Frank Neri

RESEARCH PRODUCTIVITY OF AUSTRALIAN ACADEMIC ECONOMISTS: HUMAN-CAPITAL AND FIXED EFFECTS*

This study investigates why some economics departments in Australian universities are more research productive than others. The hypothesis is simple: research productivity depends upon the human capital of department members and the department-specific conditions under which they work. A Tobit model is used to estimate the magnitude of the two effects. Both are found to be important. Our results help explain why a small number of departments consistently outperform the others in studies that rank Australian economics departments according to research output.

MACROECONOMIC ASPECTS OF SUBSTANCE ABUSE: DIFFUSION, PRODUCTIVITY AND OPTIMAL CONTROL

This paper deals dynamically with macroeconomic aspects of widespread substance abuse with a reference to illicit drugs as an example. Substance-abuse impedes the productivity of the labour force and subsequently economic growth. The labour force is divided into non-using and therefore fully productive workers, a number of whom are employed by the government in drug-control activities, and drug users who are only partially productive. An efficient management of the nations portfolio of workers is taken to be the trajectory of drug-control that maximises the present value of the stream of disposable national incomes.

The Impact of Lecture Attendance on Academic Performance in a Large First Year Economics Course

In this study we investigate whether class attendance is positively associated with academic performance for a large sample of first year students studying macroeconomics in a regional Australian university. Our findings, based on OLS and Logit models, confirm those of many others in that lecture attendance does contribute to academic performance. Other findings are that prior economics training in high school and a measure of ability or intelligence are both positively and significantly related to academic performance. Males do better than females on multiple choice sections but not on written answer sections of the final exam. Non-minority students do better in the multiple choice section, but not in the written answer section, than minority students. Finally, there is some evidence that longer travel times to and from campus also reduce academic performance.