Academic literature on the topic 'Monetary unions Australia'

Abstract This article examines the monetary arrangements between Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom from the 1820s to the 1930s. It is argued that the three countries formed a monetary union for most of this period. A new analysis of inland and London exchange rates demonstrates that the union achieved a high degree of uniformity and stability, and that an international branch network of competing, private banks could successfully integrate vastly different geographic and economic areas. It is shown that the union’s break-up in the 1930s was the result of a political decision to create separate and devalued Australian and New Zealand currencies in order to mitigate some of the impacts of the Great Depression. International lending of last resort only played a limited role and helped to fix exchanges between the newly separated currencies after 1932.

Purpose In Australia, national harmonisation of occupational health and safety (OHS) regulation was pursued through the development of model Work Health and Safety legislation. The model Work Health and Safety Regulations specify that construction works above a threshold cost of AU$250,000 are deemed to be construction projects requiring the appointment of a principal contractor with duties relating to OHS planning and coordination. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effectiveness of the monetary threshold as a suitable trigger for specific OHS planning and coordination duties. Design/methodology/approach Interviews were conducted with 46 Australian construction industry stakeholders, including union representatives, employer groups, construction firm representatives and regulators, as well as four international construction OHS experts, to explore perceptions about the effectiveness of the monetary threshold. Two construction scenarios were also modelled to test for variability in operation of the threshold by geographical location of works and design conditions. Findings The monetary threshold was perceived to be subject to two forms of capture problem, reflecting inadvertent capture of low risk works or failure to capture high risk works. Organisations were also reported to deliberately split contracts to avoid capture by the threshold. The cost-estimate modelling revealed inequalities and variation in the operation of the monetary threshold by geographic location and design specification. Practical implications The analysis suggests that limitations inherent in the use of a monetary threshold to trigger duties relating to OHS planning and coordination in construction works. Opportunities to use more sophisticated risk-based mechanisms are considered. Originality/value The study explores a fundamental challenge of risk-based OHS regulation, i.e., how to ensure that workers’ health and safety are adequately protected without creating an unnecessarily high regulatory burden. The research provides evidence that using a monetary value as a proxy measure for OHS risk in construction projects may be problematic.

This paper analyzes long- and short-term co-movements between 14 international real estate stock markets based on cointegration and correlation analyses. The results indicate that there exist strong long-term relationships within economic and geographical regions, but less long-run linkages between real estate markets in different continents. Thus, investors would benefit from broadening their investment horizon from their domestic continent to Australia, Europe, and North America. Furthermore, it is shown that within each region, there are one or two key markets that influence neighboring markets, such as Australia in the Asia-Pacific region, the US in the Anglo-Saxon countries, and France and the Netherlands in the European Monetary Union (EMU). Therefore, from an investor!|s point of view, it is implied that it should be sufficient to only focus on these central markets. With respect to the efficient market hypothesis, the findings by the cointegration analysis further question its validity for securitized real estate markets.

Accurately forecasting the movement of exchange rates is of interest in a variety of fields, such as international business, financial management, and monetary policy, though this is not an easy task due to dramatic fluctuations caused by political and economic events. In this study, we develop a new forecasting approach referred to as FSPSOSVR, which is able to accurately predict exchange rates by combining particle swarm optimization (PSO), random forest feature selection, and support vector regression (SVR). PSO is used to obtain the optimal SVR parameters for predicting exchange rates. Our analysis involves the monthly exchange rates from January 1971 to December 2017 of seven countries including Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, Japan, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. The out-of-sample forecast performance of the FSPSOSVR algorithm is compared with six competing forecasting models using the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and root mean square error (RMSE), including random walk, exponential smoothing, autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), seasonal ARIMA, SVR, and PSOSVR. Our empirical results show that the FSPSOSVR algorithm consistently yields excellent predictive accuracy, which compares favorably with competing models for all currencies. These findings suggest that the proposed algorithm is a promising method for the empirical forecasting of exchange rates. Finally, we show the empirical relevance of exchange rate forecasts arising from FSPSOSVR by use of foreign exchange carry trades and find that the proposed trading strategies can deliver positive excess returns of more than 3% per annum for most currencies, except for AUD and NTD.

This article analyzes the Fintech evolution. After describing the process of this phenomenon, some of the main definitions are provided both nationally and internationally. Finally, six main models of Fintech are analyzed. Through a systematic literature, 14 articles have been selected that deal with the phenomenon of Fintech. Six Fintech business models implemented by the ever growing number of Fintech startups have been identified, payment, wealth management, crowdfunding, loan, capital market and insurance services. Internationally, Fintech has already been defined by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank Group (WBG), the Financial Stability Board (FSB), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). On a national level, on the other hand, Fintech has been analyzed by various countries, USA, United Kingdom, Singapore, China, Switzerland, China, Australia and the European Union. Fintech refers to a broad set of innovations - observable in the financial field in a broad sense - which are made possible by the use of new technologies both in the offer of services to end users and in the internal production processes of financial operators as well as in the design of market enterprises, without thereby compromising new possible configurations of intersectoral activities. Fintech appears to be representative of innovative methods - based on technology - of carrying out activities directly or indirectly connected to financial services rather than being a pre-defined industrial sector. Following the logic of the digital economy, Fintech contributes to designing an open and continuous network of modular services for businesses, individuals and banking, financial and insurance intermediaries, becoming a powerful acceleration force for the integration policies of the financial services markets in the EU.

