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Purpose This study aims to investigate the adoption and diffusion of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)-based sustainability reporting practices within the global financial services sector. Design/methodology/approach The approach draws on the sociological construct of social contagion theory (SCT) to explain the drivers of diffusion of GRI-based sustainability reporting. Based on a longitudinal study of GRI adoption over a period from 2000 to 2016, thematic content analysis of sustainability reports and media articles was used to refine information gathered that related to nature and spread of GRI-based sustainability practices within the global financial services sector. Findings This study finds that the early adopters of GRI-based sustainability reporting and the accompanying media attention influenced the institutional diffusion of GRI-based reporting in the financial services sector. This growth was isomorphic as companies copied best practice models to reduce uncertainty and maintain legitimacy. Originality/value This paper focuses on the institutional diffusion of sustainability reporting practices within the global financial sector. It explores the notion of social contagion as an institutional dynamic to understand the drivers for the adoption and diffusion of GRI-based sustainability reporting across national borders. In doing so, the study contributes to the accounting literature on diffusion of innovations in reporting practice, but also, more generally, to the field of diffusion of new ideas in organisations using the unique approach of SCT.

The question of what constitutes the discipline of business history has been the focus of ongoing debate for several decades. The output of business history researchers is diverse ranging from company histories to the application of theoretical frameworks used to interpret the many facets of business development. This article, in introducing this special edition of the Australian Economic History Review, provides an overview of the development of the business history discipline and the contribution it has made to understanding the operation of business enterprises and the markets in which they operate.

In Australia in 2018, a Royal Commission investigating misconduct within the financial services sector uncovered systemic problems associated with the provision of financial services. The Commissio...

When a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) decides to become a publicly listed entity, they are faced with a choice with regard to providing a dividend forecast in their prospectus. To date, there ...

The global expansion of British insurers in the nineteenth century has been a feature of insurance history that has highlighted the strategic nature of the multinational enterprise (MNE). The growth of the Australian colonies from the mid-nineteenth century attracted the interest of these overseas insurers. This article considers the challenges these firms faced and the way in which these trials were overcome. Effective networks were important in establishing a market presence in the Australian colonies. A combination of enterprise, luck, and resilience assisted in building these links. The experience of British insurers in the colonies sheds light on the processes of MNE expansion into markets beyond their range of tacit knowledge and expertise.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the accuracy of Australian Real Estate Investment Trust (A-REIT) initial public offering (IPO) dividend forecasts between 1994 and 2016. Design/methodology/approach This study compares the dividend forecasts of A-REIT IPOs for the first dividend forecast period in the prospectus, with the actual dividend declared for that forecast period. As well as simple descriptive summary measures, this study also employs an exact logistic regression approach to examine the factors that might influence the IPOs achieving or exceeding the dividend forecast. Findings The study identifies that the dividends declared, on average, were greater than the dividend forecast and that more than nine out of ten of the IPOs listed after 1999 achieved or exceeded their prospectus forecast. In addition the authors observe positive mean forecast errors, suggesting dividend forecasts in A-REIT IPOs, are cautiously biased. This is in contrast to the industrial company data reported in Brown et al. (2000) which suggest dividend forecasts are optimistically biased. The study also finds the A-REIT IPOs that did not forecast a dividend, generally did not pay a dividend. Practical implications The results will inform dividend seeking institutional and retail investors of the investment opportunities in A-REIT IPOs. Originality/value This paper adds to the discussion of the relative predictability of dividends of A-REIT IPOs compared to industrial company IPOs.

The internal struggles faced by insurers as they adjusted their organisational structures to cope with new competitive challenges that emerged in the 1980s provide insights into the organisational learning process. Progression was not smooth or linear. It included a degree of experimentation and introspection. A dynamic capabilities framework is used to analyse the ability of a large long‐established insurer to adapt to the emerging financial market environment. Internal change routines were not capable of achieving the degree of reorganisation needed. The disruption to business that followed contributed to poor performance outcomes throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.

In the latter part of the nineteenth century, the three largest life insurance companies had a presence in more than forty countries. In the 1880s they turned their attention to the Australian colonies, in which life insurance markets were expanding. The venture, however, was met with unexpected market resistance, and the expectations of the Big Three were never fully met. An eclectic paradigm provides an explanatory tool, which is applied to an investigation of the experiences of American companies. These companies were not able to realize the ownership and location, or internalize the advantages, needed to build a sustainable presence in the Australian life insurance market.

