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SEMINARS
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1 December 2011
TITLE: Tax System Reform in China
PRESENTER:
Professor
MA Haitao, Dean, School of Public Finance, Central University of Finance
and Economics (CUFE), Beijing, P.R. China
Abstract: Professor Ma will introduce and discuss the
history of China’s taxation reform, taxation reform challenges
during the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010), the future of
taxation reform: the domestic and international context, and
taxation reform trends during the 12th Five-Year Plan period
(2011-2015) in China.
Jointly presented by Central University of Finance and Economics
(CUFE) and Victoria University. Chaired by Linda Rosenman, Deputy
Vice-Chancellor, Victoria University.
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7 November 2011
TITLE:
Recent Trends in the Chinese Economy
PRESENTER:
Dr
Fanghong Sun, Chief Economist,
Research Department, Pingan Securities, China
Dr Sun was previously Research Fellow at the CSES from 1995.
Fiona is a research associate with the Centre for Chinese Political
Economy at Macquarie University. Her research interests include
international trade and finance, regional economic co-operation, and
the Chinese economy.
Dr Sun completed a Bachelor of Economics and a Master of Economics
in Peking University. She then worked as Researcher for the
International Trade Research Institute in China. Following this she
came to Australia and obtained a PhD at Macquarie University. She
has strong links with policy makers, government officials and
academics in China and has been a key person in facilitating the
Centre’s activities in China. She has published extensively on
related issues concerning China.
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27 October 2011
TITLE:
Understanding Japan’s Quality Control System: Implications for Australia
PRESENTER:
Professor Sang-Chul Park, Korea Polytechnic University
Sang-Chul
He is currently Full Professor at the Graduate School of
Knowledge based Technology and Energy, Korea Polytechnic University
and Adjunct Professor at the Center for Science-based
Entrepreneurship, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
(KAIST), South Korea. He is also a Private Dozent at Justus Liebig
University in Giessen, Germany and Visiting Professor at Gothenburg
University, Sweden. He served as Associate Professor at Gothenburg
University, Sweden from 2001 to 2003 and as Associate Professor at
Okayama University, Japan from 2003 to 2006.
His research interests concern industrial policy and regional
development and studies on innovation systems and on science parks
and innovative clusters in particular. Currently his research areas
are expanded toward energy policy, sustainable development strategy,
high technology ventures and international business and trade. In
addition, he is a member of the editorial advisory board for Korea
Observer (SSCI Journal) as well as a member of the editorial review
board for Journal of Small Business Management (JSBM) (SSCI
Journal).
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23 September 2011
TITLE: Anti-Corruption Efforts in Thailand
PRESENTERS: Prof Dr Medhi Krongkaew, Commissioner, the National
Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), Thailand
Prof Dr Sirilaksana Khoman, Advisor to Commissioner, the National
Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), Thailand
Abstract: Dr Medhi Krongkaew and Dr Sirilaksana Khoman
presented an informal seminar that discussed government efforts to
tackle corruption and the outcomes of recent NACC initiatives in
Thailand.
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7 April 2011
TITLE: Reflections on Higher Education Financing: Theory, HECS,
International reforms and latest empirical testing of policy effects.
PRESENTER: Professor Bruce Chapman, Professor of Economics at the
Crawford School of Economics and Government at ANU
Abstract: Among his many achievements, Bruce advised the Wran
Committee that recommended HECS in 1988. The talk will consider the
role of economic theory and econometric research in the development
of the Higher Education Contribution Scheme. Discussion will cover
the extension of the scheme to many other countries, and recent
developments in econometric analysis of student loan schemes.
Bruce Chapman is one of Australia’s leading experts on higher
education. He is currently Director Policy Impact, at the Crawford
School of Economics and Government at ANU. He was Senior Economic
Advisor (full-time) to Prime Minister Paul Keating from Oct 1994 to
March 1996. He was also Consultant (full-time) to Federal Minister
for Employment, Education and Training, John Dawkins. More recently
he was Professor and Head, Economics Program, Research School of
Social Sciences, ANU (2005-2007.
Download
presentation.