In the 1940s, the totalitarian occupying regimes of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union implemented the strictest control and ideological guidance of intellectual and spiritual life of all time in Estonia. Essentially, the mechanisms and results of control are known. Cultural life was subjected to strict pre-censorship and post-publication censorship, and in the Soviet era also to thematic dictation. The intellectual and spiritual resistance of Estonians in those years, in other words their refusal to accept the ruling ideology, has been studied very little. The most widespread way of putting up intellectual and spiritual resistance was to remain silent, in other words to avoid creating works that were agreeable to the authorities. Selective silence, that is the selection of one’s points of emphasis, and splitting, in other words writing for oneself works that one keeps in one’s drawer while at the same time writing for publication in print, are also placed in this category. Recording actual history in diaries through the eyes of contemporaries of events, reading intellectually and spiritually enjoyable literature, and other such actions were ways of putting up intellectual and spiritual resistance. The main objective of this study is to ascertain in historical context the attempts to put up intellectual and spiritual resistance in the comedies from the 1940s by Hugo Raudsepp (1883–1952), one of the most outstanding Estonian playwrights of the 20th century. Ideologically speaking, dramatic literature was clearly one of the most vulnerable branches of literature. It was created for public presentation in theatres, after all, for which reason authors had to be particularly careful in their wording. On the other hand, plays provided both authors and directors with opportunities to conceal messages between the lines. For this reason, theatre became exceedingly popular in Estonia by the final decades of the Soviet era. The ridicule and mocking of the Soviet regime were especially enjoyed. The subjugation of Estonian intellectual and spiritual life to the ideological requirements of the occupying regime was launched at the time of pre-war Stalinism (1940–1941). Its aim was to rear Soviet-minded people who would help to justify, fortify and enhance the Soviet regime. The systematic control of the activities of creative persons and the working out of dictates and regulations were nevertheless not yet completed during the first year of Soviet rule. Many outstanding cultural figures remained silent or earned a living by translating texts. At that time, Hugo Raudsepp wrote the non-political novel Viimne eurooplane [The Last European], which is noteworthy to this day, while his plays from the period of independent Estonian statehood were not staged in theatres. Starting with the German occupation (1941–1944), the point of departure for Hugo Raudsepp was writing between the lines in his comedies in order to get both readers and theatregoers to think and to give them strength of soul. In 1943, he wrote the comedy Vaheliku vapustused [Interspatial Jolts], which has later been styled as a masterpiece. He concealed numerous signs between the lines of this play referring to the fate of a small people, in other words Estonia, between its great neighbouring powers the Soviet Union and Germany. Performances of this play were soon banned. Performances in theatres of all other plays by Hugo Raudsepp were similarly banned, with one exception. During post-war Stalinism in 1944–51, the sovietisation of Estonian cultural life resumed. Hugo Raudsepp did not initially write on topical Soviet themes, rather he sought subject matter from earlier times. His first play from that period entitled Rotid [Rats] (1946) was about the German occupation during the Second World War and it ridiculed the occupying Germans. Raudsepp also skilfully wove messages supporting Estonian cultural identity into the play. The play was staged in the Estonia Theatre but was soon banned. Raudsepp’s second play from that period, Tagatipu Tiisenoosen (1946), earned first prize at the state comedy competition in that same year. The action in the play was set in the period of Estonian National Awakening at the end of the 19th century. It ridiculed Baltic Germans and the behaviour of parvenu Estonians. Similarly to his previous play, he demonstrated nationalist mentality in this comedy by way of nationalist songs. It is noteworthy that by the summer of 1947, Tagatipu Tiisenoosen had also reached expatriate Estonians and it was staged with an altered title as the only Stalinist- era play from Soviet Estonia in Canada (1952), Australia (1954) and Sweden (1956). The thematic precepts imposed on Estonian writers and the mechanism for ensuring that those precepts were followed became even stricter starting in 1947. Raudsepp wrote his next 7 plays on required Soviet subject matter: post-war land reform (Tillereinu peremehed [The Owners of Tillereinu], 1947), monetary reform (Noorsulane Ilmar [Ilmar the Young Farmhand], 1948), kolkhozes (Küpsuseksam [Matriculation Exam] and Lasteaed [Kindergarten], 1949, Mineviku köidikuis [In the Fetters of the Past] (1950) and his so-called Viimane näidend [Last Play], 1950 or 1951), and the beginning of the Soviet regime in Estonia in 1940 (Pööripäevad Kikerpillis [Solstices in Kikerpill], 1949). Hugo Raudsepp skilfully wove words of wisdom for Estonians on surviving under foreign rule through the mouths of his characters, or discreetly laughed about Soviet reality in a way that the censors did not grasp. Post-war cultural policy culminated with the 8th Plenum of the Estonian Communist (Bolshevist) Party (EC(B)P) Central Committee on 21–26 March 1950, where among other things, the EC(B)P Central Committee Bureau was accused of allowing the exaltation of the superiority of Western European science and culture. Cultural figures were branded bourgeois nationalists and they faced serious ordeals. The fate of the great figure of Estonian dramatic literature was very harsh. Hugo Raudsepp was depicted as a ‘fascist henchman’ in 1950. He was expelled from the Estonian Writers’ Union and was deprived of his personal pension. He was arrested on 11 May 1951. Opposition to the Soviet regime was stressed in the charges presented to him. His play Vaheliku vapustused, which the German occupying regime had banned, and his only play that was allowed at that time, Lipud tormis [Flags in the Storm], were named as the primary evidence supporting the charges. Hugo Raudsepp was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in the autumn of 1951. He hoped to the last possible moment that he would be allowed to serve his sentence in Estonia. Unfortunately, on 18 February 1952 he was sent by train from Tallinn to Narva and on 19 February on to Leningrad. From there his journey took him to Vjatka, Kirov and finally Irkutsk oblast. This great man’s health was poor, and he soon died on 15 September 1952. Very few new literary works appeared in the 1940s. The historical nadir is altogether seen in post-war book production in the era of Stalinism. Estonian theatre was similarly in a most difficult situation due to censorship, shortage of repertoire, scarcity of funding, and layoffs and sackings of theatre personnel. Nowadays the survival of theatre at the time, regardless of difficult times, is appreciated, and actors are recognised for preserving Estonian identity and uniting the people. Hugo Raudsepp’s role as a playwright in supporting intellectual and spiritual resistance to foreign authorities has to be recognised on the basis of his occupation-era comedies. Hugo Raudsepp was one of the most productive authors of his day, writing a total of 11 plays in 1943–51. According to the assessment of scholars of literature, he never once rose with these works to the leading-edge level of his previous works. It was impossible to create masterpieces that would become classics in that time of strict ideological precepts and the monitoring of their observance. Taking into consideration the extremely restricted creative conditions, his works were still masterpieces of their time. As Hugo Raudsepp’s oeuvre demonstrates, spirit still managed to cleverly trump power regardless of censorship and official precepts. The denunciation of Stalin’s personality cult in 1956 once again opened the door to the theatre for Hugo Raudsepp’s best comedies from Estonia’s era of independent statehood. The witticism and laughter of Hugo Raudsepp’s comedies gave people renewed strength of soul.