Executive Summary Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are a feature of modern economies. However, research on conventional bidding firms in M&As has shown, on average, shareholders are worse off in the long-run (Alexandridis, Mavrovitis, and Travlos, 2012). We examine the long-term post-merger performance of U.S. equity real estate investment trusts (REITs) to see whether this underperformance extends to the largest REIT sector in the world. In contrast to the earlier REIT data samples used by Campbell, Giambona, and Sirmans (2009), we find, prior to the macroeconomic event of the financial crisis, that existing shareholders of bidding firms earn significant and positive abnormal returns. This outcome supports the synergy motive for M&As in the REIT sector. Results from announcements occurring after the onset of the financial crisis show signs of negative and significant abnormal returns, suggesting these M&As were driven by the agency and/or hubris motive.

Purpose Policy issues associated with the regulation of the unlisted debenture market have been highlighted in recent times with the collapse of a number of regionally based mortgage companies. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the decline and demise of the unlisted debenture market between 2007-2013 with particular reference to the effectiveness of the regulatory regime in stabilising the industry and protecting investors’ interests. Design/methodology/approach A database was constructed which reflected the total population of unlisted mortgage companies in the financial sector. A snapshot approach was used to assess the extent to which these companies complied with regulatory provisions. Findings Findings suggest the regulatory process allowed these companies to continue operating despite not complying with the relevant Australian Securities and Investments Commission benchmarks. In the light of the current inquiry into the financial system, the research suggests that a re-evaluation of the regulatory approach is timely. Research limitations/implications This research is restricted to a study of one category of debenture issuers (issuers of mortgage finance). It is based on reports required by regulatory authorities. It does not provide an analysis of the motivations of investors in these companies. Practical/implications This research has implications for the implementation of regulatory change in respect to oversight of shadow banking activities. It suggested that a passive approach to regulation is not sufficient to ensure that the interests of investors are fully protected. Originality/value No prior research has systematically examined the unlisted mortgage and analysed the borrowing and lending activities of companies that have failed and those that have survived.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the underpricing of real estate investment trust (REIT) initial public offerings (IPOs) from January 2010 to June 2015, as the sector recovered from the global financial crisis.Design/methodology/approachThis study analyses the first day returns of US REIT IPOs in the post financial crisis period. The study then employs regression analysis to examine the factors that influence IPO underpricing.FindingsThe study observes that underpricing, on average, is not significantly different to zero. Furthermore, the REIT IPOs examined display underperformance in the longer term. In contrast to the earlier data samples of Chen and Lu (2006), the authors do not find that underwriting costs are a direct substitute for the indirect cost of underpricing, instead the authors find that higher underwriting costs are associated with higher underpricing. Also in contrast to the mainstream underpricing literature, the data suggest larger capital raisings require higher underpricing. The authors also find that newly listed REITs provided significant excess dividend returns over the post-listing period.Practical implicationsFor institutional and retail investors, the results will help to further inform investment opportunities in REIT IPOs.Originality/valueThis paper adds to the ongoing academic debate of the lack of underpricing in REIT IPOs relative to industrial companies. Research has shown periods of underpricing are often replaced with periods of overpricing suggesting that the pattern of behavior in REIT markets is substantially different.

The management of its people defines the way in which an organisation develops the capabilities to successfully compete in the market environment. Since the 1950s, approaches to staff management have evolved from traditional bureaucratic foundations to strategic planning exercises. This article uses a case study approach to investigate the way in which the process of organisational learning evolved in the development of personnel management practices. It suggests that although old and new practices were often overlaid on each other, ‘bridges’ developed which allowed the progressive development of new managerial processes.

