Issue 1

MICHAEL P. CAMERON, ROLF GERRITSON, AZIZUR RAHMAN

Page Number - 1

The surge in house prices, post COVID, presented a tremendous challenge to the Government in Australia. Enhancing purchase affordability, especially for new entrants of the housing market, that is the first home buyers, is the top priority for the current government. Several housing programmes have been proposed which aim to target and help low- and moderate-income families into homeownership. This paper analyses features of two of these programmes, namely “First home guarantee scheme” (FHGS) and “Help to buy scheme” (HTBS). Using Queensland as a case study, a housing microsimulation model is used to conduct a comparative analysis of these two programmes. The impact of these two programmes has been evaluated on the basis of their impact on the number of potential first-time buyers who can achieve home ownership. Results suggest that the FHGS can be more helpful in increasing rates of homeownership than the HTBS.

GUL RUKH SHAKIR

Page Number - 3

Residential land values and housing prices across regional Australia have outpaced those of capital cities over the past five years, primarily driven by forces of market demand. This paper commences with a review of the movement in land values and examines the key factors that have driven demand for residential land and housing in regional New South Wales (NSW). By reviewing submissions to the NSW Regional Housing Taskforce 2022, the paper explores the feedback and factors that have impacted, and will continue to impact, land values and housing demand in the medium term. Through thematic analysis, this paper finds a shift towards lifestyle living and second dwelling ownership and a change in workforce demand have increased the demand for regional housing. This is compounded by the demand for short-term worker accommodation and the conversion of long-term rentals into short-term stays. These factors have profoundly increased demand for housing and residential land values across regional NSW.

VINCE MANGIONI, JANET GE, SONG SHI, SHANAKA HERATH

Page Number - 25

This study measures the efficiency of health expenditures in improving child mortality outcomes, one of the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Bootstrap data envelopment analysis was used to evaluate the efficiency of 127 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) from 2010 to 2019. We found that 45 percent of the LMICs operated at decreasing returns to scale (DRS), implying that an increase in inputs could generate only a smaller increase in health outcomes, whereas 53 percent exhibited increasing returns to scale, indicating that an increase in health expenditure could lead to a greater increase in health outcomes. The findings of the study also have greater policy implications. It suggests that countries which perform at DRS could deliberate on reallocating resources to improve their health outcomes since these countries may not benefit from an increase in the input level as their output will not increase at the same rate. Therefore, governments should focus on improving efficiency rather than increasing health expenditure, thereby enabling the achievement of the SDG target.

PINAK SARKAR, NUTAN SHASHI TIGGA

Page Number - 48

How has COVID-19 impacted on the financial services sector? This paper attempts to answer the question by investigating the sector revenues across the four regions in the U.S. My findings show that there are negative impacts of COVID-19 on the sector revenues. Specifically, regions with a larger financial services sector are more likely to be affected by the pandemic. To rebuild more resilient financial systems, it is imperative to understand the key factors contributing to the differences of negative impacts on those regions. By employing multiple discriminant analysis (MDA), the results indicate that before COVID-19, labour determined revenue differences across regions, while during the pandemic, local, state, and federal taxes played the key roles. My findings and discussions aim to inform policy makers in decision-making processes during this outbreak.

HUONG NGUYEN

Page Number - 69