Laurence Lester

Corporate governance and environmental reporting: an Australian study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between environmental reporting and corporate governance attributes of companies in Australia.Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts a quantitative analysis approach. It examines the 2008 annual reports of the largest 100 Australian firms listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) to determine the amount of environmental reporting – these data are compared with various corporate governance measures.Findings – Analysis found a significant positive relationship between the extent of environmental reporting and the proportions of independent and female directors on a board. The analysis did not, however, support a negative relationship between the extent of environmental reporting and institutional investors and board size as has been previously predicted, rather, it showed a positive relationship.Originality/value – This paper offers insights to both regulators and company strategists. Regulators such as the Australian Stock E...

Are Casual and Contract Terms of Employment Hazardous for Mental Health in Australia

The risk that flexible forms of employment are harmful to the health of workers is a major public health issue for the many countries, including Australia, where such forms of employment are common or have been growing. Casual, contract and part-time employment in Australia rose rapidly in the decade to 1998 and remains high at 40% of employees in 2011. We investigate the impacts on mental health of employment on these terms and of unemployment. We use nine waves of panel survey data and dynamic random-effects panel data regression models to estimate the impact on self-rated mental health of unemployment, and of employment on a part-time, casual or contract basis, compared with permanent full-time employment. We control for demographic and socio-economic characteristics, occupation, disabilities status, negative life events and the level of social support. We find almost no evidence that flexible employment harms mental health. Unemployed men (but not women) have significantly and substantially lower mental health. But among the employed, only men who are on fixed-term contracts, most especially graduates, have lower mental health than those who are employed on full-time permanent terms. Women have significantly higher mental health if they are employed full time on casual terms.

Non‐Interest Income: Are Australian Banks Moving Away from their Traditional Businesses?

Changes in operating environments have led banks to lighten their reliance on conventional model of banking and create diversity. Whether such diversity in banking operations changed the risk- return profile of the industry and the traditional focus of financial intermediation are the empirical questions investigated. Further this study examined whether access to sophisticated financial instruments by the major banks has impacted the competitiveness and performance banking tiers. The results suggest that, overall, non-interest income and revenue diversifications reduced profitability and did not improve the overall default risk of banks and any further expansion into non-interest income activities would not benefit banks.

The Saving to Income Ratio: A Note

It has been suggested that, whilst in the late 1960s to early 1970s saving rates were quite high, since then there has been a gradual and persistent reduction in the saving to income ratio (S/Y) - thus indicating a substantial change in behaviour. This note considers the ratio of private saving to an adjusted measure of income (S/Y*) finding evidence to suggest that whilst the S/Y ratio is a nonstationary random walk, the ratio S/Y* is stationary (random fluctuations about its mean). This mean reverting ratio implies there has not been any long term alteration to behavior. The policy implication of this finding is straightforward: if it is desirable to increase private (household) saving government policy must be directed toward moving household saving to a higher plateau and not engineering a return to a so called previous higher level.