Malcolm Abbott

Technical and scale efficiency of vocational education and training institutions: the case of the New Zealand polytechnics

In recent years vocational education and training has been recognised as having a crucial impact on worker productivity, enterprise performance and the overall performance of the New Zealand economy. The importance of vocational education and training gives rise to the issue of the efficient operation of educational institutions. In this paper Data Envelopment Analysis is used to derive estimates of technical and scale efficiency. Comparisons are also made with Victorian TAFE institutes. The results indicate that there is scope to improve efficiency and to take advantage of economies of size in the sector.

A Data Envelopment Analysis of the Efficiency of Victorian TAFE Institutes

In recent years the provision of vocational education and training has been recognised as having a vital role to play in improving Australias economic performance and in alleviating the hardship of the long term unemployed. The importance of education and training gives rise to the issue of operating educational institutions with a high level of efficiency. In this article, Data Envelopment Analysis is used to derive estimates of the technical and scale efficiency of Victorian Technical and Further Education Institutes in 1995. The results reveal substantial dispersion in technical and scale efficiencies. Regression analysis is used to identify variables which are associated with technical inefficiency.

Banking regulation and market forces in Australia

The purpose of this paper is to use Kanes notion of the regulatory dialectic to analyse the changing nature of bank regulation in Australia. Throughout Australias economic history, economic regulation of the Australian banking system has not been static but has responded to changes in technology, market forces, and the behaviour of regulated institutions. From this analysis, some inferences about general banking principles and policy can be made.

Promoting Wool Internationally: The Formation of the International Wool Secretariat

Over the past 60 years the International Wool Secretariat has conducted scientific research into aspects of the wool industry, and promotional campaigns designed to boost demand for wool. The Secretariat dates its origins back to the 1930s, a time when a number of cooperative agricultural marketing programs were first initiated. In this paper the origins of the Secretariat are investigated in order to determine the precise reasons why it was founded and why it took the form that it did.

Amalgamations and the Changing Costs of Victorian Colleges of Advanced Education during the 1970s and 1980s

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to analyse the change in average costs per student and student/staff ratios of a selection of Victorian Colleges of Advanced Education that were involved in the 1981/82 round of amalgamations. The results are compared to the average costs of some colleges that were not involved in amalgamations at this time in order to determine if there is any evidence from this limited data that the mergers achieved economies of size and scope.

The life and death of the Australian permanent building societies

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries permanent building societies have been important providers of housing finance in Australia. Despite their long history Australian building societies have been disappearing at a steady rate since the early 1980s as they have converted into banks or become involved in mergers. The purpose of this paper is to give a background account of the history of Australian building societies and put forward explanations for their past popularity and more recent disappearance from Australian housing finance markets.

Total factor productivity and efficiency in Australian colleges of advanced education

The former colleges of advanced education were an important component of the higher education sector in Australia. Uses the Malmquist total factor productivity index to investigate the efficiency and productivity of Australian colleges of advanced education during the 1980s. The results from this analysis indicate that these colleges recorded modest growth in technical change and total factor productivity, but did not fare all that well in terms of growth in technical and scale efficiency during the 1980s. As a group, however, the former colleges of advanced education had attained high levels of technical and scale efficiency.

South African Wool Marketing

As in many countries, the marketing of agricultural products in South Africa is one characterised by a complex pattern of regulations and institutional intervention. Since the 1930s the marketing of South African wool has passed through a full range of alternative structures. Originally wool was marketed in South Africa through a free market system of private sales and auctions. During World War II and the years 1972-93 full acquisition schemes operated, and also buffer stock (surplus removal) schemes in the years 1946-51 and 1958-72. After the suspension of the single channel pool scheme in June 1993 the marketing of wool in South Africa reverted to a structure of auctions and private sales. In practice the marketing of wool has finally reverted to close to its original form, as did the South African Wool Board which gave up its marketing functions and today concentrates on the promotion of wool and conduct of scientific and economic research.

The Restructuring of Australian Railways: The Case of the Tasmanian Railways

In this paper, the restructuring of the Tasmanian railways is analysed over the period 1967 to 1997. The Tasmanian railways have gone through a considerable restructuring process over the past 30 years, culminating in 1997 when the system was privatized. Not only have productivity levels been increased greatly, but various organizational structures been experimented with.

The real structural imbalance and fiscal stance in Australia during the interwar years

By using the concept of the constant employment budget balance and changes in real public debt it is possible to determine the size of the public sectors real structural budget imbalances during the interwar period. In doing so the budget deficit of the public sector during the depression is shown to have been much larger than indicated by previous estimates of the nominal budget imbalance, and indicates that the fiscal stance of the government was expansionary during the worst year of the Great Depression rather than contractionary.