect on oil price following a positive effect in only EUA06 and EUA07 types. Therefore, these results imply that fluctuations in EUAs prices and oil prices have little effect on each other. Lastly, we did not consider the substitute energy prices in this study, so we plan to include the prices of coal and natural gas in future analyses.

Tests on price linkage between the U.S. and Japanese gold and silver futures markets

We tested the price linkage, the law of one price (LOP) condition, and the causality of the price linkage between the U.S. and Japanese gold and silver futures markets with consideration of structural breaks in the price series. The LOP condition did not hold for both the gold and silver markets when structural breaks were not considered but it sustained in some periods when it was tested for the break periods. We found from the causality test that the price linkage between the U.S. and Japanese gold and silver futures markets were led by the U.S. market.

Price linkages in the copper futures, primary, and scrap markets

This study investigates how markets for different levels of copper purity are interrelated by testing the long-run price linkage and causalities among the copper futures, primary, copper scrap, and brass scrap markets. It is expected that copper markets that deal with high purity levels, such as the futures, primary, and copper scrap markets, have a long-run relationship. However, brass scrap markets where copper with a lower purity is traded may not have a price linkage with other copper markets. The results reveal that a long-run relationship holds between the futures, primary, and copper scrap markets but the brass scrap market does not have a long-run relationship with the other markets. From the short-run and long-run causality tests, we determine that the futures market plays an important role in transmitting price information to other copper markets while such information flow is not found for the brass scrap market.

Energy price-induced and exogenous technological change : Assessing the economic and environmental outcomes

In this paper, we distinguish between factor/output substitution and shifts in the production technology frontier. Our model includes the by-products of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide emissions where the function requires the simultaneous expansion of good outputs and reductions in emissions. We estimate a directional output distance function for 80 countries over the period 1971-2000 to measure the exogenous and oil price-induced technological change. On average, we find substantial oil price-induced technological progress at the world level when long-term oil prices are rising, although the growth rate is more volatile in developed countries than in developing countries. The results also show that developed countries experience higher exogenous technological progress in comparison with developing countries, and the gap between the two has increased during the period of our study.

Asymmetric price range effects on vertical extensions

Vertical line extensions, both step-up and step-down, are common occurrence in consumer products. For example, Timex recently launched its luxury high-end Valentino line. On the other hand, many companies use downscale extensions to increase the overall sales volume. For instance, a number of luxury watch brands recently introduced watch collections with lower price points, like TAG Heur’s affordable watch the Aquaracer Calibre 5. Previous literature on vertical extensions has investigated how number of products in the line (Dacin and Smith 1994), the direction of the extension, brand concept (Kim, Lavack, and Smith 2001), and perceived risk (Lei, de Ruyter, and Wetzels 2008) affect extensions’ evaluation. Common to this literature is the use of models based on adaptation-level theory, which states that all relevant price information is integrated into a single prototype value and used in consumer judgments of price (Helson 1947; Mazumdar, Raj, and Sinha 2005). In the current research we argue that, while adaptation-level theory can be viewed as a useful simplification to understanding consumers’ evaluations, it misses out important contextual influences caused by a brand’s price range. Drawing on research on range-frequency theory (Mellers and Cooke 1994; Parducci 1965) we investigate the effects of price point distance and parent brand’s price range on evaluations of vertical extensions. Our reasoning leads to two important predictions that we test in a series of three experiments...

Experience has no shadow : Bell tower III

I created Experience Has No Shadow (2010) following a successful Ausdance Qld choreographic grant in 2010, which comprised of two solos and a video-dance at the Performance Space at the Judith Wright Centre. The aim of the Bell Tower III residency was to research and construct a Stage One Development that explored choreographic approaches to oral histories. Like many first generation Australians, oral histories are the way memories and experiences of distant homelands often offer the only connection to cultural origins. Consequently, I drew on auto-ethnographic references in the form of family stories – specifically those of my mother’s family - told and retold by my mother and her family as East German refugees during World War II. While working on the video, I explored a way to make a direct connection to the past stories by using a recording of my mother’s voice. She is re-telling a favourite story about Salamo the circus horse that was sold to my great grandfather as a work horse. Rather than representing the text literally, I attempted to capture the intensity of the storytelling which accompanied abstract footage of Avril Huddy filmed through perspex glass producing animal-like shapes that continually blur and morph in and out of focus. Strangely, by tying the story in with the filmed images a whole new story seems to emerge. Two distinct solos were created in collaboration with the performers, Expressions Dance Company’s Elise May and QUT’s Avril Huddy. These were performed at the Judith Wright Centre for Contemporary Arts, Performance Space, 1st April, 2010. The simplicity of its design became a key concept behind the work in terms of sets, spacing requirements, and costumes – almost minimalist. The choreographic process was conceived as highly collaborative, with commissioned music (and eventually lighting features) to act as equal partners in the performance.

Food price volatility and hunger alleviation-can Cannes work

Recent years have seen global food prices rise and become more volatile. Price surges in 2008 and 2011 held devastating consequences for hundreds of millions of people and negatively impacted many more. Today one billion people are hungry. The issue is a high priority for many international agencies and national governments. At the Cannes Summit in November 2011, the G20 leaders agreed to implement five objectives aiming to mitigate food price volatility and protect vulnerable persons. To succeed, the global community must now translate these high level policy objectives into practical actions. In this paper, we describe challenges and unresolved dilemmas before the global community in implementing these five objectives. The paper describes recent food price volatility trends and an evaluation of possible causes. Special attention is given to climate change and water scarcity, which have the potential to impact food prices to a much greater extent in coming decades. We conclude the world needs an improved knowledge base and new analytical capabilities, developed in parallel with the implementation of practical policy actions, to manage food price volatility and reduce hunger and malnutrition. This requires major innovations and paradigm shifts by the global community.

Alliances in the shadow of conflict

Victorious alliances often fight about the spoils of war. This article presents an experiment on the determinants of whether alliances break up and fight internally after having defeated a joint enemy. First, if peaceful sharing yields an asymmetric rent distribution, this increases the likelihood of fighting. In turn, anticipation of the higher likelihood of internal fight reduces the alliance’s ability to succeed against the outside enemy. Second, the option to make nonbinding nonaggression declarations between alliance members does not make peaceful settlement within the alliance more likely. Third, higher differences in the alliance players’ contributions to alliance effort lead to more internal conflict and more intense fighting.

Real-time price based home energy management scheduler

With the recent development of advanced metering infrastructure, real-time pricing (RTP) scheme is anticipated to be introduced in future retail electricity market. This paper proposes an algorithm for a home energy management scheduler (HEMS) to reduce the cost of energy consumption using RTP. The proposed algorithm works in three subsequent phases namely real-time monitoring (RTM), stochastic scheduling (STS) and real-time control (RTC). In RTM phase, characteristics of available controllable appliances are monitored in real-time and stored in HEMS. In STS phase, HEMS computes an optimal policy using stochastic dynamic programming (SDP) to select a set of appliances to be controlled with an objective of the total cost of energy consumption in a house. Finally, in RTC phase, HEMS initiates the control of the selected appliances. The proposed HEMS is unique as it intrinsically considers uncertainties in RTP and power consumption pattern of various appliances. In RTM phase, appliances are categorized according to their characteristics to ease the control process, thereby minimizing the number of control commands issued by HEMS. Simulation results validate the proposed method for HEMS.