For a list of some of Bruce's research interests and publications,
please go to:
http://www.crawford.anu.edu.au/staff/bchapman.php
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30 March 2011
TITLE: Cultural Influence on China’s Household Saving and its Role
in Sustainable Development: A Conceptual Framework
PRESENTER: Professor Frank Lichtenberg,
Courtney C. Brown, Colombia University Graduate School of
Business and Adjunct Professor CSES
Abstract:
This study reexamines whether
patients using newer drugs at time t0 were less likely to die
between time t0 and time t1, controlling for a much more extensive
set of patient characteristics than has been used in previous
studies. The study is based on a nationally representative sample of
elderly Americans, and I am able to track the patient’s vital status
for up to 10 years after the period of prescription drug use. I also
investigate whether use of newer drugs has reduced activity
limitations of elderly community and nursing-home residents.
Frank R.
Lichtenberg is Courtney C. Brown Professor of Business at the
Columbia University Graduate School of Business, a Research
Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and Adjunct
Professor at the Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria
University. He received a BA with Honors in History from the
University of Chicago and an MA and PhD in Economics from the
University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Lichtenberg previously taught at
Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania, as well as
serving as an expert for the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S.
Dept. of Justice, and state Attorneys General. He has worked for
several U.S. government agencies, including the Department of
Justice, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Census Bureau.
Professor Lichtenberg’s research has examined how the introduction
of new technology arising from research and development affects the
productivity of companies, industries and nations. His recent
studies have focused on the impact of medical innovation on
longevity.
Download
presentation. For a list
of some of Frank's many publications and achievements go to:
http://www0.gsb.columbia.edu/faculty/flichtenberg/cv.html
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10 December 2010
TITLE: Public Finance Management Innovations to Support Growth and
Development
PRESENTER: Jim Brumby
Jim Brumby
is Sector Manager in Public Sector & Governance at the World Bank.
He has been engaged on public management reform at state, national
and international levels for about twenty-seven years. Prior to
joining the Bank, he spent three years as head of the IMF’s internal
Budget Reform Division, and five years in IMF’s Fiscal Affairs
Department working on public expenditure management, providing
technical assistance to countries, including China, Indonesia, the
Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Malawi, Ghana and Nigeria. He
has also contributed to fiscal transparency reports on Italy, Malawi
and the USA, and played a leading role in assessing PEM systems in
HIPCs. Prior to joining the Fund, he was in charge of the OECD’s
program on budgeting and management run by the Public Management
Service (PUMA).
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17 November 2010
TITLE: Cultural Influence on China’s Household Saving and its Role in
Sustainable Development: A Conceptual Framework
PRESENTER: Christabel Zhang
Abstract: China’s national
saving rates of over 35 percent for most of the period 1992-2007 was
significantly high by international comparison, with corresponding
high household saving rates and increasing corporate saving rates.
This paper examines the cultural influences on China’s household
saving. In the 2007-2009 global economic downturn set off by the
Global Financial Crisis, there is claim of global imbalance in
savings – led by China - that underpinned the liquidity of the
financial system. Subsequently there have been calls for China to
stimulate its domestic consumption and to reduce its savings. This,
however, raises the issue of whether a higher consumption pattern
can be ecologically sustainable. As, savings and consumption are two
interdependent components of current income, there is the need for a
conceptual framework in order to systematically examine the issue of
cultural influence on China’s household saving in the context of the
rapidly increasing economic growth. The questions this framework can
be used to address are the following: In China’s transition to
developed economy status is a consumption driven Western development
model applicable? How can a transition to more consumption be
achieved consistent with sustainable development? What is culture’s
role in China’s household saving and sustainable development? This
paper draws inspiration from both the Chinese and Western
intellectual traditions. It conceptualises the framework with
Institutional Economics which takes culture into account in the
analysis, and Keynes’s General Theory on saving. Using Xiyue Lu’s
analytical framework of Chinese culture, a complete conceptual
framework is presented at the end of the paper. The paper argues for
an appreciation of the cultural influence on China’s household
saving, and its role in balancing consumption and saving. The
framework aims to provide basis for strategic guidance to nurture
the invisible cultural capital and its role for sustainable
development for China in the twenty-first century.
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20 October 2010 TITLE: Ethnicity, Diversity and
Achievement in Tertiary Education: Some Australian Evidence PRESENTER: Dr. George Messinis, CSES, Victoria University
Abstract:
This article documents the pervasive impact of ethnic
diversity on the student outcomes of immigrants, the
second-generation and the native-born in higher education and
vocational education and training (VET) in Australia. Robust
evidence from quantile regressions reveals a disadvantage for
persons of non-English-speaking background (NESB) but this is less
severe for females and VET students. The disadvantage can be largely
attributed to the ethnic homogeneity of parents, linguistic
diversity in the family and fractionalisation at the study place.
