Purpose - This purpose of this paper is to investigate the existence of cointegration and causality between the stock market price indices of Thailand and its major trading partners (Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, the UK and the USA), using monthly data spanning December 1987 to December 2005. Design/methodology/approach - This paper used both the Engle-Granger two-step procedure (assuming no structural breaks) and the Gregory and Hansen test (allowing for one structural break) provide no evidence of a long-run relationship between the stock prices of Thailand and these countries. Findings - Based on the empirical results obtained from these two residual-based cointegration tests, potential long-run benefits exist from diversifying the investment portfolios internationally to reduce the associated systematic risks across countries. However, in the short-run, three unidirectional Granger causalities run from the stock returns of Hong Kong, the Philippines and the UK to those of Thailand, pairwise. Furthermore, there are two unidirectional causalities running from the stock returns of Thailand to those of Indonesia and the USA. Empirical evidence was also found of bidirectional Granger causality, suggesting that the stock returns of Thailand and three of its neighbouring countries (Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan) are interrelated. Originality/value - No previous study examines the possibility that the pair-wise long-run relationship between the stock prices of Thailand and those of both emerging and developed markets may have been subject to a structural break.

This paper examines the long- and short-run determinants of the demand for money in six countries in the Asian-Pacific region using panel data (1975- 2002). Various country-specific coefficients are allowed to capture inter-country heterogeneities. Consistent with theoretical postulates, it is found that (a) the demand for money in the long-run positively responds to real income and inversely to the interest rate spread, inflation, the real effective exchange rate, and the US real interest rate; (b) the long-run income elasticity is greater than unity; and (c) both the currency substitution and capital mobility hypotheses hold only in the long run.

The productivity and efficiency of the financial sector is pivotal to the attainment of economic growth and development in developed and developing economies alike, and is of particular interest in the wake of financial sector reform and restructuring. This study applies the Malmquist productivity index to measure and decompose the total factor productivity change of ten financial institutions in Botswana in its postreform era, covering the period 2001-2006, into a 'catching up' or efficiency change, and a 'frontier shift' or technological change. The robustness and sensitivity of the empirical results presented are assessed by comparing outcomes from different input and output combinations derived from using the value added, intermediation and operating approaches. The empirical results indicate a loss or little productivity gain in Botswana's financial institutions, arising mainly from technological regress. Policy implications from this are highlighted in the paper.

This is the first Australian study to apply the hedonic pricing method to value environmental quality of an urban water body. It demonstrates the technique using a case study of a degraded urban lake that is currently undergoing a programme of water quality restoration and foreshore improvements. The results show that the community places significant value on proximity to the lake and on waterfront location. A range of other data was also generated that adds to the usefulness of this approach for general planning purposes. It is suggested that this technique would be a useful tool to aid in the allocation of public funds among competing environmental improvement projects.

This article presents a cross-sectional model for forecasting research output across the Australian university system. It builds upon an existing literature that focuses either on institutional comparisons or studies of specific subjects, by providing discipline-specific results across all of the 10 major disciplinary areas as defined by Australia's Department of Education, Science and Training. The model draws upon four (highly significant) discipline-specific explanatory variables; staff size, research expenditure, PhD completions and student-staff ratios to predict the output of refereed articles.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between stock market returns of 13 countries based upon monthly data spanning December 1987 to April 2007. Design/methodology/approach - Specifically, the principal component (PC) and maximum likelihood (ML) methods are used to examine any discernable patterns of stock market co-movements. Findings - Factor analysis provides evidence that stock returns in a number of Asian countries are highly correlated and, based on the resulting robust factor loadings, they form the first well-defined common factor. The paper also finds consistent results (based on both the PC and ML methods) suggesting that the stock market returns of developed countries are also highly correlated, and constitute our second factor. Practical implications - The paper concludes that, inter alia, geographical proximity and the level of economic development do matter when it comes to co-movements of stock returns and that this has important implications for financial portfolio diversification if the aim is to reduce systematic risks across countries. Originality/value - Very few previous studies have investigated the benefits from portfolio diversification by using the PC and ML methods.

Both global and domestic economic growth remained robust in 2007 resulting in historically low unemployment and high labour force participation in Australia. However, these favourable labour force statistics were overshadowed for much of the year by a number of other issues such as the continuing drought, high oil and petrol prices and associated inflation and interest rate pressures, a November federal election, and the first full year of the operation of the Work Choices legislation. This article will address each of these issues by presenting an analysis of the macroeconomy and labour market, and reviewing the labour market implications of the Work Choices legislation in Australia.