2024 |
Drew J, Miyazak M, McQuestin D, 'Is 'more' better? Testing the assumption that larger local governments are more sustainable', AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, 83 106-122 (2024) [C1]
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2023 |
McQuestin D, Drew J, Iiboshi H, 'The temporal dependence of public policy evaluation: the case of local government amalgamation', LOCAL GOVERNMENT STUDIES, 49 953-974 (2023) [C1]
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2023 |
Drew J, McQuestin D, Dollery B, 'Fiscal outcomes arising from amalgamation: more complex than merely economies of scale', PUBLIC MANAGEMENT REVIEW, (2023) [C1]
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2023 |
Drew J, Miyazaki M, A Kortt M, 'The other side of the local government ledger The association between revenue growth and population growth', Australian Journal of Public Administration, 82 424-439 (2023) [C1]
Population growth exerts an impact on both sides of the local government accounting ledger¿expenditure and revenue. Despite this fact, the vast scholarly literature on local gover... [more]
Population growth exerts an impact on both sides of the local government accounting ledger¿expenditure and revenue. Despite this fact, the vast scholarly literature on local government finance has been myopically focussed on expenditure functions. This apparent neglect to also consider the revenue side of the ledger is problematic because many regulators across the globe have exhorted local governments to pursue growth according to the assumption that it will promote fiscal health. In this article, we first set out a number of propositions that combine to cast some doubt on the common wisdom dispensed by local government policy-makers. Following this, we empirically explore the effects of population growth on revenue by making recourse to a comprehensive 10-year panel of revenue and population data. We conclude our work with some important public policy recommendations arising from the need to mitigate the prima facie surprising results that we obtain. Points for practitioners: Public policy architects have exhorted local governments to pursue population growth as a way to mitigate financial sustainability problems. However, this advice has been based on assumptions only and not subjected to empirical investigation. Econometric estimations demonstrate a negative association between unit revenue and population growth which means that the policy advice is likely to exacerbate financial distress. A number of changes could be made to local government taxation, pricing, and grants that would mitigate the deleterious effects of population growth on financial sustainability.
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2022 |
Drew J, Miyazaki M, 'The moral justification and practice of intergovernmental equalisation grants to local government - A subsidiarity perspective', AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, 81 3-17 (2022) [C1]
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2022 |
Drew J, McQuestin D, Dollery B, 'Did amalgamation make local government more fit for the future?', AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, 81 383-398 (2022) [C1]
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2022 |
McQuestin D, Noguchi M, Drew J, 'The association between budget inaccuracy and technical efficiency in Australian local government', PUBLIC MONEY & MANAGEMENT, 42 251-261 (2022) [C1]
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2021 |
Miyazaki M, Drew J, 'Successfully navigating the fiscal challenges of the age of the aged: municipal government in Japan', LOCAL GOVERNMENT STUDIES, 47 453-474 (2021) [C1]
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2021 |
McQuestin D, Drew J, Miyazaki M, 'Do Amalgamations Make a Difference? What We can Learn from Evaluating the Policy Success of a Large Scale Forced Amalgamation of Local Government', Public Administration Quarterly, 45 278-298 (2021) [C1]
Deteriorating financial sustainability of local governments internationally has resulted in increased implementation of structural reform programs as a potential solution. However... [more]
Deteriorating financial sustainability of local governments internationally has resulted in increased implementation of structural reform programs as a potential solution. However, the lack of a coherent framework to evaluate policy success has resulted in a myriad of approaches being applied by scholars, sometimes with conflicting results. This inconsistency is problematic given the importance of ex post analyses to the learning process, needed to ensure better decision-making and more efficacious interventions in the future. To address this gap in the literature, we employed the policy success framework along with a number of difference-in-difference analyses to assess the impact of amalgamation following a recent large-scale program. Moreover, in cognisance of the policy success literature, we also introduced a new innovation whereby we conducted empirical estimations on the disaggregated elements of total expenditure. We conclude with an enumeration of important lessons for policymaking and scholarly analysis.