Gender and especially age diversity mitigate some of the
disadvantage. Finally, quantile decompositions of achievement gaps
point to non-linear gender-ethnicity effects.
Dr. George Messinis is Senior Research Fellow in the
Centre for Strategic Economic Studies.
Details.
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6 October 2010 TITLE: Seasonal Variation Versus Climate
Variation for Australian Tourism PRESENTER: Dr. Nada Kulendran, Victoria University, School of
Economics and Finance
Abstract:
Climate variables such as maximum
temperature, humidity percentage and hours of sunshine influence
holiday destination choice. So also, changes in the mean value of
these climate variables in different seasons may be expected to
influences the seasonal variation in holiday tourism within and
between destinations. The purpose of this paper is to measure the
influence of changes in these climate related variables on the
seasonal variation in Australian inbound holiday tourism. The study
uses data on arrivals from USA, UK, Japan and New Zealand to
Australia from September 1975 to September 2009. Seasonal variation
which is the respective and predictable movement around the trend
line for tourism growth was first extracted from the quarterly
holiday visitor arrivals time-series using the Basic Structural
Model (BSM) approach. Subsequently, the influence of these climate
variables on seasonal variation in different seasons was identified
using the Euclidean minimum distance approach. The study findings
are that maximum temperature, relative humidity and hours of
sunshine variations shape the characteristic of seasonal variation
of tourism flows but the effect tends to vary between seasons and
countries. A time-series model was employed to measure the impact of
climate variables on the seasonal variation of inbound tourism flows
to Australia. The humidity percentage impacts upon seasonal
variation from USA and UK whereas the hours of sunshine impacts upon
seasonal variation from New Zealand. The impact of Australian
temperature on seasonal variation cannot be generalised to all
Australian inbound tourism markets. The impact varies between
Northern Hemisphere tourism markets and Australia’s most important
Southern Hemisphere market.
Dr. Nada Kulendran is a Senior Lecturer in the School of
Economics and Finance at Victoria University.
Download
paper.
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22 September 2010 TITLE:
Developing a Competitive ARC Research Plan and Proposal PRESENTERS: Dr Sally Weller, Senior Research Fellow, CSES,
Victoria University
Abstract: In this seminar Sally Weller
will use the example of her ARC Linkage Project on the restructuring
of farms and farming to discuss the elements that might be
considered in developing a competitive research plan and proposal.
Dr Sally Weller is a Senior Research Fellow (Regional
Economies) in the Centre for Strategic Economic Studies. She is an
economic geographer with a proven track record of publishing in A
and A+ international journals. Last year she secured ARC Linkage
funding of $470,000 over six years for the project, 'Rural
adjustment or structural transformation? Discovering the
destinations of exiting farm families'. This research project will
be carried out in collaboration with Associate Professor W N
Pritchard (University of Sydney); Professor M Alston (Monash
University); and Professor M J Webber (University of Melbourne). The
project is administered by VU in partnership with the Victorian
Government, Department of Treasury and Finance. Dr. Weller has
previously received and completed an ARC APD-ECR Fellowship to study
the restructuring of Australia’s aviation industry and labour market
after the collapse of Ansett Airlines.
Download
presentation.
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8 September 2010 TITLE:
Geographical Localization of Knowledge Flows PRESENTERS:
Dr. Yashar Gedik, Lecturer Business and Law, Victoria University
Abstract: This paper investigates the geographical
localisation of knowledge spillovers using patent citation analyses
of Australian patents registered with the United States Patent and
Trademark Office (USPTO). Even though advances in communications
technologies have reduced the cost of information transmission,
tacit knowledge is still costly to transmit over distance. Because
face-to-face communication is required for effective and efficient
transmission of tacit knowledge, those individuals that are close to
the source of the invention benefit more than distant ones.
Australia is an ideal testing ground for geographical localisation
of knowledge spillovers as it is one of the most isolated countries
in the world and there are large distances between its states and
capital cities, yet it has large number of patents registered with
the USPTO, which makes empirical investigation possible. The results
show that there is evidence for geographical localisation of
knowledge flows at the country, state, statistical division and
statistical subdivision levels of aggregation, and the localisation
effects diminish over time and the more general patents are less
localised.
Dr. Yashar Gedik is a lecturer in Business
and Law at Victoria University. Yashar has held a range of positions
within government and the tertiary sector and his main research
interests lie in the area of innovation and technological change.
