Shaping comparative advantage: the evolution of trade and industry policy in Australia

This paper provides an overview of Australia’s experience with trade and industry policy since Federation in light of the dilemmas facing a small, rich, remote, resource-based economy. It focuses on the attempt to diversify away from a dependence on the export of primary products and to move beyond – while still also continuing to exploit – the country’s natural comparative advantage. It examines the rise and decline, purpose and effects, of protectionism; moments of experimentation with interventionist industry policy; and effects of the mining boom. In doing so, it considers Australia’s particular economic circumstances and factor endowments in light of competing notions of comparative advantage and the appropriate role of government in promoting economic development and competitiveness.     

Trade agreements and the myth of policy constraint in Australia

In this paper, I challenge the conventional view that trade agreements act as a major constraint on Australia’s industry policy options. Through a comparison with South Korea – a country with similar trade obligations to Australia – I find that the Australian government retains significant room to move in the industry policy sphere. However, Australian policy-makers appear far less willing than their foreign counterparts to use that space. To explain Australia’s comparative industry policy in-activism, I move beyond broad-brush explanations centred on ‘liberal ideology’ to explore the ideational, institutional and structural obstacles to the pursuit of a more proactive industry policy approach on the part of Australian policy-makers.     

Foreign Trade in China's Electronics Industry

Three Taiwan-based economists examine the effects of GDP, per capita GDP, geographic distance, FDI outflows and inflows, openness to trade, bilateral investment treaties, and other factors on the volume of bilateral trade between China and 40 of its trading partners in the up-, mid- and downstream segments of the country's electronics industry. Pooled cross-section and time-series data are employed in an empirical estimation for the period 1995-2005, which indicate that the Chinese electronics sector's import/export volumes have grown substantially alongside China's economy. The authors address a specific set of issues questioning whether FDI inflows have created a trade effect in the electronics industry, whether they have lead to a measure of import substitution in China's electronics industry, and whether the net impact of opening the market has been positive or negative on the sector's foreign trade. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: F14, F21, L63, O53, P33. 6 tables, 23 references.     

Sex inequality in the Māori population in the prehistoric,proto-historic and early historic Eras in a Trans-Polynesian context

This study considers evidence of Māori sex inequality in life chances during the prehistoric, proto-historic and early historic eras in terms of sex differences in bone size and structure, historic reports of sex dimorphism in height, and early census data of ratios of numbers of males to females. The triangulated evidence suggests significant inequality by sex. This evidence is then placed into a contact era Polynesian context. The broader evidence, also triangulated, suggests that sex inequality amongst Māori was not unique in Polynesia. Nor, however, was inequality universal across Polynesia. There are wide differences in sex inequality in different contact-era Polynesian societies. Sex inequality appears to have been less in Tonga, Samoa and Hawai’i than in New Zealand, Tahiti, the Marquesas, Easter Island and the Cook Islands. Sex inequality mostly collapsed by the first third of the 20th century, rendering the cross-island comparisons much more homogeneous.     

抗战时期西北皮毛贸易与大后方经济变动

皮毛是西北地区重要的畜牧产品。近代以来,随着天津的开埠通商,在天津口岸的经济辐射作用下,大量西北皮毛通过黄河水运汇集至包头后再通过平绥铁路运至天津出口美英等国,皮毛成为西北最重要的出口物资,大量西北皮毛的出口也成为西北地区皮毛业外向化的重要表现。但抗战爆发以后,西北皮毛贸易发生了巨大变化。首先,西北皮毛出口运输路线改为向西汇集兰州后再通过甘新公路或甘新大道运至猩猩峡出口苏联,使得苏联取代战前美国成为中国最大皮毛进口国,这也直接推动了战时中苏易货贸易的发展。其次,由于战时西北皮毛出口运输较战前出口运输路途艰险,加上战时出口市场萎缩等原因,造成战时西北皮毛出口量较战前减少。战时西北皮毛出口量的减少,迫使部分皮毛出口转内销,西北皮毛业从战前外向化开始转为战时内向化。西北皮毛内销数量的增加,也推动了大后方毛纺织业的发展。因此,战时西北皮毛业的内向化一定程度上为战时大后方经济的发展积累了新的动力因素。     