During the late nineteenth century, sales of life insurance products in Australia increased at a rapid rate. An investigation of the way in which life insurance products were targeted to the consumers provides insights not only into the marketing approaches, but also the changing nature of the mutual organization. This article uses a “stages” approach to analyze the evolution of the marketing message. The experience of Australian mutual insurers suggests that marketing strategies, as with other types of organizational skills, evolve in response to both the prevailing business environment and the ability of the firm to acquire and implement new knowledge and ways of conducting business.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting in six large banks each from Japan, China, Australia and India over the period of 2005-2011. Design/methodology/approach – CSR and banks’ annual reports and websites were analysed using a comprehensive disclosure framework to evaluate the themes of ethical standards, extent of CSR reporting, environment, products, community, employees, supply chain management and benchmarking. Findings – Over the seven years, bank CSR disclosure improved in all four countries. Australian banks were found to have the best scores and Indian banks demonstrated maximum improvement. Despite the absence of legislative requirements or standards for CSR, this paper finds that CSR reporting continued to improve in quality and quantity in the region on a purely voluntary basis. Research limitations/implications – This study indicates that financial institutions have a commitment to CSR activities. The comparison between financial institutions in developed and developing economies suggests that the motivation for such activities is complex. A review of the studied banks suggests that strategic rather than economic drivers are an important influence. Practical implications – Asia-Pacific Governments need not mandate bank CSR reporting standards as the banks improved their CSR reporting consistently over the seven years despite the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). Originality/value – A disclosure framework index is used to assess the comprehensiveness of bank practice in relation to CSR reporting. This approach enables cross-sectional and cross-country comparisons over time and the ability to replicate and apply to other industries or sectors.

During the last few years, several startling mergers have affected the German housing market. This raises the question whether such a concentration process is rational from an economic point of view. A justification of this practice could be the realization of economies of scale, assuming that the average cost for housing companies will reduce perceptibly with the size of the firm. According to Mansley, Ambrose, Fuerst and Wang (2016), economies of scale also exist for European Real Estate Companies. However, they conjecture, that the benefits of increasing scale derive in particular from internal growth, not from M&A activities. Furthermore, they suggest, that the benefits of economies of scale are greater for small companies than for larger companies. We analyze, whether these general across sector findings can be verified in the special case of the German housing industry. Due to eminent data problems, we discuss the possibilities and limits of different methods of measuring economies of scale, such as the cost estimation-approach, the profitability-approach and the survivor-approach.

Since the 1990s financial sector regulation in Australia has treated credit unions and building societies the same as banks under the designated title of authorized depository institutions. This allows credit unions to choose between different organizational structures: cooperative; convert to customer-owned banks or to demutualize. This article utilizes semi-structured interviews to analyse the key motivations for organizational change. It examines a number of credit unions and their conversion experience to customer-owned banks. It finds that adaptation of the credit union model was necessary to change customer perceptions, ensure future growth in the customer base and assets, and facilitate access to capital raisings with the credit rating of a bank. Despite this change customer-owned banks retain the core principals of mutuality.

How did insurance markets in the settler economies of Australia and South Africa develop? This paper investigates the establishment of the local insurance industries in two settler economies in the wake of the absence of comparative studies in the emergence of insurance markets in the periphery. The paper compares conditions in these settler economies and notes the innovative role of local entrepreneurs. British insurance companies extended operations into the British colonies, but local interests emerged to challenge their dominance. Innovations in organisational form, product offerings and distribution channels afforded local entrepreneurs a competitive advantage in the life market. Collusion in the fire market restricted innovative practices and retained foreign control. This article explains the agency of local entrepreneurs in the emergence of insurance markets in two settler societies at the end of the nineteenth century. This historical development path has notable implications for the curr...