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25 August 2010 TITLE:
Diasporas in Australia: Exploring Current and Potential Transnational
Linkages PRESENTERS:
Associate Professor Danny Ben-Moshe and Dr Joanne Pyke
Abstract: The long standing debate on whether or not migration
represents ‘brain drain’ and a net loss to national human capital and capacity
for development, or a ‘brain circulation’ enhancing opportunity that augments
investment and cross-border relations continues throughout the migration
literature. In the Australian context, however, there is little exploration
about the effects of ‘brain circulation’ and most Australian migration research
is concerned with the post-WWII patterns of one-way settlement of emigration and
settlement. But migration no longer means a severing of ties with a place of
birth, but rather a reshaping of that relationship by the diaspora with its
homeland. Indeed, migrants today often have transnational identities where they
live in and engage with their places of birth and their new homeland, and indeed
with expatriate communities in third countries The key aim of the Australian
Diasporas ARC Funded project is to address some of these issues and gaps in the
literature through an investigation of the transnational connections of four
Australian Diasporas: Tongan, Italian, Vietnamese and Macedonian. Taking an
interdisciplinary approach, the study considers the political, cultural,
economic and social and welfare links maintained between key Australian
Diasporas and their homelands. This seminar will provide a background to the
project and how the key research questions are explored. Project Lead Investigator: Associate Professor Danny Ben-Moshe: Danny has worked extensively on issues of cultural diversity, both in the public
policy sphere for NGOs, and also as the former director of the Institute for
Community, Ethnicity and Policy Alternatives at Victoria University. Danny has
published extensively on the archetypal Diaspora, the Jewish Diaspora, and
Israel-Diaspora relations. He is the editor of the book Israel, the Diaspora and
Jewish Identity. He writes a column on Israel-Diaspora relations in the
fortnightly magazine The Jerusalem Report. Danny is the chairman of the global
diaspora based organisation The Litvak (Lithuanian) Studies Institute. Danny
currently holds a joint appointment between the CSES and the Institute for
Community, Ethnicity and Policy Alternatives (ICEPA).
Senior Research Fellow: Dr Joanne Pyke Joanne has a background in social policy research with a focus on gender equity,
cultural diversity, refugee settlement and access and equity in employment,
education and training. She has published two books and is the author or
co-author of more than twenty research reports commissioned by various
government agencies and industry bodies. Joanne currently holds a joint
appointment between the CSES and the Institute for Community, Ethnicity and
Policy Alternatives (ICEPA).
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18 August 2010 TITLE:
Investigating the Energy, Economic Growth, Urbanization Nexus in
Developed and Developing Countries via a Production Function with
Urbanization as a Shift Factor and Panel Cointegration PRESENTERS: Dr Brantley Liddle, CSES
Abstract: In order to investigate the macro-level interrelationships
among urbanization, energy consumption, and economic growth, this paper combined
two production function models—one with urbanization as a shift factor and one
that included energy consumption along with physical capital. In concordance
with the stock-based, time series/cross sectional database employed, panel
cointegration, panel DOLS, and panel Granger-causality methods are used to
analyze three panels of developed and developing countries. Because regressions
involving nonlinear transformations (e.g., including a GDP per capita squared
term) of nonstationary variables can be spurious, panels comprising rich,
middle, and poor countries are used here to determine whether any relationships
depend on level of development. For all three panels the variables—GDP per
capita, total final energy consumption per capita, gross fixed (physical)
capital formation per capita, and urbanization—were found to be cointegrated;
and thus, there exists a long-run equilibrium relationship among them. In
addition, the causality tests indicated a high degree of mutual causality in the
long-run for the middle and poor panels and a high degree of mutual causality in
the short-run for the rich. The long-run elasticity estimates, coupled with
those cointegration and causality results, suggest (i) that urbanization is
important to and associated with economic growth, and (ii) that poor countries
are over-urbanized (their elasticities being negative). Yet, there was no
evidence that urbanization directly caused economic growth. Furthermore, the
urbanization-development relationship varies considerably across countries—even
across the most developed, rich countries. Similarly, substantial country
differences in the energy-development relationship were discovered for all
countries. By contrast, the importance of physical capital to economic growth,
in terms of both magnitude and causal link, was highly robust both across panels
and across countries within the panels. Lastly, the importance of energy
consumption to economic growth declines with development; whereas, physical
capital is more important for economic growth than energy consumption in rich
countries, but energy consumption is more important for economic growth than
physical capital for middle and poor countries. Dr.
