Kathy Tannous

Home Fire Safety Checks in New South Wales: an economic evaluation of the pilot program

Traumatic events such as fire can result in fatality, injury, and loss of property; even a minor fire can interrupt the normal flow of people’s lives. During the years 2009–2013, urban and regional New South Wales (NSW) experienced an annual average of 4329 residential structural fires with 593 injuries and 22 fatalities at an annual cost of

Ownership Structure and Capital Structure: A Study of Vietnamese Listed Firms

656 million dollars. In 2014, Fire and Rescue NSW piloted a program called Home Fire Safety Checks (HFSC), aimed at high-risk households. In total, 228 homes in 8 suburbs received safety checks, including having smoke alarms installed, having batteries changed in smoke alarms, and being provided with fire blankets and fire safety information. The pilot study design enabled detailed economic evaluation of the program, including both development costs and ongoing costs for a full roll-out. Analysis of the cost of fire within NSW, combined with measurements of the success of similar programs internationally, demonstrates the program’s cost effectiveness. Savings per dollar spent exceed

Labour Cost in Family Day Care in Australia

12 if the program includes 1% of high-risk homes and obtains a 0.75% reduction in number of fires. These results demonstrate that a full roll-out of the HFSC program warrants ongoing funding. External factors affecting program delivery include community acceptance and willingness to participate in the program, particularly very high-risk individuals, and ongoing behavioral change. In addition, HFSC faces the same ongoing funding challenges other preventative community programs face in a period of tightening state budgets.

Mathematics of Finance

This paper examines the relationships between ownership structure and capital structure for non-financial listed firms in Vietnam during the period 2007–2012. Although different approaches are applied in this research, all results from those models are consistent. The study finds that while foreign ownership has a negative impact on leverage, state ownership has a positive influence. Managerial ownership has a positive relation with debt level, while the effect of large ownership on debt level is not conclusive.

Evaluation of Vulnerable Communities Resilience Project For Fire & Rescue NSW: Final Report

n Australia, there are currently around 10,500 workers providing formal funded child care in either their homes or the homes of the children. They provide care for approximately 95,000 children countrywide and span across the many geographical regions o f the country. They provide care in both standard and non-standard hours. The purpose of this study is to determine the economic, social and institutional factors that determine the costs of providing family day care services (FDC) across geographical areas in Australia. The study was based on three sets of data: a web-based financial survey designed to elicit basic financial and activity data for the agencies. The survey was sent in mid 2008 to all national providers obtaining useable response rate of45%. The second data set was qualitative data obtained from in-depth interviews with 10% o f all FDC agencies. The last data source was administrative data from the Australias Department of Employment, Education and Workplace Relations. Econometric analysis of expenditure by FDC agencies identified that expenses is largely determined by the number of full time equivalent places with organisational structure explaining 84% of the variation. Staff costs inclusive of on-cost account for just over 70 per cent o fall costs. Qualitative data identified recruitment of new careers, quality assurance and accreditation, training and supporting careers, with high needs children as the main cost drivers. The paper concludes by providing evidence of the important role that this sector plays in Australian childcare industry and examples o f innovative steps being undertaken by providers to ensure continued financial viability.