The restructuring of the financial landscape that has occurred in the last three decades, has led to a reassessment of co-operative models of organization. An outcome of this process has been the demutualization of mutual financial organizations. Using a case study approach this paper analyses the pressures on mutual structures encountered by Australian mutual life insurers. Such an approach provides a number of insights into the way in which firms adjust to changes in regulatory and competitive environments. It is concluded that a number of exogenous and endogenous forces combined to drive the process of organizational change. La decision de desmutualizar: una exploracion de los motores del cambio organizativo en el mercado de los seguros de vida en Australia La reestructuracion del panorama financiero que se viene produciendo en los ultimos decenios ha conducido a una reevaluacion de los modelos cooperativos. La desmutualizacion de las organizaciones financieras es uno de los resultados de este proceso. Basandose en el enfoque de los estudios del caso, el articulo analiza las presiones a las que se enfrentan las mutuas de seguros de vida australianas. Este enfoque proporciona mucha luz sobre la manera en que las empresas se adaptan a los cambios en entornos regulados y competitivos. Los autores concluyen que se da la confluencia de un cierto numero de fuerzas endogenas y exogenas para conducir el proceso de cambio organizativo. Die Entscheidung zu demutualisieren: Eine Untersuchung uber die Triebkrafte des organisatorischen Wandels auf dem australischen Lebensversicherungsmarkt Die Umstrukturierung der Finanzdienstleisterlandschaft, die in den letzten drei Jahrzehnten stattgefunden hat, fuhrte zu einer Neubewertung des genossenschaftlichen Organisationsmodells. Ein Ergebnis dieses Prozesses war die Demutualisierung von Organisationen auf Gegenseitigkeit im Bereich der Finanzdienstleistungen. Unter Verwendung eines Fallstudienansatzes werden in diesem Beitrag die auf mutuale Strukturen einwirkenden Druckkrafte analysiert, denen die australischen Lebensversicherer auf Gegenseitigkeit ausgesetzt sind. Ein solcher Ansatz gibt eine Reihe von Einblicken in die Art und Weise, in der die Unternehmen sich an Veranderungen des regulatorischen und wettbewerblichen Umfelds anpassen. Es wird der Schluss gezogen, dass sich eine Reihe exogener und endogener Krafte verbunden haben, um den Prozess des organisatorischen Wandels voranzutreiben. La decision de demutualiser: une exploration des moteurs de changement organisationnel au sein du marche de l'assurance vie en Australie La restructuration du paysage financier qui est apparue au cours des drois dernieres decennies a conduit a une reevaluation des modeles cooperatifs d'organisation. La demutualisation d'organisations mutuellistes financieres est un resultat de ce procesus. Se basant sur une approche d’etudes de cas, l'article analyse les pressions sur les structures mutuellistes rencontrees par les mutuelles d'assurance vie australiennes. Une telle approche fournit un nombre d’eclairages sur la facon dont les entreprises s'adaptent a des changements dans des environnements regules et competitifs. Les auteurs concluent qu'un nombre de forces endogenes et exogenes se combinent pour mener le processus de changement organisationnel.

Stakeholder participation is widely recognised as an integral part of coastal management. Involving stakeholders allows for a more reflexive consideration of ecological science outputs within a wider socio-economic and cultural context. However stakeholder participation remains problematic especially when the involvement is short term and limited under the ‘project state’ where the new governance regime uses the ‘project’ as a means of finding solutions to distinct and delimited policy problems. To overcome issues associated with securing stakeholder participation in the project state we argue for the development of a ‘participatory logic’. Using the example of the Estuary Entrance Management Support System (EEMSS) in Victoria, Australia we explore how embracing participatory logic can assist in identifying and overcoming the short termism and other difficulties associated with the project state. We begin with an outline of the project state and its relationship with participatory stakeholder engagement. We then develop the concept of participatory logic and explain its essentially political nature. Following this we describe the EEMSS project and explore its diffusion and scaling up in terms of its participatory logic. We conclude that the concept of participatory logic provides for a richer understanding of the way in which contested knowledge can inform coastal management.

Stakeholder involvement in the management of estuaries is a necessary element of good environmental governance. In Victoria, Australia, a key challenge for estuary managers is whether or not estuaries should be artificially opened since many river mouths close ‘naturally’ from time to time. Estuary closure resulting in raised estuarine water levels leads to economic and social impacts on local communities. In the past these effects have been addressed by artificial river mouth openings, often without reference to associated environmental impacts. This article discusses the development and features of an Estuary Entrance Management Support System and considers its performance against principles of effective environmental management. It concludes that, in bringing together technical information with stakeholder input through a structured process, such a system makes a useful contribution to improving estuary entrance management.

The globalization of financial markets over the past decade has focused the spotlight on the responsiveness of financial firms to international pressures. Insurance markets have traditionally relied on global networks not only to expand the insurers' sphere of influence but also to support domestic business. Until relatively recently, Australian insurance companies have not played a significant role in the development of international markets. However, in the last decade of the twentieth century Australian insurers ventured overseas on a scale without precedence. This article presents an historical perspective on the internationalization of the Australian life-insurance market with a view to understanding why these firms have been classified “late starters” in the internationalization stakes. In a broader capacity it provides insights into the impediments to overseas expansion and the forces encouraging or discouraging the development of cross border networks.

