Engaging the New World: Responses to the  Knowledge Economy

The global knowledge economy has fundamentally transformed economies around the world. The sharp decline in full-time employment, the relationships between joblessness and poverty, and the inadequacy of retirement incomes are just some of the issues it has created.

In Engaging the New World leading economic analysts discuss the wide-ranging impact of the information economy - on education, agriculture, health care, pharmaceuticals, public finance and regional economics . These issues, critical to national and global economic policy today, are explored with the aim of stimulating the development of appropriate policies for the future.

With contributions from prominent Australian and international economists including Bob Gregory, Ann Harding, Frank Lichtenberg, Simon Marginson, William Melody, John Quiggin and Peter Saunders, Engaging the New World is published as a tribute to the work of Peter Sheehan. It reflects his outstanding contribution to public discourse in Australia as a researcher, writer, leader and adviser to governments.

Edited by Bhajan Grewal and Margarita Kumnick
Published by Melbourne University Press
May 2006, 600 pp.  $A45  ISBN 0-522-85267-X

Click here to order this publication online.
Also available at Victoria University Bookshop.

CONTENTS

Editors' Introduction by BHAJAN GREWAL

Biographical Introduction by ROBERT FORDHAM, Former Deputy Premier of Victoria

GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY
1.   Preparing to Govern in the Knowledge Economy
      WILLIAM H.  MELODY
2.   Rethinking the Economics of Education: The Public/Private Divide in Higher Education
      SIMON MARGINSON
3.   Ending Failure in our Schools: The Challenges for Public Sector Management and Higher Education
       RICHARD TEESE
4.   Australian Agriculture in the Knowledge Economy
       AINSLEY JOLLEY
5.   The Role of University in China's National Innovation System: In Search of a New Role
       LAN XUE
6.   Research Practices and Scholarly Communication in the Digital Environment
      JOHN W. HOUGHTON, COLLIN STEELE and MARGARET HENTY

HEALTH CARE AND PHARMACEUTICALS
7.    The Benefits to Society of New Drugs: A Survey of the Econometric Evidence
        FRANK R. LICHTENBERG
8.    Five Observations on Financing Health Care
       JOHN QUIGGIN
9.    Innovation and Industry Structure in the Biomedical Industry: Role of Alliance
       BRUCE RASMUSSEN
10.  The Social Reality of Health
        MARK SHEEHAN
11.  Australian Pharmaceutical Pricing in a Global Context: Trends and Issues, KIM SWEENY

EMPLOYMENT, RETIREMENT AND WELFARE
12.   A Perennial Problem: Employment, Joblessness and Poverty, PETER SAUNDERS
13.   More Unemployed People Find Jobs in Recessions than in Booms, ROBERT DIXON
14.   Back to the Future, Yet Again? Revisiting Interactions between Male Full Time Job Loss and the Australian
        Welfare System
        ROBERT G. GREGORY
15.   Retirement Incomes and Australia's Ageing Population
        SIMON KELLY and ANN HARDING
16.   The Welfare of Women: The Case of Northern Ireland
         VANI K. BOROOAH

PUBLIC FINANCE AND REGIONAL ECONOMIES
17.   Finance in Development
        JOHN LANGMORE
18.   Budget Management Reform in China
        JIM BRUMBY
19.   A Review of the Microfinance Movement in China
         ENJIANG CHENG
20.   Reflections on Government Business Reform in Australia
         PAUL MOY
21.   Productivity, Participation and Population in the Australian States
        PETER CROSSMAN
22.   Regional Disparities: A Continuing Policy Challenge for China
        BHAJAN GREWAL and FIONA FANGHONG SUN
23.   Sense and Nonsense in Government Accrual Accounting and Budgeting Systems
        ALLAN BARTON

List of Contributors