Brantley Liddle is a Senior Research Fellow in the CSES. He completed his
PhD in economics at MIT and has 16 years experience in economic research and
lecturing. He has published widely in the field of energy economics on issues of
urban sustainability, demographics and transport policy. For a selection of his
publications click
here.
Download
presentation.
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28 July 2010 TITLE: Democracy and Growth PRESENTER: Professor Tran Van Hoa
Abstract: Democracy or political freedom and its positive impact on
economic growth or well-being are the central theme in political economy and the
foundation for wars and peace, regional security, colonisation and
globalisation. There is still no consensus on this nexus in rigorous empirical
studies. The paper introduces a new enquiry approach, and using global data, to
provide more definitive findings on this nexus for effective policy uses in a
growing globalised world where disparity in Schumpeterian developmental stages,
living standards, poverty incidence, income inequality, openness, geo-economic
influences, and political regimes is ever present.
Tran Van Hoa is Professorial Fellow at the Centre
for Strategic Economic Studies (Victoria University, Melbourne) and Director,
Vietnam and ASEAN+3 Research Program (CSES). He is also Honorary Professor,
National Advanced Training Institute (NATI), Vietnam Ministry of Trade; and
Honorary Professor, National Economics University, Hanoi, Vietnam. Tran Van Hoa
has wide experience and extensive record in research, teaching, training,
consulting and publications. His current interests cover Asian economic
development and growth, Asian economic and financial crisis and management,
trade and investment in Asian economies, international business development and
promotion in Asia, Asian transition economies, competition policy and e-commerce
in Asia, modelling and forecasting Asian economies, Vietnam, ASEAN, ASEAN+3,
ASEAN+6, APEC and WTO.
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14 July 2010 TITLE: Regional Systems of Innovation in Australia and How to
Measure Them PRESENTER: Dr Dana Nicolau
Abstract: Since the early literature on national systems of innovation
in the late 1980s and early 1990s the idea of applying similar conceptual
approaches to regions has been very appealing and it led to the proliferation of
similar analyses on regional systems of innovation (RIS). Generally the
rationale for a RIS stems from the existence of technological trajectories that
are based on sticky knowledge and localised learning. For a while economists
have focused on comparative advantage ignoring more or less the role of
policies. In the past decade or so the idea of constructed advantage gained in
importance and regional development is seen as the result of interfacing
developments in various directions. This seminar presents a picture of the
dynamic environment in which innovation appears and spreads and introduces a
framework for quantitative analysis of RIS in Western Australia.
Dana Nicolau has worked in CSES for 8 years. She is a specialist in S&T
policy and she has participated in projects about technological development with
a focus on high technologies such as Nanotechnology, Biotechnology and Spatial
Information. She is presently working on a project about measurement of RIS in
Australia.
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28 April 2010 TITLE: Has Medical Innovation Reduced Cancer Mortality? PRESENTER: Professor Frank R. Lichtenberg, Courtney C. Brown
Professor of Business, Columbia University, New York
Abstract:
Cancer mortality rates have declined significantly in both the US
and Australia in the last 15 years. Professor Lichtenberg’s
econometric analysis, which is based on extensive data on treatments
given to large numbers of patients with different types of cancer
since the early 1990s, indicates that two important types of medical
innovation—diagnostic imaging innovation and pharmaceutical
innovation—account for much of the decline in cancer mortality
rates. His estimates indicate that life expectancy at birth of the
entire US population was increased by almost three months between
1996 and 2006 by the combined effects of cancer imaging and cancer
drug innovation. This evidence contradicts the widely-held view that
“the effect of new treatments for cancer on mortality has been
largely disappointing.
Frank R. Lichtenberg is Courtney C. Brown Professor of Business at
the Columbia University Graduate School of Business, a Research
Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and Adjunct
Professor at the Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria
University. He received a BA with Honors in History from the
University of Chicago and an MA and PhD in Economics from the
University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Lichtenberg previously taught at
Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania, as well as
serving as an expert for the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S.
Dept. of Justice, and state Attorneys General. He has worked for
several U.S. government agencies, including the Department of
Justice, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Census Bureau.
Professor Lichtenberg’s research has examined how the introduction
of new technology arising from research and development affects the
productivity of companies, industries and nations. His recent
studies have focused on the impact of medical innovation on
longevity.
Download
presentation.
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