Australia Archives | Emeritus Professor John Mangan

Scare as Hen’s Teeth: Rugby League in the Movies

28/03/2026

Introduction Despite its deep cultural roots in Australia, Northern England, and New Zealand — and despite its 131year separation from Rugby Union in 1895 — Rugby League has rarely been explored in film or documentary. This stands in stark contrast to soccer, whose global popularity has inspired internationally recognised films such as Fever Pitch (1997), Bend It Like Beckham (2002), and Kicking and Screaming (2005). Even the AFL, with its strong domestic following, has not generated a significant cinematic footprint.

Income Inequality in Australia Since 1975: Trends, Drivers, and Policy Responses

28/02/2026

Introduction Income inequality is now of central concern in Australian economic and social policy debates. Since the 1970s, Australia has transitioned from a highly regulated labour market with strong wage compression to a more flexible, globalised economy (Leigh 2013). These structural changes have influenced the distribution of income, with inequality rising over time before plateauing in the 2010s. To document these changes and account for breaks in ABS data it was necessary to construct a data set from the available

The Shizuoka Senior Citizen Fitness Club

20/02/2026

(Shizuka, December 14 6.25 am) After a peaceful sleep on floor mates, I am getting ready to join the Shizuoka fitness group with my neighbour and land- lord Mr Shida. Desperate for some exercise after a long flight from Australia and two weeks of no activity, I join the group , but I’m not sure if I’ll be up to this- the Japanese are famous for extreme exercise. My fears are somewhat eased when I’m introduced to one of my

What now for the Japanese Economy: An interview with with one of Japan’s leading business consultants

06/02/2026

Introduction Introduction During my recent visit to Japan, I was fortunate enough to talk and discuss the Japanese economy with one of Japan’s leading business consultants at the American Club in Tokyo. Surprisingly, although I had undertaken, what I considered due diligence in terms of reviewing the available economic data, his views and mine on the current and future outlook for the Japanese economy differed sharply. While I cited evidence of falling per capita income (Japan now ranked 24th in the world

The Labour Market in “Home and Away” (Australian soap opera)

21/11/2025

If you are sick, need a tradesperson, want good police protection and like sports and entertainment, Summer Bay may be the place for you, despite its high mortality rate! Introduction The popular series Home and Away began in 1988, Set in the fictional coastal town of Summer Bay began with the original premise of Tom and Pippa Fletcher moving to Summer Bay with their foster children, aiming to provide a stable home for troubled youth It is Australia’s 8th longest

Why would you shop at an unfriendly grocer?

14/11/2025

On visiting a seaside resort town, I came across a shop called the “Friendly Grocer”. I wondered why it was necessary to specify friendliness?. Would customers shop, all things being equal, at an unfriendly grocer? and does greeting customers with a smile allow for higher prices? On inspection a number of unnecessary and even suspicious business names to be found Pet friendly Vet Quality meats Honest Solicitor Accurate accountants (just made this one up) Reliable Plumbing Honest Auto Repairs Perfect

Perspectives on the Japanese economy – series II

07/11/2025

Series II Reasons behind the slowdown; standard economic cycle behaviour or a peculiarly Japanese problem? All economies go through cycles. Standard economic cycles range from 5-7 years, The unusual feature of the Japanese path is that it has been sustained for longer than normal. As will be argued below, the decline in the high savings rate, formerly a bedrock of the Japanese economy is seen a principal reasons for this decline but there are other characteristics of the Japanese economy

Perspectives on the Japanese economy – series I

02/11/2025

Series I Introduction The Japanese economy and its stunning economic success were a major topic of discussion for economics students in Australia in the 1970s. I learned with much interest about the post war Japanese economic miracle which began in the 1960’s. The dominance of Japanese in electronics and cars well into the 1980’s confirmed the appearance of continuing economic prosperity. Yet within this growth and consolidation period there was always a nagging concern ; The Japanese national debt was always

Teachers as health workers; a consideration of the economic impacts using unique survey data

11/10/2025

Abstract Teachers face a multiplicity task in undertaking their work. Some of these tasks are not primarily educational and may be described as health related. In the provision of these services there is a net transfer of economic benefit from the Education Sector to the Health Sector. Disentangling the net amount of this transfer is difficult and depends largely upon the substitutability between teacher-initiated health-work and “market” based health work which might reasonably be carried out by health professionals. The

Placing an economic value on clinical service interventions using self-reported data

22/08/2025

This presentation examines the value of and necessity for economic evaluation of community based educational health initiatives. In house evaluation of these initiatives are often based on self-reported data that requires analysis for both reliability and suitability in economic evaluation. This presentation sets out to describe the necessary steps to provide rigorous economic evaluations of community health initiatives designed to reduce the incidence and impact of type 2 diabetes.

Category: Australia