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2021 |
Drew J, 'The principle of subsidiarity and COVID-19: how a moral assessment of public policy success can contribute to learning', AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, 56 393-409 (2021) [C1]
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2020 |
Drew J, Miyazaki M, 'Subsidiarity and the Moral Justification of Intergovernmental Equalization Grants to Decentralized Governments', PUBLIUS-THE JOURNAL OF FEDERALISM, 50 698-709
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2020 |
Drew J, Bernardelli LV, Kortt MA, 'Private exit, public exit, and achievement in secondary education', AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, 79 242-258 (2020)
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2020 |
Drew J, 'SORT[ITION]ING OUT LOCAL GOVERNMENT FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY', Public Administration Quarterly, 44 262-287 (2020)
Many local governments across the globe are facing financial sustainability challenges. Notably these challenges have emerged under extant democratic political institutions where ... [more]
Many local governments across the globe are facing financial sustainability challenges. Notably these challenges have emerged under extant democratic political institutions where the voice of the wider citizenry is often muted, and only heard at infrequent intervals and then in the context of assessing potential representatives according to a bundle of issues. Fiscal institutions such as balanced budget legislation and debt brakes may mitigate some of the financial sustainability problems faced by local government, but are often less than entirely effective owing to the acts of clever politicians who circumvent the spirit, if not the letter, of constraints. We propose a concurrent change to political institutions ¿ specifically the addition of a bi-cameral sortition chamber ¿ which we argue will inter alia enhance the efficacy of fiscal institutions implemented to arrest waning local government financial sustainability by introducing greater accountability, closer monitoring, and a more expedient pathway for censure and enforcement.
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2020 |
Drew J, Dollery B, 'THE ECONOMICS AND POLITICS OF FINANCIAL UNSUSTAINABILITY IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT', Public Administration Quarterly, 44 160-171 (2020)
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2019 |
Drew J, McQuestin D, Dollery BE, 'Good to share? The pecuniary implications of moving to shared service production for local government services', PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, 97 132-146 (2019)
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2019 |
Kortt MA, Drew J, 'Does religious affiliation influence trust?', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL POLICY, 39 38-51 (2019)
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2019 |
Drew J, Razin E, Andrews R, 'Rhetoric in municipal amalgamations: a comparative analysis', LOCAL GOVERNMENT STUDIES, 45 748-767 (2019)
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2019 |
Drew J, 'Can local government by lottery increase democratic responsiveness?', POLICY AND POLITICS, 47 621-636 (2019)
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2019 |
McQuestin D, Drew J, 'Is a problem shared a problem halved? Shared services and municipal efficiency', AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, 78 265-280 (2019)
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2019 |
Drew J, 'How losers can turn into winners in disputatious public policy: a heuristic for prospective herestheticians', AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, 54 167-182 (2019)
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2019 |
Drew J, Kortt MA, Bec A, 'Administering faith: Does the religious institution administering a school influence educational achievement?', JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, 55 342-365 (2019)
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2019 |
Kortt MA, Drew J, 'Does Religion Influence Educational Attainment?', RELIGION & EDUCATION, 46 458-481 (2019)
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2019 |
Drew J, Kortt MA, Fahey G, 'Does size count down under? Australian school performance, school size and public policy', Public Administration Quarterly, 43 527-554 (2019) [C1] |
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2018 |
Dollery BE, Drew JJ, 'Chalk and Cheese: A Comparative Analysis of Local Government Reform Processes in New South Wales and Victoria', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, 41 847-858 (2018)
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2018 |
Drew J, Dollery BE, Blackwell BD, 'A square deal? Mining costs, mining royalties and local government in New South Wales, Australia', RESOURCES POLICY, 55 113-122 (2018)
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2018 |
Drew J, Fahey G, 'Framing unpopular policies and creating policy winners: the role of heresthetics', POLICY AND POLITICS, 46 627-643 (2018)
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2018 |
McQuestin D, Drew J, Dollery B, 'Do Municipal Mergers Improve Technical Efficiency? An Empirical Analysis of the 2008 Queensland Municipal Merger Program', AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, 77 442-455 (2018)
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2018 |
Thien VT, Drew J, Noguchi M, 'The Role of Revenue Volatility in Local Expenditure Volatility: A Comparison of Tokyo Metropolitan Local Governments', ECONOMIC PAPERS, 37 443-455 (2018)
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2018 |
Drew J, 'Playing for keeps: local government distortion of depreciation accruals in response to high-stakes public policy-making', PUBLIC MONEY & MANAGEMENT, 38 57-64 (2018)
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2018 |
Grant B, Drew J, Christensen HE, 'Introduction: Applied ethics in the fractured state', Research in Ethical Issues in Organizations, 20 1-11 (2018)
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2018 |
Drew J, Grant B, 'Natural law, non-voluntary euthanasia, and public policy', Research in Ethical Issues in Organizations, 20 67-82 (2018)
Natural Law philosophy asserts that there are universally binding and universally evident principles that can be determined to guide the actions of persons. Moreover, many of thes... [more]
Natural Law philosophy asserts that there are universally binding and universally evident principles that can be determined to guide the actions of persons. Moreover, many of these principles have been enshrined in both statute and common law, thus ensuring their saliency for staff and institutions charged with palliative care. The authors examine the often emotive and politicized matter of (non-voluntary) euthanasia ¿ acts or omissions made with the intent of causing or hastening death ¿ with reference to Natural Law philosophy. This leads us to propose a number of important public policy remedies to ensure dignity in dying for the patient, and their associates.