Plasma is used by pharmaceutical companies to make plasma-derived medicinal products (PDMPs). PDMPs are used to treat conditions such as immune deficiencies and bleeding disorders. Several PDMPS are included in the WHO Model Lists of Essential Medicines. According to the WHO, self-sufficiency driven by voluntary (non-remunerated) plasma donations is an important national goal to ensure an adequate supply is secured to meet the needs of the population. Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the Netherlands, and France only allow public or not-for-profit sectors to collect plasma for fractionation. Each of the 5 countries have toll or contract agreements with 1 private commercial plasma fractionator to manufacture PDMPs from the plasma collected within their respective countries. None of these countries pay plasma donors. Donors are only permitted to donate every 2 weeks (24 to 26 times per year) in these 5 countries. Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, and the US allow both public and non-for-profit sectors, as well as commercial private plasma collection centres, to operate in the country. Private, not-for-profit, or public plasma collection centres in these 4 countries offer monetary compensation and other in-kind incentives to plasma donors. While the Czech Republic limits plasma donation to every 2 weeks, a much higher frequency of donation is allowed in other countries; up to 50 times per year in Austria, 60 times per year in Germany, and more than 100 times per year in the US. Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, and the US (which allow commercial private plasma collectors to operate and pay donors) are 100% self-sufficient in immunoglobulins. These 4 countries collect the most plasma, which is from paid donors. In 2017, Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, and the US collected 75 litres per 1,000 people, 45 litres per 1,000 people, 36 litres per 1,000 people, and 113 litres per 1,000 people of plasma for fractionation, respectively. Countries that do not pay donors including Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the Netherlands, and France are dependent to some extent on US and European Union donors who are paid for the supply of plasma or imported PDMPs. The limited literature search conducted for the Environmental Scan did not identify publications on events of disease transmission through PDMPs manufactured from either paid or non-renumerated donors’ plasma, the impact of plasma collection centres (including those that do or do not pay donors) on the collection of whole blood or other blood components, or the long-term costs associated with plasma self-sufficiency on the health care system.