This paper considers the post-war development of asset management practices among Australian life insurers, which have historically been among the largest institutional investors in Australia. A complex process of adaptation and organisational restructuring allowed life insurers to transform from basic investors of policy-holders’ funds to large multifaceted institutional investors in just three decades. Three stages in the development of investment practices are identified. These phases trace the process of expanding existing knowledge bases; diversification; and the acquisition of new skills; consolidation and the integration of these skills into institutional structures; thus completing one cycle of organisational learning and setting the stage for the next.

Deposit insurance schemes were an important element in policy responses to the global financial crisis (GFC). There has been considerable debate about the nature and efficacy of such policy measures in alleviating the fallout from financial crises. The GFC highlighted problems associated with deposit insurance schemes including moral hazard, coverage limits, co-insurance, cross border issues and market distortions. Despite these shortcomings, deposit insurance schemes were able to ameliorate the financial panic experienced and reduce contagion. This paper evaluates the Australian and New Zealand experience with deposit insurance introduced in response to the GFC, and compares this to the OECD experience. It reflects on the performance of deposit insurance schemes considered against the attributes of good policy design, and evaluates the specific problems and strengths encountered during the GFC.

Demutualisation became a global trend amongst financial sector firms in the last two decades of the twentieth century. Changes to the organisational foundations of mutual firms represented a shift in operational cultures and have often been viewed as an end point or demise of the co-operative business model. It is the intention of this article to investigate the extent to which this was the case within a major mutual institution, the Australian Mutual Provident, Australia's oldest and largest mutual insurer. The article's key argument is that the concept of mutuality is organic, and that within this organisation it evolved as the structure of the firm became more sophisticated as it developed from a supplier of life insurance products into a sophisticated financial services provider, which ultimately generated internal pressures to demutualise.

The changing nature of higher education and the structure of graduate labour markets have increased emphasis on employability and graduate outcomes. Universities have responded to this changed environment by embedding generic skills in the curriculum. This paper examines the generic skills that students perceived they acquired in their accounting studies in preparation for graduate employment. Given the changed background profiles of students studying accounting degree in Australia, and the employment difficulties they encounter on graduation, the study specifically addresses the perceptions of students from diverse cultural backgrounds. The findings demonstrate that, overall, students believed that their accounting course assisted in developing generic skills, while differences in perceptions were identified between different cultural cohorts. The research highlights the need to develop educational practices which embed generic skills development in the curriculum in a way that maximises the opportunities for culturally-diverse student cohorts to enhance their employment outcomes on graduation.

This paper investigates the performance after privatization of institutions in Australian banking and insurance. Privatization was anticipated to improve firm performance in Australia and elsewhere, yet findings are mixed. A comparative institutional approach is taken to analyzing firm performance in the longer term which allows for further structural change. A CAMEL analysis of performance before and after privatization events is undertaken for four privatized institutions, two each from banking and insurance sectors. These are matched with private peer institutions. Privatized institutions are found to perform quite similarly to private peer institutions both before and after privatization.

Since the 1980s a wave of demutualizations has occurred across the financial services sector from stock exchanges to building societies, savings and loans associations and insurers. In both Australia and South Africa, this has had a marked effect on the life insurance markets that had been dominated by mutual life insurers for 150 years. This article adopts a case study approach to analyse the key drivers of organizational change. It examines the experiences of the Australian Mutual Provident (Australia's oldest and largest life insurance mutual) and Sanlam (the second-largest mutual life office in South Africa) as they proceeded down the path to demutualization. Firm-specific, market-specific and country-specific forces are identified as placing pressure on existing mutual structures.

The expansion of private forestry and the partnership between government and private sector timber growers and processors highlights the issues associated with a functionally based rather than a place based approaches to changing patterns of land use in rural areas. Rural development through blue gum forestry was promoted as a means of revitalising rural communities, providing both economic and social gains to regional areas. The purpose of this study is to examine the economic consequences of policies designed to promote plantation forestry at a local level. It concludes that while plantation forestry may bring benefits to the national economy, these benefits may not be apparent at a local level especially if the industry operates in competition with a viable alternative.

In the 1980s and 1990s the demutualization of building societies, life insurers and general insurers was a re-occurring theme in many countries. In Australia, the demutualisation of major life insurers was linked to the deregulation of the financial sector. The experience of Australian life insurers represents an interesting case study on the impact of regulatory transition. The lifting of restrictions changed the institutional environment within which life insurers operated. In doing so it precipitated changes in the strategies and organizational structures of these financial intermediaries and the disappearance of the industry’s long established mutual tradition.

