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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the usefulness of the yield spread for forecasting growth in the Australian economy since 1969. Design/methodology/approach – This paper applies time series analysis to evaluate the in-sample and out-of-sample forecasting power of the spread-growth nexus in Australia for the period spanning from 1969 to 2014. Findings – This paper concludes that the spread serves as a useful predictor of growth in output, private dwellings, private fixed capital formation, and inventories in Australia, both in-sample and out-of-sample. Its predictive content is not sensitive to the inclusion of monetary policy variables or the switch to the inflation-targeting regime by the Reserve Bank of Australia in the early 1990s. Originality/value – This paper provides significant evidence to policy makers and market participants on the usefulness of the spread in forecasting output growth for up to eight quarters ahead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - In the wake of public service liberalisation in many OECD countries, economic interventions into the purpose and implementation of social policies have gained a lot of interest in recent years. The prime aim of this paper is to describe the nature of these interventions. The paper examines the reasons for pursuing elusive efficiency objectives in the conduct of public policy, rationales for purchaser-provider splits, evaluation of cost-quality relationships, service costing and pricing, and the influence of "external" economic variables. Design/methodology/approach - The paper breaks the analysis of public policy down to three layers of economic interventions: macroeconomics (allocative efficiency, intervention rationales and macroeconomic environment), mesoeconomics (economics of delivery in "social industries") and microeconomics (agent behaviour, contracting, pricing and evaluation). Each level of economic intervention is illustrated with examples, mainly taken from Australian public policy and mainstream social economic research. Findings - Some of the most critical questions in policy implementation (outsourcing, pricing, contracting and agency problems) can be traced back to economic reforms. Experiments with new modes of service delivery are driven by a changing economic context, yet the efficiency gains from these innovative approaches may come at the expense of service quality. Practical implications - Changing macro-, meso- and microeconomic variables profoundly alter the parameters of service delivery. Designers and managers of service delivery systems need to be aware of - and skilled in - the practical application of economic principles, concepts and methods. Originality/value - Except for the health sector, there is a lack of consistent research on the intecrelationships between the standard economics toolkit and the delivery of public services. Yet the two are profoundly intertwined. The paper helps distinguish these relationships by putting together elements of conceptual analysis and fieldwork. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the findings of a research conducted on advancing previous research works which have developed a means to predict adaptive reuse potential (ARP). Under the research, comparison of ARP between urban and non-urban settings drawn from case studies in both Hong Kong, China and Australia was done. The research reveals that the 12 urban cases in Hong Kong have a lower ARP score on average than the 12 non-urban cases in Australia, yet the maximum ARP score possible is higher. It concludes that adaptive reuse intervention in Hong Kong is too late and valuable opportunity for economic, social, and environmental gain is delayed.

Examines the reasons why extreme approaches to policy making are inferior from the socio-economic point of view in Australia. Role of economic policies in assisting the market to operate more efficiently; Achievement of non-market oriented social-justice objectives through re-distribution measures; Complementarity of market and state intervention.

The article focuses on the third Asian Pacific Interdisciplinary Research in Accounting to be held on July 15-17, 2001 in Adelaide, Australia. The conference is being held in association with the "Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal." There will be strong interdisciplinary program of research papers and forums addressing the relationships between accounting, auditing and accountability and their social, institutional, economic and political environment. The address of Internet Web site for further detail is also given.