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2018 |
McQuestin D, Drew J, 'The Price of Populism: The Association between Directly Elected Mayors and Unit Expenditure in Local Government', LEX LOCALIS-JOURNAL OF LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT, 16 673-691 (2018)
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2018 |
Drew J, O'Flynn J, Grant B, 'Performing what? Exploring and expanding the notion of synecdoche in performance management practice', Public Administration Quarterly, 42 395-424 (2018) [C1] |
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2017 |
Drew J, Grant B, 'Subsidiarity: More than a Principle of Decentralization-a View from Local Government', PUBLIUS-THE JOURNAL OF FEDERALISM, 47 522-545
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2017 |
Drew J, Kortt MA, Dollery B, 'No Aladdin's Cave in New South Wales? Local Government Amalgamation, Scale Economies, and Data Envelopment Analysis Specification', ADMINISTRATION & SOCIETY, 49 1450-1470 (2017)
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2017 |
Drew J, Grant B, Fisher J, 'Re-evaluating local government amalgamations: utility maximisation meets the principle of double effect (PDE)', POLICY AND POLITICS, 45 379-394 (2017)
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2017 |
Dollery B, Drew J, 'Paying the piper: A critical examination of ACIL Allen's (2016) An Economic Assessment of Recasting Council Boundaries in South Australia', ECONOMIC ANALYSIS AND POLICY, 54 74-82 (2017)
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2017 |
Drew J, Grant B, 'Means, Motive, and Opportunity - Local Government Data Distortion in a High-Stakes Environment', AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, 76 237-250 (2017)
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2017 |
Dollery B, Drew J, 'Hired Guns: Local Government Mergers in New South Wales and the KPMG Modelling Report', AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, 27 263-272 (2017)
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2017 |
Drew J, Grant B, 'Multiple agents, blame games and public policy-making: the case of local government reform in New South Wales', AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, 52 37-52 (2017)
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2017 |
Drew J, Dollery B, 'The Price of Democracy? Political Representation Structure and Per Capita Expenditure in Victorian Local Government', URBAN AFFAIRS REVIEW, 53 522-538 (2017)
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2016 |
Drew J, Kortt MA, Dollery B, 'Did the Big Stick Work? An Empirical Assessment of Scale Economies and the Queensland Forced Amalgamation Program', LOCAL GOVERNMENT STUDIES, 42 1-14 (2016)
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2016 |
Drew J, Dollery B, 'Does Size Still Matter? An Empirical Analysis of the Effectiveness of Victorian Local Authorities', LOCAL GOVERNMENT STUDIES, 42 15-28 (2016)
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2016 |
Kortt MA, Dollery B, Drew J, 'Municipal Mergers in New Zealand: An Empirical Analysis of the Proposed Amalgamation of Hawke's Bay Councils', LOCAL GOVERNMENT STUDIES, 42 228-247 (2016)
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2016 |
Drew J, Dollery B, 'What's in a Name? Assessing the Performance of Local Government Classification Systems', LOCAL GOVERNMENT STUDIES, 42 248-266 (2016)
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2016 |
Drew J, Dollery B, 'How High Should They Jump? An Empirical Method for Setting Municipal Financial Ratio Performance Benchmarks', AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, 75 53-64 (2016)
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2016 |
Drew J, Dollery B, Kortt MA, 'Can't Get No Satisfaction? The Association Between Community Satisfaction and Population Size for Victoria', AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, 75 65-77 (2016)
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2016 |
Drew J, Dollery B, 'Less Haste, More Speed: The Fit for the Future Reform Program in New South Wales Local Government', AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, 75 78-88 (2016)
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2016 |
