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Simon Ville

2013

Articles 1 - 9 of 9

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Institutional Legacy And The Development Of An Australian National Innovation System, Simon Ville Apr 2013

The Institutional Legacy And The Development Of An Australian National Innovation System, Simon Ville

Simon Ville

Institutions are the rules of the game that help to shape the long-term historical development of societies. They mediate human interaction and can be more or less formal (or tangible) in nature ranging from systems of government to common modes of behaviour. Most formal institutions can be distinguished as economic, social, political or cultural in nature although such distinctions are more difficult to make for informal institutions. What is certain is the pervasive impact of all types of institutions on a country’s multifaceted development. Thus, economic performance may be shaped as much by a nation’s legal system as by its …

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Industry Associations And Non-Competitive Behaviour In Australian Wool Marketing: Evidence From The Melbourne Woolbrokers' Association, 1890-1939, David Merrett, Simon Ville Apr 2013

Industry Associations And Non-Competitive Behaviour In Australian Wool Marketing: Evidence From The Melbourne Woolbrokers' Association, 1890-1939, David Merrett, Simon Ville

Simon Ville

From the 1890s the sale of Australian wool was organised through a series of regionally based associations of wool selling brokers and wool buyers. They engaged in cartel-type behaviour by price fixing and exclusive dealing. We ask the question whether the wool selling brokers exploited their monopoly power to the full in setting fees and charges paid by the growers and buyers. Association records provide data on the pricing structure and rationale for changes. We surmise that the existence of the cartel lifted prices above competitive levels. However, the pricing behaviour was moderated to a strong form of limit pricing.

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Conclusion: Building Collaborative Capabilities, Gordon Boyce, Stuart Macintyre, Simon Ville Apr 2013

Conclusion: Building Collaborative Capabilities, Gordon Boyce, Stuart Macintyre, Simon Ville

Simon Ville

The aim of this volume is to explore how history can help us to understandmore fully the nature of those factors that undermine orenhance the effectiveness of inter-organisational relationships and toprovide guidelines for participants in these types of ventures. Theauthors believe that the past is a valuable laboratory in which toexamine cooperative phenomena because, unlike a perspectivefounded solely on current practice, it enables us to see the outcomesof experiments conducted by others. Moreover, historical analysiscalls for the ‘contextualisation’ of the experiments, and the sensitivitythat is required for this exercise—and the enhanced powers of intuitionthat stem from it—are useful in gaining …

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I Was Only Nineteen, 45 Years Ago: What Can We Learn From Australia's Conscription Lotteries?, Peter Siminski, Simon Ville Apr 2013

I Was Only Nineteen, 45 Years Ago: What Can We Learn From Australia's Conscription Lotteries?, Peter Siminski, Simon Ville

Simon Ville

The Australian conscription lotteries of 1965-1972 are a unique and underutilised resource for studying the effects of army service and veterans’ programs. Drawing on many data sources and 25 years of related US literature, we present a comprehensive analysis of this natural experiment, examining indicators of health, personal economic outcomes, family outcomes and educational attainment. We discuss the numerous potential mechanisms involved and the limitations of available data.

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Investing In The Inter-Organisational Domain, Gordon Boyce, Stuart Macintyre, Simon Ville Apr 2013

Investing In The Inter-Organisational Domain, Gordon Boyce, Stuart Macintyre, Simon Ville

Simon Ville

Oranisations communicate with one another in many different ways and for a variety of reasons. Markets especially business, and the price signals that underpin them, require organisations to communicate regularly.

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Tariffs, Subsidies, And Profits: A Re-Assessment Of Structural Change In Australia 1901–39, David Merrett, Simon Ville Apr 2013

Tariffs, Subsidies, And Profits: A Re-Assessment Of Structural Change In Australia 1901–39, David Merrett, Simon Ville

Simon Ville

We re-interpret the drivers of structural change in Australia from Federation to World War II. Manufacturing increased its relative share of output and employment, the farm sector and mining contracted. Conventional wisdom contends these shifts largely resulted from government policy, particularly increases in trade barriers. We contend that the connection between tariffs and increased profitability is conceptually weak and not supported by extant evidence. We argue that exogenous shifts in consumer preferences, the adoption of new technologies, changing factor proportions, and greater specialisation in manufacturing and services were responsible for manufacturing increasing its share of the economy's resources and output.

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An Assessment Of The Research Performance Of Commerce Faculties In Australia, Abbas Valadkhani, Simon Ville Apr 2013

An Assessment Of The Research Performance Of Commerce Faculties In Australia, Abbas Valadkhani, Simon Ville

Simon Ville

There is a growing policy focus in Australian higher education on quantitative research performance assessment. However, most of the analysis has addressed aggregate performance at the institutional level, an approach inconsistent with recent policy emphasis on diversity among universities, and one that ignores performance variations across disciplines. We use cluster analysis to classify one of the ten broad fields of education, that is, management and commerce. Using averaged and available data for 2000-2004 on various research measures, partial rankings are provided. Factor analysis is utilised to generate full-multidimensional rankings within the resulting clusters. Our results show that low total research …

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Banking Records, Business And Networks In Colonial Sydney, 1817-24, Leanne Johns, Simon Ville Apr 2013

Banking Records, Business And Networks In Colonial Sydney, 1817-24, Leanne Johns, Simon Ville

Simon Ville

Examining accounting transactions between depositors in the first accounts ledger of the Bank of New South Wales contributes to our knowledge of early Australian colonial businesspeople and their business activities. A social network analysis framework is applied to the transactions to disclose business networks and prominent individuals in the networks. The analysis seeks to ascertain the importance of these people to commerce and the significance of their networks in facilitating commercial relationships in a business environment fraught with uncertainty. The results illustrate the importance of networks to colonial trade and mercantile activity, especially for smaller scale businesspeople.aehr_348

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Business Profitability And Structural Change In Interwar Australia, Simon Ville, David Merrett Apr 2013

Business Profitability And Structural Change In Interwar Australia, Simon Ville, David Merrett

Simon Ville

The Australian economy of the interwar period experienced noteworthy cyclical and secular trends. Severe cyclical fluctuations were associated with the international depression, often referred to as the ‘Great Slump’, which particularly afflicted Australia’s large traded sector, especially its cornerstone primary exporting industries. In the midst of this apparent dearth, however, came the ‘plenty’ of the initial stages of modernisation, which resulted from the broadening of the country’s economic base into new manufacturing industries. The general trends of economic activity are captured by national income data, while the expansion of particular industries has been contextualised by several authors, most notably Forster …

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