Changing Fortunes: a Brief History of CSIRO Funding from Treasury and External Sources, 1926 to 2015

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ted Lefroy ◽  
Luciana L. Porfirio

The proportion of funds received by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organisation (CSIRO) from sources other than Treasury, referred to as external earnings, has been used by the Australian government as an indicator of CSIRO's engagement with industry and contribution to the economy. Two periods of decline in external earnings in the 1940s and the 1980s were followed by enquiries into the organisation's purpose and operation, amendments to CSIRO's enabling legislation and introduction of measures to improve industry engagement. After 1988 these measures included a 30% external earnings target. External earnings subsequently rose from 24% of total revenue in 1988/89 to average 36% over the period to 2014/15, peaking at 51% in 2011. Following a review in 2002 the target was removed due to its unintended consequences that included encouraging competition with private industry, placing emphasis on earning capacity over public good, and acting as a disincentive to innovation and collaboration.

2021 ◽  
pp. 002234332098421
Author(s):  
Sam Whitt

This study considers how ethnic trust and minority status can impact the ability of ethnic groups to pursue cooperative public goods, focusing on groups with a history of conflict and lingering hostility. A public good experiment between ethnic Albanians and Serbs in postwar Kosovo reveals that subjects contribute far more to a mutually beneficial public good when they are part of an experimentally induced coethnic majority. However, when in the minority, subjects not only underinvest, but many actively divest entirely, privatizing the public good. Majority/minority status also has wide-ranging implications for how individuals relate to real-world public goods and the institutions of government that provide them. Compared to majority Albanians, survey data indicate how minority Serbs in Kosovo express greater safety and security concerns, feel more politically, socially, and economically excluded, are more dissatisfied with civil liberties and human rights protections, and are less likely to participate politically or pay taxes to support public goods. Conflict-related victimization and distrust of out-groups are strong predictors of these minority group attitudes and behaviors. This suggests a mechanism for how conflict amplifies out-group distrust, increasing parochial bias in public good commitments, especially among minorities who are wary of exploitation at the hands of an out-group majority. To restore trust, this study finds that institutional trust and intergroup contact are important to bridging ethnic divides that inhibit public good cooperation.


Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (8) ◽  
pp. 2219
Author(s):  
George Cosmin Nadăș ◽  
Cristiana Ștefania Novac ◽  
Ioana Adriana Matei ◽  
Cosmina Maria Bouari ◽  
Zoltan Miklos Gal ◽  
...  

The conjunctival bacterial resident and opportunistic flora of dogs may represent a major source of dissemination of pathogens throughout the environment or to other animals and humans. Nevertheless, contamination with bacteria from external sources is common. In this context, the study of the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) pattern may represent an indicator of multidrug resistant (MDR) strains exchange. The present study was focused on a single predisposed breed—Saint Bernard. The evaluated animals were healthy, but about half had a history of ocular disease/treatment. The swabs collected from conjunctival sacs were evaluated by conventional microbiological cultivation and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST). The most prevalent Gram-positive was Staphylococcus spp.; regardless of the history, while Gram-negative was Pseudomonas spp.; exclusively from dogs with a history of ocular disease/treatment. Other identified genera were represented by Bacillus, Streptococcus, Trueperella, Aeromonas and Neisseria. The obtained results suggest a possible association between the presence of mixed flora and a history of ocular disease/treatment. A high AMR was generally observed (90%) in all isolates, especially for kanamycin, doxycycline, chloramphenicol and penicillin. MDR was recorded in Staphylococcus spp. and Pseudomonas spp. This result together with a well-known zoonotic potential may suggest an exchange of these strains within animal human populations and the environment.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 387-404
Author(s):  
Say H. GOO

AbstractThis paper points out the problems of the current law on directors’ duties that forces directors to ignore stakeholder interests, with the unintended consequences of misallocation of resources and the weaknesses of a traditional legal approach to law reform, and uses multiple stakeholder boards as an example to demonstrate how an economic efficiency approach to law reform, adopting economic principles, could avoid some of the unintended consequences of a legal approach to law reform and help design better rules that promote allocative efficiency for the benefit of society as a whole. It argues that international organizations should take the lead in promoting the use of stakeholder directors in the board of directors of multinational corporations that have a history of corporate abuses for corporate decisions that have an impact on all stakeholders.


Author(s):  
Paola Bertucci

This chapter talks about early attempts to constitute associations dedicated to the improvement of the mechanical arts, casting light in particular on the earlier, little-known Société des Arts founded in Paris during the Regency (1718). It frames such associations within the broader economic history of France, with special attention to the history of artisans' migrations between France and England, and the demands deriving from France's colonial expansion. Artistes involved in these associations advocated a clear distinction between theoretical and practical knowledge, which aimed to discredit the expertise of academic institutions in technical matters. Appropriating Francis Bacon's distinction between operative and speculative knowledge, artistes contrasted the philosophers' search for truth to their expertise on practical matters and their concern with public good.