Drew J, Dollery B, 'Summary execution: The impact of alternative summarization strategies on local governments', Public Administration Quarterly, 40 814-841 (2016) |
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2016 |
Bell B, Dollery B, Drew J, 'Learning from experience in NSW?', Economic Papers, 35 99-111 (2016)
While the bulk of the empirical evidence shows that municipal mergers do not improve the performance of local authorities, Australian policy-makers nonetheless continue to impose ... [more]
While the bulk of the empirical evidence shows that municipal mergers do not improve the performance of local authorities, Australian policy-makers nonetheless continue to impose council amalgamation, as illustrated by the current New South Wales Fit for the Future local government reform process. This paper first critically examines the empirical evidence employed by the Independent Local Government Review Panel on the impact of the 2004 council mergers. We argue that this evidence is flawed. We then provide an empirical assessment of the municipal mergers, which occurred over 2000-2004 with our sample drawn from Group 4 councils in the New South Wales variant of the Australian Local Government Classification System. Group 4 councils represent a group of significant regional cities and town councils with similar operational activities. We demonstrate that merged councils have not performed any better than their unmerged peers over the period 2004 to 2014. The paper concludes with some brief policy implications for local government reform in New South Wales and elsewhere.
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2016 |
Drew J, Campbell N, 'Autopsy of municipal failure: The case of central darling shire', Australasian Journal of Regional Studies, 22 79-102 (2016)
Local government plays a vital role in providing infrastructure, services and employment to rural and regional communities. Indeed, threats to the fiscal viability of regional cou... [more]
Local government plays a vital role in providing infrastructure, services and employment to rural and regional communities. Indeed, threats to the fiscal viability of regional councils may well jeopardise the sustainability of an entire community. In December 2013 the New South Wales (NSW) Minister for Local Government suspended Central Darling Shire (in far-western NSW) and appointed an interim Administrator in response to an unprecedented liquidity crisis. In October 2014 a public inquiry recommended extension of the period of administration until September 2020. This paper considers the processes leading up to this extraordinarily lengthy period of financial administration. In particular, we examine the claim that an inequitable allocation of Financial Assistance Grants (FAGs) was a major factor in bringing about the Shire's liquidity crisis. We conclude our analysis with some recommendations for changes to FAG allocations which will help ensure sustainable futures for rural communities.
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2016 |
Dollery B, Kortt MA, Drew J, 'Fostering shared services in local government: A common service model', Australasian Journal of Regional Studies, 22 225-242 (2016)
Structural reform of local government through forced municipal mergers has occurred in a number of countries, including Australia, with mixed success. We argue that shared service... [more]
Structural reform of local government through forced municipal mergers has occurred in a number of countries, including Australia, with mixed success. We argue that shared services arrangements by groups of voluntarily participating councils represent a superior means of securing the advantages of scale and scope in local government, without the heavy costs of the blunt instrument of compulsory council consolidation. However, in practice, the success of shared services has been inhibited in small regional, rural and remote local authorities by the costs of establishing and running shared service entities, which can swamp any savings from shared services. Taking into account the special characteristics of small non-metropolitan councils, we present a Common Service Model tailored to minimise establishment and transactions costs, maximise flexibility, and generate transparency.
