The harm chain : a public policy development and stakeholder perspective

This paper introduces the concept of a ‘harm chain’ as a mechanism to further broaden the way in which firms and public policy makers consider potential negative outcomes from marketing activities. The purpose of conceptualizing a ‘harm chain’ is to examine specifically the creation of harm within networks of marketing exchanges that might occur throughout preproduction, production, consumption and post-consumption activities. The authors suggest that addressing issues where harm occurs allows both firms and policy makers to identify whether exchanges bring about harm, how relevant parties can address the core cause of harm, as well as how those who are harmed can be protected.

Urban growth centres on the periphery : ad hoc policy vision and research neglect

The focus of this paper is peripheral urban growth centres on the edges of capital cities in Australia and the challenges they face as dormitory suburbs attempting to establish their own local business development. These challenges create dilemmas as infrastructure and climate change place pressure on long commuting times, while developing strong locally based communities is limited by many resource and demand constraints. The main research question is to examine how these challenges are being addressed in both public policy and academic research. Two propositions emerge from this analysis. The first is that, despite clear recognition of these challenges by public policy makers, there is a lack of coherent policy vision in addressing the dilemmas that are facing these urban growth centres. The second is that, despite all the concerns and lack of policy vision, there is a dearth of useful academic research in Australia to understand the dilemmas and provide guidance for appropriate policy options. In the context of ad hoc policy and academic neglect; Casey, Melton and Wyndham are the three major urban peripheral local government areas in Victoria that are profiled in this paper. They serve as examples in examining incoherence of policy and then analysing the elements that are needed for effective and strong peripheral growth centres that could propel these centres towards efficient and equitable liveable communities. A broad composite model of regional economic development is used to examine the attendant problems in these urban centres and the various viable policy options for addressing these problems. In the process, this paper aims to provide a basis for further rigorous academic investigation of peripheral urban growth centres in Australia and, arising from this, more coherent policies for the economic development of such centres.

Environmental marketing claims : consumer interpretation and policy implications

Environmental claims communicate the concept of green brands. The purpose of this paper is to examine if environmental claims yield satisfactory results. Secondly, what policy measures would best encourage the adoption of environmental claims by businesses? Finally, how should businesses address practical and theoretical implications?The results suggests that in order to avoid misleading consumers, policy makers need to evaluate the public’s understanding of the meaning of claims, disallow the use of nonstandard claims by businesses, establish an education program and mandate their usage. There is also an indication that the usage of recognisable third party environmental labelling may be a more reliable.

Quality of life of Australian family carers : implications for research, policy and practice

Abstract As part of an international,multicentered project, the burden of care, health, and subjective well-being experienced by select Australian family carers supporting a relative with disability at home were investigated. Some 448 family carers residing in New South Wales and Tasmania completed a battery of instruments, including a self-report demographic survey, the Family Caregiver Burden Inventory, the General Health Questionnaire, and the Personal Wellbeing Index. Respondents were predominantly females (mean
age = 48 years), married, and supporting a son or daughter with an intellectual disability (mean age = 18 years). Although caring for their family member was not perceived to be a burden, respondents reported notable limitations on their social networks and social activities. They reported higher levels of unemployment than would be expected for the general population and were over represented in lower income groups. They reported seriously low levels of mental health and personal well-being when compared with the general population. The findings revealed that this group of family carers were at high risk of social and economic disadvantage and at high risk of mental health challenges. Social policy makers and service providers should take these factors into account, both in the interests of promoting the health and well-being of the carers and considering the long-term needs of family members with disability who rely on family carers for daily support when designing services.

Folate fortification : a case study of public health policy-making

This thesis investigates the use of scientific evidence in the process of making public health policy. A case study located within a food regulation setting is used. The aim is to test theory against this case study. The outcome is a theoretical understanding of the use of scientific evidence in the policy-making process in a food regulation setting. Food regulation can influence food composition and food labelling and thereby affect the population's dietary intake. Frequently there are contested values, beliefs, ideologies and interests among stakeholders regarding the use of food regulation as a policy instrument to effect public health outcomes. The protection of public health and safety, taking into account evidence based practice, is generally employed by food regulators as the priority objective during the policy-making process to adjudicate among the competing expectations of stakeholders. However, this policy objective has not been clearly defined and is vulnerable to interpretation and application. The process by which folate fortification policy was made in Australia, in response to epidemiological evidence of a relationship between folate intake during the periconceptional period and reduced risk of neural tube defects, was analysed as a case study of the policy-making process. The folate fortification policy created a precedent for both food fortification and subsequently health claims policy in Australia. A social constructivist method was used to analyse the case study. The method involved deconstructing the food regulatory system into three levels; decision-making process; procedural; and political environment. Data aligned with each level of analysis was collected from 22 key informant interviews, documentary sources, field notes and surveys of both a random sample of the Australian population's knowledge of folate and use of folic acid-containing supplements (n = 5422), and the implementation of folate fortified food products into stores (n = 60). The insights that emerged from each of the three levels of analysis were assessed iteratively to identify a pattern of interrelationships associated with the policy-making process within the food regulatory system. The identified pattern was interpreted against existing theory to gain a theoretical understanding of the public health policy-making process in this political setting. The central argument of this thesis extends Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith's Advocacy Coalition Framework theory to a food regulation setting. The argument is that within the contemporary political climates of neoliberalism and globalisation, a coalition between corporate interests and the values of scientists with a positivist-reductionist approach to public health research is privileged so as to invoke certain scientific evidence to, in turn, legitimise food regulation policy decisions. The theory will help to inform policy-makers about how and why the public health policy objective in a food regulation setting is interpreted and applied. This will contribute to improving policy practice intended to effect public health outcomes. It is concluded that irrespective of the quantity and quality of the scientific evidence that is being made available, scientific evidence cannot be assumed to speak for itself Policy-making is an inherently political and value-laden process and the potential for politically motivated interpretation and application of otherwise value-neutral scientific evidence can undermine the investment in its generation. From this perspective, evidence based practice, far from liberating policy-making from political influence, can itself become part of the problem rather than the solution. Nevertheless, rational evidence based practice is an ideal to strive for and a series of recommendations is proposed to help make the use of evidence in current food regulation policy processes more transparent and democratic.