2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matías Maggio-Ramírez

El objetivo es analizar cómo el texto fundacional y el reglamento de la Biblioteca Pública de Buenos Aires interpelaron a los usuarios y cuál fue la reacción del público una vez que la institución abrió sus puertas. Por lo tanto, se rastreó la tensión entre un paradigma bibliotecológico que apelaba al fomento del saber y al bien público como objetivo institucional y las demandas de los usuarios por el horario restringido de la biblioteca. Se analizaron desde la historia de la cultura impresa las representaciones de la lectura y de la sociabilidad letrada al leer la correspondencia entre Bernardino Rivadavia y Luis José de Chorroarín, el reglamento de la Biblioteca Pública de Buenos Aires y los periódicos porteños. Se concluyó que la negativa en ampliar el horario de atención al público conspiró con el acceso a la biblioteca de los empleados. The objective is to analyze how the founding text and regulations of the Buenos Aires Public Library challenged users and what the public's reaction was once the institution opened its doors. Therefore, we traced the tension between a library paradigm that appealed to the promotion of knowledge and the public good as an institutional objective and the demands of users due to the restricted library hours. From the history of printed culture, the representations of reading and the sociability of the reader when reading the correspondence between Bernardino Rivadavia and Luis José de Chorroarín, the regulations of the Buenos Aires Public Library and the Buenos Aires newspapers were analyzed. It was concluded that the refusal to extend the opening hours to the public conspired with the access to the library of the employees. A fundação da Biblioteca Pública de Buenos Aires em 1810, pelo Primeiro Conselho de Governo, foi um marco no panorama cultural da cidade. A promoção do conhecimento esclarecido em busca do "bem público" e da "felicidade dos povos" foi um ponto crucial na cultura colonial tardia em Buenos Aires. Os leitores enviaram livros de redação como uma doação à Biblioteca, mas nem todos puderam acessá-los. A regulamentação de 1812 foi o surgimento de uma idéia da biblioteca e das práticas culturais a ela ligadas. O objetivo do artigo é investigar, a partir da análise comparativa dos regulamentos da biblioteca, a configuração da biblioteca pública durante o processo revolucionário. O leitor presente no regulamento, ao qual foi concedido acesso, não representava os moradores da cidade, devido ao horário de funcionamento restrito ao público.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonia Schurig

In order to calculate the unintended consequences of their policies, governments conduct comprehensive assessments of the impact of legislation. In doing so, they have independent expert committees monitor them on an increasingly frequent basis. However, in what ways do these committees have an influence in this respect? And what role do they play as policy advisors in terms of dismantling bureaucracy and better legislation? This book provides new insights into the history of the development of the three most experienced supervisory bodies in Europe and the reality of how they conduct themselves. Against the backdrop of various administrative cultures, the book presents the following types of supervisory committees in detail: ‘watchdog’, ‘gatekeeper’ and ‘critical friend’. Its findings intensify the political and academic debate on the performance and efficiency of supervisory bodies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 152-169
Author(s):  
Sandra J. Peart

AbstractThis essay examines the administrative state as a ubiquitous phenomenon that results in part from the mismatch of incentives. Using two dramatic episodes in the history of economics, the essay considers two types of mismatch. It then examines how economists increasingly endorsed the “general good” as a unitary goal for society, even at the expense of private hopes and desires. More than this, their procedures and models gave them warrant to design mechanisms and advocate for legislation and regulations to “fix” the supposedly suboptimal choices of individuals in service to the overarching goal. The rise of New Welfare Economics dealt an additional blow to the sovereignty of individual motivations, notwithstanding that Hayek and Buchanan warned that this engineering approach allowed social goals to override individual preferences. Throughout, the argument is that it is important to recognize that people within or advising the administrative state are influenced by the same sorts of (private) motivations as actors throughout the economy.


Author(s):  
Fran Quigley

The history of medicines shows they have long been treated as a public good, off limits for patent monopolies. Medicine patents are artificial, recent, and government-created. Now, the U.S. and Big Pharma use trade agreements to play the bully in extending patents, harming patients in poorer countries.


2019 ◽  
pp. 67-80
Author(s):  
Rachel Hammersley

Chapter 4 focuses on the nature of Harrington’s republicanism and the key features of his ‘equal commonwealth’. It begins by examining the complex publishing history of Oceana and the political and intellectual context in which that work was written. It then traces Harrington’s commitment to key features of commonwealth government: his use of republican models ancient and modern, his adoption of the neo-Roman understanding of liberty and his conflict with Thomas Hobbes on this issue, and his commitment to government in accordance with reason and the public good. Harrington’s understanding of, and emphasis on, the concepts of empire and authority are then explored. Finally, the central features of his equal commonwealth are set out: the agrarian law to ensure equality at the foundation, and then a bicameral legislature, rotation of office, and the Venetian ballot to secure equality and prevent corruption in the superstructure.


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