With increasing international competition it is imperative that the South African sugar industry improves cane yields and quality, and curtails production costs. It is thus likely that increasing domestic labour costs will result in the long-run substitution of capital for labour (i.e. increased mechanisation). Given the high cost and indivisible (or lumpy) nature of mechanical inputs, it is im...

We estimate small open economy models with involuntary unemployment using Australian data from 1993 to 2007, focusing on hiring costs and real wage rigidity. We find a strong preference for models with hiring costs, which account for 0.97% of GDP. The data favour models with real over nominal wage rigidity. Impulse responses to technology shocks reveal no productivityemployment puzzle for the p...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the cost-effectiveness of prostaglandin E2 (dinoprostone) vaginal gel for the induction of labour at term from the perspective of the UK's National Health Service. DESIGN Economic evaluation conducted as part of a randomised controlled trial. SETTING Maternity department at a major teaching hospital in London, UK. POPULATION A cohort of 165 pregnant women presenting ...

We develop an urban equilibrium job search model with employed and unemployed individuals where residential mobility of the unemployed is restricted. We assume a standard mono-centric model (firms are located in one location), but allow for imperfect labour markets. In contrast to models with perfect labour markets, the model predicts that the employed are only partially compensated for commuti...

OBJECTIVE Public health in Ontario delivers, promotes and provides each fall the universal influenza immunization program. This paper addresses the question of whether Ontario public health agencies are able to provide the influenza immunization program within the Ministry of Health fiscal funding envelope of $5 per dose. METHODS Actual program delivery data from the 2006 influenza season of ...

BACKGROUND The costs of arthritis to the individuals and the state are considerable. METHODS Cross-sectional analysis of the base population of Health&WealthMOD, a microsimulation model of 45 to 64 year old Australians built on data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics' Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers and STINMOD, an income and savings microsimulation model. RESULTS Individuals ...

Estimating the Wage Elasticity of Labour Supply to a Firm: What Evidence Is There for Monopsony? In this paper we estimate the elasticity of the labour supply to a firm, using data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. Estimation of this elasticity is of particular interest not only in its own right but also because of its relevance to the debate about the ...

The labour requirements and capital costs for the various cane yard layouts in the South African mills vary significantly. The various types of equipment available for cane handling and their effect on the capital and operating costs of the cane yard are discussed.

The authors are extremely grateful to Jude Hillary and Victoria Mimpriss from HM Treasury, who managed the research project, and to other named and unnamed officials in HM Treasury, the Inland Revenue and the Department for Work and Pensions who gave useful comments at various stages of the project's development. We would also like to thank the participants of the IFS seminar organised in Novem...