Mergers and acquisitions within the Australian‐real estate investment trusts (A‐REITs) sector have become a noticeable trend in the last decade. Utilising event study methodology, 36 successful A‐REIT mergers and acquisitions between January 1995 and December 2008 were examined. Both target and bidding shareholders experience positive excess returns of 4.27% and 0.54% respectively over the 41 day event window [−20, +20]. Analysis indicates that the cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) for bidding firms are considerably greater than previous research suggests. This study finds higher bidder CARs when scrip or a combination of scrip and cash is used to finance the acquisition. We also find that the relative size or the size of the acquirer have a positive and significant impact on the excess returns of bidding A‐REITs. This suggests that the synergistic benefits from the acquisition are a result of economies of scale and increased market power. There is also some evidence that the relative size and method of ...

This paper examines the influences on the potential supply of accounting graduates in Australia with reference to the personal and social influences on the decision to major in accounting using the Theory of Reasoned Action and focusing on differences between local and international students. Responses from 437 accounting majors' found that personal attitudes linked to 'intrinsic interest' and 'extrinsic interest' was influential in choice of major. 'Reference groups' were an important social influence for international students. The findings have implications for government policy and the accounting profession in terms of attracting students and particularly international students, who are sufficiently interested in accounting as a career choice to address the skill shortage in Australia.

In 1954 the Australian Mutual Provident Society (AMP) undertook a major organisational restructure. This reform provided the foundation upon which the Society was able to develop into a diversified financial intermediary in the following decades. This paper investigates the changing organisational structure within Australia's largest life insurer as it evolved from a branch structure to a multi-divisional form of management in the 1950s. The specialisation encouraged by the divisional system allowed the development of higher order routines upon which the executive could draw. The resulting growth and sophistication of the organisation in the late 1950s ensured higher order routines were able to develop to promote further development.

Deregulation has been a feature of the evolution of financial markets in the past two decades. Extending this trend has been the move to privatise government-owned financial institutions. In the 1990s, Australian governments progressively sold publicly owned banks and insurance institutions. One outcome has been that few of these privatised financial firms exist today, having been absorbed in mergers and acquisitions within the financial services sector. This paper uses an information cost framework to explain the experience of privatised banks and insurers. Our approach points to a dynamic process of organisational change that has influenced the outcomes of privatisation in the financial services sector.

The development of labor management practices in the financial services sector provides an interesting insight into how problems associated with agency issues were overcome. Within financial institutions and other white collar occupations, the use of internal labor markets emerged as an effective means of both controlling and motivating employees. However such management techniques were only effective in cases where work tasks could be internalized. The business of some types of organizations necessitated a division of work tasks between those undertaken within the office and those undertaken outside the office. The management and sale of insurance products is a case in point. This paper explores the development of processes implemented to resolve a specific type of labor management issue, namely the control of workers under conditions of uncertainty. Using the example of the Australian Mutual Provident (Australia's largest life insurer), it analyses how and why particular work relations procedures were d...

The development of the insurance industry in Australia in the twentieth century was fundamentally shaped by a collusive code of conduct called the tariff. This arrangement, established to overcome problems of uncertainty, initially benefited both tariff and non-tariff firms by enhancing market stability. It also reduced competition. The collusive agreements gradually broke down, however, as new entrants and products entered the market in the 1950s. Self-regulation gradually gave way as the 'rules of the game' changed. The result was a period of instability before new competitive practices, and more direct and specific regulatory requirements emerged in the 1970s.

This article considers the labour management practices in use in the Australian life insurance industry during the inter-war period. Using the Australian Mutual Provident as a case study, it is argued that the specific human resource management practices evolved to deal with separate sets of problems arising from the functions of the life insurance business and the manner in which the principal/agent problem was manifested. The differing nature of work associated with the sales and management of life insurance fostered the development of primary and secondary labour markets in which the benefits flowing to one were superior to those accruing to the other.

Recent studies of the experience of the British life insurance industry indicate that a period of transition, and the development of more diversified investment strategies, began in the interwar period. Australian life insurers lagged behind their British counterparts in the introduction of such strategies. This paper investigates why this was the case. It argues that in the Australian market there was both a lack of opportunity and incentive to broaden asset portfolios. However, this did not mean that asset management practices did not advance. Australian life offices became progressively more sophisticated in their approach to portfolio management during this period. Developments in the interwar period provided a grounding for post-war expansion into the equity market.

