Mark Drummond PhD Thesis Website


In 2007 I completed a University of Canberra PhD thesis titled Costing Constitutional Change: Estimates of the Financial Benefits of New States, Regional Governments, Unification and Related Reforms.  This thesis is available online in full in pdf format as part of the Australasian Digital Thesis collection via the University of Canberra library.  This website also presents my PhD thesis in full, with separate files for each chapter and appendix of the thesis, again in pdf format.   Also included here are three versions of the final PhD seminar I delivered at the University of Canberra on 4 October 2006.

The final pre-examination and post-examination copies of my thesis comprised two printed volumes.  Volume 1 contains the main body of the thesis and Volume 2 contains nine appendices.  A compact disc (CD) hosts another 50 appendices.  Appendices have been allocated to Volume 2 and the CD according to criteria described on pages I and II at the start of Volume 2.

The thesis and its various components are listed and linked to in turn as follows:


Volume 1

Beginnings

Chapter 1.   Introduction

PART I:  Survey of Past Estimates

Chapter 2.   Past Estimates of the Financial Benefits of New States and Regional Government Models

Chapter 3.   Past Estimates of the Financial Benefits of Unification

Chapter 4.   Past Estimates of the Financial Benefits of Functional Transfers

Chapter 5.   Private Sector and Economy-Wide Regulatory Costs and Reform Benefits

PART II:  Classifications and Data

Chapter 6.   Preliminary Classifications and Data

Chapter 7.   Expenditure Categories

Chapter 8.   Expenditure Data

Chapter 9.   Government Structure Classifications and Transformations

PART III:  New Relative Financial Benefit Estimates

Chapter 10.  Methodology:  Relative Benefit Estimation Techniques

Chapter 11.  Estimates for New States, Fewer States and Regional Government Models Not Involving Functional Transfers

Chapter 12.  Estimates for Unification Models

Chapter 13.  Estimates for Functional Transfer Models and New States, Fewer States and Regional Government Models Involving Functional Transfers

Chapter 14.  Further Reflections on Relative Benefit Estimates

Chapter 15.  Conclusions

Notes

Bibliography


Volume 2

Appendix 1C:    Costing Constitutional Change: Estimating the Costs of Five Variations on Australia's Federal System (2002 journal article)

Appendix 5C:    Australia's Unique Geography and Climate: Particular Challenges Demanding Supportive Government Structures

Appendix 8A:    Actual Expenditures, Per Capita Expenditures and Relative Expenditures

Appendix 10B:  Sample Relative Benefit Estimate Calculations

Appendix 10F:  The Application of Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis to Australia's STU Private Sectors and Private Sector Expenditure Categories

Appendix 10H:  Regression Technique Graphs

Appendix 11A:  Full Per Capita Benchmarking Technique Tables

Appendix 12A:  Further Regression Technique Results Supporting Chapter 12

Appendix 15A:  Recommendations


Appendices on CD

Appendix 1A:    Paper Prepared for the Office of Jim Snow in 1995

Appendix 1B:    Estimates in Rodney Hall's 1998 book Abolish the States!

Appendix 1D:    Examination of Federalism's Suitability in Australia Relative to the United States, Switzerland, Canada, India, Germany and Belgium (Masters thesis – selected extracts only)

Appendix 2A:    Australian New States Proposals

Appendix 2B:    Regional Government Models

Appendix 2C:    Selected Australian Regionalisations

Appendix 2D:    Australia's Settlement Patterns and Local Governments

Appendix 2E:    Appropriate Scales for Australian Sub-National Governments

Appendix 3A:    Pre-Federation Unification Proposals

Appendix 3B:    Letter by NSW Premier Sir George Dibbs to Victorian Premier Sir James Patterson, Dated 12 June 1894

Appendix 3C:    Unification Policies and Proposals of the Australian Labor Party and John Boyd Steel

Appendix 3D:    Post-Federation Unification Proposals

Appendix 3E:    Recent Media Reports Calling for the Abolition of State Governments

Appendix 3F:    Further Explanation of Rodney Hall's 1998 Estimates

Appendix 3G:    Further Perspectives on the Financial Benefits of Local Government Amalgamations

Appendix 3H:    Border Effects

Appendix 3I:     Border Anomalies

Appendix 3J:    Cross-Border Issues and Australian Bushfires

Appendix 3K:    Benefits Possible Through Commonwealth-State Vertical Integration

Appendix 4A:    Proposals to Transfer the Education Function, or Part Thereof, from the States and Territories to the Commonwealth

Appendix 4B:    Proposals to Transfer the Health Function, or Part Thereof, from the States and Territories to the Commonwealth

Appendix 4C:    Two Papers Presented at the 2003 Australian Health Care Summit: Paper 1 and Paper 2.

Appendix 4D:    Proposals to Transfer Law, Order and Safety Functions from the States and Territories to the Commonwealth

Appendix 4E:    Proposals to Transfer Multiple Functions from the States and Territories to the Commonwealth

Appendix 5A:    Further Accounts of Regulatory Costs Associated with Australia's Current Government Structures

Appendix 5B:    Government Structure Issues Raised by CEDA in 2005

Appendix 5D:    Australia's Exports and Primary Industries

Appendix 5E:    Australia's Wealth Compared to that of Other Countries

Appendix 5F:    Australia's Geographic Remoteness and Associated Impacts on Transport Costs, Trade Performance and Economic Outcomes Generally

Appendix 5G:    Australia's Unique Geography

Appendix 5H:    Australia's Unique Climate

Appendix 6A:    Comparison of Australia and 25 Other Countries in Terms of Political Size and Centralisation

Appendix 7A:    Major Private and Public Sector Components of Australia's National and State-Territory Economies

Appendix 8B:    Inflation Adjustment Formula and Related Results

Appendix 10A:    Goodness of Fit Analyses

Appendix 10C:    Derivation of Result [10.31]

Appendix 10D:    Intercept and Cross-Over Populations

Appendix 10E:    Linearity Preservation in Multi-Function and Multi-Region Aggregations

Appendix 10G:    Regression Coefficient Analyses

Appendix 10I:     Tangential Extension Equations and Coefficients

Appendix 10J:    Detailed Descriptions of Progressive Amalgamation Technique Formulations

Appendix 10K:    Demonstration that the Per Capita Version of the Quadratic Expenditure Function Can be U-shaped

Appendix 12B:    Full Linear Regression Technique Tables

Appendix 12C:    Quadratic Regression and Quadratic Tangential Extension Technique Relative Benefit Estimates

Appendix 12D:    Power Regression and Power Tangential Extension Technique Relative Benefit Estimates

Appendix 12E:    Composite RB Estimates

Appendix 12F:    Progressive Amalgamation Technique Relative Benefit Estimates

Appendix 14A:    The Commonwealth Grants Commission and its Methodologies, and Resultant Grant Levels

Appendix 14B:    Tax Expenditures: Definitions, Descriptions and Reporting by Australian Governments

Appendix 14C:    Australia's National and State-Territory Level Economic Geographies



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