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2016 |
Drew J, Dollery B, Kortt MA, 'Peas in a Pod: Are Efficient Municipalities also Financially Sustainable?', AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, 26 122-131 (2016)
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2016 |
Drew J, Dollery B, 'A Factor Analytic Assessment of Financial Sustainability: The Case of New South Wales Local Government', AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, 26 132-140 (2016)
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2016 |
Drew J, Grant B, Campbell N, 'Progressive and reactionary rhetoric in the municipal reform debate in New South Wales, Australia', AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, 51 323-337 (2016)
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2016 |
Dollery B, Drew J, 'In whose interest? : An assessment of the New South Wales government's post-amalgamation rate path freeze policy', Journal of Australian Taxation, 18 143-162 (2016) |
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2016 |
Fahey G, Drew J, Dollery B, 'Merger myths: a functional analysis of scale economies in New South Wales local government', Public Finance and Management, 16 362-382 (2016) |
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2015 |
Drew J, Dollery B, 'Road to Ruin? Horizontal Equalisation of Road Grant Allocations in Eastern Mainland Australian States', Public Administration Quarterly, 39 518-546 (2015) |
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2015 |
Drew J, Kortt M, Dollery B, 'What Determines Efficiency in Local Government? A DEA Analysis of NSW Local Government', Economic Papers, 34 243-256 (2015)
Data envelopment analysis (DEA) has the potential to make strong contributions to the formulation of public policy. In particular, DEA can be used to identify the determinants of ... [more]
Data envelopment analysis (DEA) has the potential to make strong contributions to the formulation of public policy. In particular, DEA can be used to identify the determinants of efficiency and this information can be used to inform debate around municipal boundary reform and other matters. However, there is a dearth of empirical literature on the accurate and correct specification of DEA. We use conceptual considerations to posit an ideal specification for Australian municipal DEA before estimating a number of models to demonstrate the effect of specification on the identification of determinants. Our evidence suggests that incorrect specification may well produce spurious associations and lead to poor public policymaking.
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2015 |
Drew J, Dollery B, 'The State of Things: The Dynamic Efficiency of Australian State and Territories', Economic Papers, 34 165-176 (2015)
This paper uses intertemporal and locally intertemporal data envelopment analysis to examine inter alia how yardstick competition, heterogeneity, innovation and competition for bu... [more]
This paper uses intertemporal and locally intertemporal data envelopment analysis to examine inter alia how yardstick competition, heterogeneity, innovation and competition for business and capital manifest themselves in the Australian federation over the period 2007¿2012. The incidence of the Global Financial Crisis during this period also facilitated the testing of a hypothesis on how Australian state and territory jurisdictions might be expected to respond to a uniform macro-economic shock. Intertemporal evidence provided support for the contention that federalism fosters ¿democratic laboratories.¿ The locally intertemporal analysis provided empirical evidence to support the hypothesis that competitive tensions result in increases to the relative efficiency ceteris paribus of sub-optimal jurisdictions over time. Moreover, some evidence was found to support the proposition that imitation of best practice leads to converging efficiency between comparable peer jurisdictions.
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2015 |
Drew J, Dollery B, 'A fair go? A response to the Independent Local Government Review Panel's assessment of municipal taxation in NSW', Australian Tax Forum: a journal of taxation policy, law and reform, 30 471-489 (2015) |
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2015 |
Drew J, Dollery B, 'Debate: Rejoinder to Sansom (2015)', PUBLIC MONEY & MANAGEMENT, 35 395-396 (2015)
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2015 |
Drew J, Dollery B, 'Inconsistent Depreciation Practice and Public Policymaking: Local Government Reform in New South Wales', AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, 25 28-37 (2015)
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2015 |
Drew J, Dollery B, 'Careful what you wish for: Rate-capping in Victorian local government', Journal of Australian Taxation, 17 139-167 (2015) |
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2015 |
Drew J, Dollery B, 'Breaking up is hard to do: the costs of de-amalgamation of the Delatite Shire Council', Public Finance and Management, 15 1-23 (2015) |
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2014 |
Drew J, Kortt MA, Dollery B, 'Economies of Scale and Local Government Expenditure: Evidence From Australia', ADMINISTRATION & SOCIETY, 46 632-653 (2014)
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2014 |
Drew J, Dollery B, 'Would Bigger Councils Yield Scale Economies in the Greater Perth Metropolitan Region? A Critique of the Metropolitan Local Government Review for Perth Local Government', AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, 73 128-137 (2014)
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2014 |
Drew J, Dollery B, 'Keeping It In-House: Households Versus Population as Alternative Proxies for Local Government Output', AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, 73 235-246 (2014)
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2014 |
Drew J, Dollery B, 'Separation anxiety: an empirical evaluation of the Australian Sunshine Coast Regional Council de-amalgamation', PUBLIC MONEY & MANAGEMENT, 34 213-220 (2014)
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2014 |
Drew J, Dollery B, 'The impact of metropolitan amalgamations in Sydney on municipal financial sustainability', PUBLIC MONEY & MANAGEMENT, 34 281-288 (2014)
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2013 |
Drew J, Kortt MA, Dollery B, 'A Cautionary Tale: Council Amalgamation in Tasmania and the Deloitte Access Economics Report', AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, 72 55-65 (2013)
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