Separate spheres and public policy : the role of women in the development of children's services in Victorian local government, 1840-1992

The thesis is an explanation of the development of pre-school children's services (infant welfare, kindergartens and child care) at local government level in Victoria. The critical framework of analysis focuses on three dimensions of public policy: 1) the socio-historical environment; 2) the political processes involved in the development of the specific children's service; and 3) the major individuals and groups that exerted pressure for children's service, The argument is threefold. Firstly it is argued that the political environment of children's services has been dominated by the practice of separate spheres of public and private, in which the care of children is primarily the role of women. Secondly, it is argued that the political processes surrounding the development of local children's services have involved all levels of government in what is termed a local state. Thirdly, it is argued that the development of these children's services in local government has resulted mainly from the work of women both individually and collectively. Since the three services of infant welfare, kindergartens and child care all became a normal function of children's services at different times, the circumstances that surrounded each development exhibited different aspects of the three major arguments. The periodisation is broken into four phases: 1) the establishment of local government with no children's services in the nineteenth century; 2) the establishment of infant welfare services in local government in the early part of the twentieth century; 3) the incorporation of kindergartens into local government after the second world war; and 4) the incorporation of child care into local government in the 1970s and 1980s. The thesis concludes by arguing that the existence of children's services in local government in Victoria is testimony to the remarkable work of those women who have pursued the issue both individually and collectively. It has been the identification of children's services as a women's issue in Australian politics that has enabled women's groups at different times to influence the policy makers in diverse ways. However, while the establishment of children's services as a legitimate political concern brings the matter onto the public agenda, the separate spheres still remains a contested issue in the public policies of children's services.

The impact of ownership structure on corporate debt policy : two stage least square simultaneous model approach for post crisis period : evidence from Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange

Ownership concentration as a governance mechanism has received considerable attention among academician, practitioners as well as policy makers because large-block shareholders are increasingly active in their demands that corporations adopt effective governance mechanisms to control managerial decisions, which include corporate debt policy. Earlier study on the agency model of the firm widely recognizes that the managerial ownership and external debt play an important role in mitigating agency conflicts and enhancing firm value. They also found that increase in the external monitors, for example the institutional investors, can actually play a useful role in limiting agency problems in the firm. This paper, using 100 Composite Index companies from Brusa Malaysia between 1998 to 2002 explores the impact of institutional holdings on managerial ownership and debt policy in an integrated framework by using a simultaneous equations estimation procedure (2SLS). The findings show that there is a significant impact of institutional ownership which serves effective control mechanism on managerial ownership and corporate debt policy as hypothesized. Findings of such evidence suggest that institutional holding thus have played an important role in managers' strategic management decision and reduce agency conflict. In addition, corporate debt policy too is governed by managerial ownership and exhibited a negative relation.

Entrepreneurship : industry policy priorities and entrepreneurial education in Australia

Four fields of national policy - general economic policy, industry policy, education policy and specific research and development policy - are strongly interrelated. Unfortunately, in Australia, policy makers in the four fields have not recognized that the discipline of Entrepreneurship - with its emphasis on managing the innovation process - holds the key to effective co-ordination between the four vital policy areas. The paper argues that innovation strategy, not cost reduction or research expenditure, is the key to developing successful, export-oriented products and world competitiveness. Viable innovation strategy depends on the relationship between government, capital availability, development capital and industrial developers. In turn, this relationship requires a cadre of entrepreneurial business managers educated not in the 'traditional' MBA mainstream but in the discipline of Entrepreneurship, specifically focused on learning the practical skills involved in venture evaluation and management of the innovation process. The paper concludes by describing the philosophy and performance of Swinburne University of Technology's School of Innovation and Enterprise, a school at the forefront of entrepreneurial education in Australia and thus a school with important implications for the nation's industry policy priorities.