Two recent reviews of Part IV of the Trade Practices Act (Commonwealth) (1974) have looked specifically at the operation of Section 46 of this Act and have come to very different conclusions concerning its efficacy. The Dawson review (2003) argued that no change to S 46 was required as the courts were providing sufficient guidance in the application of the legislation in this respect. The Senate Committee review (2004) came to different conclusions arguing that the Act needed clarification in regard to certain sections. These reports highlight the controversy that has surrounded this section of the Trade Practices Act for the past thirty years. The aim of this paper is to consider these reviews and evaluate the extent to which the High Court has been able to provide guidance in the application of legislation that prohibits the misuse of market power.

The regulatory environment in which the Australian life insurance industry operates has its antecedents in two major periods of legislative intervention. The first established the principle of ‘freedom with disclosure’ in the 1870s, which has since formed the basis of the regulatory approach. In the 1940s, the second refined the concept in the context of a general recognition of an interventionist approach to financial markets. It is suggested that regulation of the life insurance market in Australia came about not in response to problems associated with market failure but in reaction to external influences not directly related to conditions in the Australian life insurance industry. This was impacted not only on the timing of intervention but on the approach taken as well.

The decline in enrolments in economics degrees and majors has been the focus of much concern in recent times. In 2001, two of the current researchers published a paper outlining a framework with which future investigation into the issue could be conducted (Keneley and Hellier 2001). Essentially this paper argued that a market orientated approach, which takes into account the value students and employers place on economics studies may point the way to a solution to the problem. As a first step in developing such an approach it is necessary to determine what employers require of the economics graduates they hire. With the support of the Economics Society of Australia such a survey was conducted in 2002. This paper presents the results of this survey and discusses some of the ramifications for the teaching of undergraduate economics.

In the wake of the deregulation of the financial sector in Australia in the 1980s and 1990s the life insurance industry has undergone a period of rapid change and reorganisation. Part of this adjustment has been the move towards the integration of financial service provision and the rise of bancassurance. This paper investigates the strategies adopted by Australian life insurers as they moved into the increasingly competitive environment triggered by the lifting of government restrictions on banking practices. It compares the approach of life insurers with that adopted in an earlier period of expansion and change. During the 1950s and 1960s an influx of foreign owned insurance companies into the Australian market precipitated the diversification of domestic life insurers into other insurance markets. The catalyst for change in both cases was the change in information costs brought about by the change in the competitive environment. The experience of the Australian life insurance market would suggest that ...

The promotion of closer settlement in the Australian state of Victoria between 1898 and 1914 was viewed as a panacea to many of the problems that beset the state. The region known as the Western District of Victoria was seen as particularly suitable for the application of land re-settlement policy. The study of this region highlights several important features of the closer settlement experiment in Victoria. First, it illustrates how the basic principles of closer settlement were used to further the interests of particular groups. Second, it highlights the flaws in foundations of the Closer Settlement Act which impacted on the settlers chances of success. And thirdly it points to the disastrous implications of policy implementation that paid little attention to the geographical and economic parameters governing the outcome of farming enterprises.

The life insurance industry in Australia has traditionally been an important source of long term finance for both the public and private sector. However, very little historical analysis has been undertaken into an industry that constitutes a fundamental part of the economy's financial sector. The present climate of deregulation has initiated an irrevocable process of change within the industry. To comprehend the full implications of this change it is necessary to have an understanding of how the industry has evolved. This paper seeks to provide a background account of the growth of the life insurance industry in Australia highlighting the influences that have determined the structure of the industry.

The application of advanced digitization technologies to accounting and business archives has created new opportunities for accounting and business historians. The joint American Accounting Association and European Accounting Association Task Force (2006–2010) that examined digitization confirmed this. This paper explores these opportunities, along with some attendant challenges and cautions, with reference to the digitization of two significant archives located in Australia. The first is the archive of CPA Australia, a professional accounting association that has its beginnings in 1886 and which today has over 132,000 members. The second is the archive accumulated by the pre-eminent accounting scholar Raymond Chambers during his long and extraordinarily productive tenure at the University of Sydney. Studies of surviving business records, biography and institutional history provide examples of scholarship that is enabled by digitization technology and which has the capacity to inform contemporary issues and debates.