Dimensions of Spatial Price Dispersion Before and After the Crash of 1929

The spatial and temporal patterns of prices are analyzed over the 1919–40 period. Arguments are made for the distinctiveness of different economic episodes, including the crash of 1929, in terms of their local price effects. Nevertheless, it is also shown that the variability between cities and between components of their price series declined through the early 1940s. Alternative conceptions of spatial price systems are introduced, and due regard is also given to the structure and interpretation of city CPI data. Implications are drawn regarding the proper design of a theory that would explain the observed patterns of spatial price dispersion. This larger project is left, however, to another time.     

HAVE CHANGES IN LOCALIZATION ECONOMIES BEEN RESPONSIBLE FOR DECLINING PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGES IN LARGE CITIES?*

This paper investigates whether economies of urbanization and localization changed in two-digit manufacturing industries over the period 1967-1977. Estimates of changes in such economies indicate that the localization advantages of large industries declined in several industries, but that urbanization advantages increased for a small number of industries and decreased for a small number. Moreover, the absolute change in two-digit industry employment tends to be negatively correlated with industry size, city size held constant, and positively associated with city size, industry size held constant. These latter findings tend to support the findings regarding changes in external economies.     

The Hawke government and education 1983–1985

Education was a major component of the platform and performance of the Whitlam governments. Under Fraser, projects were abandoned and overall growth ceased. The needs principle for aid to non‐government schools was undermined by the emphasis on unrestricted access to alternatives to the State system. Pressure grew for schooling to reflect and service the needs of the market place.

The 1983 election campaign scarcely mentioned education although special interests ensured that traditional commitments were secured. Once in power, the Hawke government tended to ignore these and maintained constraints on education spending.

Naive attempts in 1983 to implement the policy of reducing grants to wealthy private schools resulted, by 1984, in a bruised and shaken Hawke government having to placate the powerful private school/Catholic bishops lobby with a generously funded ‘historic settlement’ of the State Aid debate. The Participation and Equity Program was introduced to increase participation in post‐compulsory education, particularly by disadvantaged groups. Initially the depressed state of tertiary education was not addressed by the Hawke government which continued the neglect characteristic of the Fraser years. Hawke was returned to office in 1984 on a platform which had as little to say about education as it had in 1983.

The rhetoric and practice of the Hawke government has tended to reflect a view of education which is highly economic and instrumental in orientation. A crude nexus is seen to exist between educational spending and productive employment, a view which excludes any concern for the social benefits of education or a longer‐term perspective about the value of intellectual endeavour. Labor's traditional ideals and objectives of widening access to education and hence social and economic power are in danger of being ignored. If economic considerations alone continue to dominate policy, the legacy of the Hawke government may well be a set of educational policies which are destined, on balance, to increase rather than reduce inequalities in our society.     

TRENDS AND CYCLES IN THE COMPOSITION OF THE FEDERAL BUDGET, 1947–48

In this study, systematic movements in the composition of the Federal budget are studied, using a simple statistical structure which distinguishes trend, cyclical, and price-indexing phenomena. Using NIA data on budget expenditures and receipts, it is found that share movements on both sides of the budget are dominated by trends. Among expenditure categories, the shares of transfer programs show strong upward trends while the defense purchases share has beentrending strongly downward. On the revenue side, the shares represented by social insurance contributions and personal income taxes have been trending upward at the expense of corporateincome taxes and indirect taxes. Significant cyclical and price-indexing responsiveness is shown by several expenditure and revenue categories. A noteworthy finding is that the estimates show little evidence of structural change over 1947-1978, suggesting that the trend and otherforces found to be significant are not of recent origin but have been at work over the whole period.