Trade and industrial policy in developing countries : what scope for interfaces between agent-based models and computable-general equilibrium models

How best to assess trade and industrial policy in developing countries is a controversial question that unlocks a host of modelling complexities. Large computable general-equilibrium (CGE) models dominate many economic policy debates, but recent developments in the field have demonstrated that it is by no means clear that they give reliable results to questions of how trade reforms affect the poor. Over the last decade or so, a new approach to modelling complex systems has emerged using agent-based models (ABMs). This paper explores the question of whether ABMs are useful for economic policy-makers seeking to quantitatively model the effects of trade and industrial policies and whether constructive interfaces could be developed between CGE models and ABMs. The paper argues that in developing economic policy, ABMs can and should be used in conjunction with CGE models and that there is much to be gained from a greater understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of different modelling approaches, and what domains are most appropriate for their use. It concludes with some reflections on the reasons for the success of CGE approaches and ways in which ABMs could be made more widely understood and used among economists.

Investigating housing supply and monetary policy under global economic turbulence

This research has contributed to literature by identifying the impacts of monetary policy and global economic turbulence on the supply side of the housing sector under a vector error correction model. The research outcomes provided policy makers with an insight to change Australia's housing shortage and declining housing affordability.

A study of older Australians’ volunteering and quality of life : empirical evidence and policy implications

Older Australians are confronted by dramatic changes in their physical, social, financial, and psychological well-being. There are social costs to these changes related to their productivity and increased costs associated with caring for older Australians. Greater community engagement through voluntary work practice may minimize these costs, as well as positively influence volunteers' subjective quality of life (QOL). This study investigates the motivations for older Australians to engage in formal voluntary work. It seeks to identify whether the motivational factors to volunteer are associated with individuals' subjective QOL. The results indicate a positive relationship between older people's motivations to volunteer and their subjective QOL. This association is strengthened by respondents' community orientation, positive perception of voluntary work, positive personal attitudes toward volunteering, and their self-esteem. The role of policy makers in motivating larger participation by the older groups is discussed.

Changing the future of obesity : science, policy, and action

The global obesity epidemic has been escalating for four decades, yet sustained prevention efforts have barely begun. An emerging science that uses quantitative models has provided key insights into the dynamics of this epidemic, and enabled researchers to combine evidence and to calculate the effect of behaviours, interventions, and policies at several levels—from individual to population. Forecasts suggest that high rates of obesity will affect future population health and economics. Energy gap models have quantified the association of changes in energy intake and expenditure with weight change, and have documented the effect of higher intake on obesity prevalence. Empirical evidence that shows interventions are effective is limited but expanding. We identify several cost-effective policies that governments should prioritise for implementation. Systems science provides a framework for organising the complexity of forces driving the obesity epidemic and has important implications for policy makers. Many parties (such as governments, international organisations, the private sector, and civil society) need to contribute complementary actions in a coordinated approach. Priority actions include policies to improve the food and built environments, cross-cutting actions (such as leadership, healthy public policies, and monitoring), and much greater funding for prevention programmes. Increased investment in population obesity monitoring would improve the accuracy of forecasts and evaluations. The integration of actions within existing systems into both health and non-health sectors (trade, agriculture, transport, urban planning, and development) can greatly increase the influence and sustainability of policies. We call for a sustained worldwide effort to monitor, prevent, and control obesity.

Getting research into policy : lots of ideas but how do we make it happen? Insights from the policy experience

Evidence and health policy discussions to date have largely focused on the relationship between those generating research evidence and policy decision-makers and how improving this relationship will increase research use in policy development. All too often policy makers are perceived as the problem, not understanding or seeing the importance of research evidence. Policy makers do have a responsibility to source and use available evidence, as do researchers to the sharp and meaningful production and syntheses of policy relevant research evidence. This takes more than improved communication mechanisms between individual researcher and policy makers. Evidence-informed policy making is a science in its own right requiring the development and application of methods that conceptualise, synthesise and exchange research evidence. Policy organisations need to develop as receptor sites for research and its application to day-to-day decision-making, this is a significant program of work if it is to be done well and affect the evidence culture of organisations.

Investigating the housing market fluctuation under an expansionary monetary policy in Australia

This research empirically investigates the impact of monetary policy on the housing market in Australia from 1996 to 2009. Three primary variables associated with the housing sector and monetary policy, including interest rates, money supply and house prices, are estimated by a structural vector autoregression (VAR) model. Depending upon the analysis using the impulse response function, it can be identified that monetary policy significantly affects the housing market in Australia by the adjustments in interest rates and money supply. The empirical results from this study may be useful for policy makers to enact appropriate policies in relation to the infrastructure planning.

Evidence-informed health policy - the crucial role of advocacy

Health policy makers and clinicians often face similar decision-making challenges. The issues are turbulent, characterised by high risk and complexity, often involve value conflicts and occur in settings of rapid change. Policy makers' decisions are under increasing scrutiny for their use of evidence, with many health policies reflecting political influence rather than rigorous analysis. The evidence-based policy movement offers a range of accounts for this. We argue that advocacy in three critical areas helps explain when evidence is used in the policy making process and then contrast the impacts of advocacy for evidence use in two nutrition policy cases.