Issue 1

A casual observation indicates that construction of new retail centres does not proceed continuous ly over time. In many metropolitan areas, periods of intensive building activity alternate with spells without any significant additions to existing facilities. These cyclical movements are local and embedded in, but separate from, fluctuations due to business cycles. The model presented tries to cast this phenomenon into rigorous terms offering a working hypothesis and a method of confronting it with data. The analytic framework is inspired by the well known Lotka-Volterra model. The analysis indicates that the existence as well as the length and amplitude of cycle s is a function of several parameters some of which are national, and some are essentially local.

STAN CZAMANSKI

Page Number - 1

It is a policy of State governments in Australia to encourage export-oriented activities in their jurisdictions. The most popular method of quantifying the effects of such policies is regional input-output (IO) analysis. Here we use an 8-region-12-sector computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to look at the effects of new export activities in South Australia. Relative to the IO approach, we find that CGE modelling adds interesting insights concerning likely price-induced effects. These include: export expansion and import replacement arising from enhanced competitiveness associated with scale economies; crowding out of traditional export activities associated with exchange rate appreciation; and changes in inter-regional factor flows associated with changes in inter-regional factor returns.

PETER B. DIXON, MATTHEW W. PETER

Page Number - 11

Queensland is the most decentralised of the Australian States. The geographical size and spatial disparities of this State raise the possibility of regional differences in labour market behaviour. In this paper, unit record data from the 1991.Australian Census of Population and Housing were used to estimate participation and earnings functions for Queensland at the State and Substate level. The results from the estimation of these models will cast light upon those factors that are influential on supply decisions within the Queensland labour market and determine the extent of regional variation in the relative importance of these factors. In a broader context, the results will have generalised value to the study of participation and earnings as well as providing insight into the workings of regional labour markets.

PETER HAGAN, JOHN MANGAN

Page Number - 35

The paper examines restructuring of the Rotorua (New Zealand) economy in terms of the processes of internationalisation, state sector re-formation and recomposition of production and consumption relationships in New Zealand . Evidence is presented from a ten year monitoring of Rotorua's economic base and a 1991-92 survey of companies and government organisations. Four principal conclusions are reached: (1) Rotorua's economic and institutional actors have adopted competitive strategies and arrangements consistent with globalisation possibilities; (2) Rotorua appears not to have lost ground as an investment site, reflecting continued and new links into the global economy; (3) Rotorua has seen an almost complete erosion of regional administrative functions; and (4) new governance arrangements relating to the regional economy are beginning to be forged between local public organisations and private sector operations.

ROBERT SCHLOTJES, RICHARD LE HERON

Page Number - 53

Though relatively low profile in terms of media coverage, it can be argued that the commonwealth' s Regional Development Program was one of the more significant and ambitious policy initiatives introduced by the Keating Government during, its recent term in office. In the view of some commentators, including, the author of this paper, the successful implementation of this program has the potential to facilitate fundamental changes to Australia’s political, administrative and economic structures. Following the recent change of government, it is timely to review the historical significance and fundamental assumptions underlying this Federal Government program. Some two years after the release of Working Nation, which outlined the Federal Government's regional development policy, just what has been achieved through the implementation of a program which sought to establish a national network of some thirty to forty Commonwealth Regional Development Organisations (RDOs). After providing a brief overview of the origins and key elements of the Commonwealth's Regional Development Program, this paper examines some of the political and conceptual difficulties inherent in this important policy initiative.

GORDON FORTH

Page Number - 75

In this article the focus of attention is on two issues: the study of the convergence of new approaches to endogenous general economic growth and to regional growth, and the drawing up of policies which aim to create technology parks as instruments of regional economic growth. The approach, initially at least, may be situated within the concept of Marshallian externality, but also within the Buchanan clubs theory. The paper dwells specifically on two aspects: the interaction between economic agents in the process of growth and the existence of a threshold value or critical mass capable of generating self-sustaining development.

JOSÉ ANTONIO ALVAREZ-GONZÁLEZ, FLORA MARÍA DÍAZ-PÉREZ

Page Number - 87