FRAGILITY OF STANDARD INDUSTRIAL STRUCTURES BY A RESPONSE SURFACE BASED METHOD

National and international regulatory standards require industrial risk assessment, taking into account natural hazards including earthquakes, in the framework of Quantitative Risk Analysis (QRA). Seismic fragility analysis of industrial components may be carried out similarly as what has been done for buildings, even though some peculiar aspects require the development of specific tools. In the present paper a contribution to the definition of a rational procedure for seismic vulnerability assessment of standardised industrial constructions in a probabilistic framework is given. The method covers a range of components of the same structural type. Seismic reliability formulation for structures is used. Both seismic capacity and demand are considered probabilistic with the latter assessed by dynamic analyses. The application example refers to shell elephant foot buckling of unanchored sliding tanks. A regression-based method is applied to relate fragility curves to parameters varying in the domain of variables for structural design.     

‘Danger building site—keep out!?’: a critical agenda for geographical engagement with contemporary construction industries

In this paper, I seek to develop a more direct, sustained and critical engagement between social and cultural geography and contemporary construction industries. In setting out this agenda, I focus on the UK construction industry and a body of work outside of geography describing how the UK construction industry evidences and maintains a problematic array of working practices that are socially consequential. However, despite such potent critiques, recent geographical work on architectural practices, including that focused on the UK, has remained rather detached from the people, places, politics, and indeed problems, of contemporary construction industries. Nevertheless, recent geographical studies of architectural practice possess a significant potential to directly inform critical analysis of construction industries. It is only through such direct engagement with the contemporary lives of building practitioners that I argue geographical studies of architecture, and especially architectural practices, can recognize and realize its political and ethical contribution.     

The causes and impact of changes in fish stocks in the waters around Fair Isle during the twentieth century

Drawing considerably from records of fish catches made by the fishermen of Fair Isle during the 20th century, this article highlights the dramatic decline in fish stocks in the waters around the Isle. It argues that the major cause has been the continuous intensification of the commercial fishing industry outside Fair Isle. Assessment is also made of the socio‐economic and cultural impact on the community of Fair Isle, and means are proposed to retain and regain links with the sea.     

Ukraine's Financial Crisis, 2009

A prominent specialist in the economic affairs of the former Soviet Union relates and analyzes the state of Ukraine's economy in light of a series of discussions and interviews with the country's Prime Minister and leading economic officials in Kyiv in 2008 and April 2009. The author, a former economic advisor to the country's government and co-chair of the UN's Blue Ribbon Commission for Ukraine, devotes this paper to a penetrating analysis of the impact of the global financial crisis of 2008-2009 on Ukraine's budget, banks, exchange rates, money supply, industrial sectors (particularly energy and steel), GDP, and inflationary pressures. Due attention is given to economic relations with the EU and Russia as well as to financial assistance from the IMF.Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: E500, E600, O520, P200. 1 table, 4 figures, 38 references.     

Oil Exploration in Russia: Prospects for Reforming a Crucial Sector

Two seasoned observers of the Russian oil industry analyze the country's policy response to developments in its mineral resources base (often perceived as an exploration crisis), with a focus on oil. The authors review and discuss trends in exploration (including its organization and efficiency), recent developments in its financing, and the reorganization of exploration activity. The evolution of Russia's licensing system is presented, drawing attention to changes that have affected incentives, risks, and barriers to potential resource users, both Russian and foreign. Also identified are conflicts between the objectives of resource managers and broader political goals and interests. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: L710, Q310, Q380, Q410. 4 figures, 40 references.