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New Beats is a project studying Australian journalists whose positions became redundant during or since 2012. The four-year project is funded by the Australian Research Council and is being conducted by a team of researchers at four universities. The project aims to create greater understanding about the process of redundancy in journalism and of the human effects and societal ramifications for an industry undergoing profound change. The project is also a means by which journalists who have been through the redundancy process can share information and gather data on jobs, demand for journalistic expertise, new career directions, re-training, and the impact of redundancy on professional identity, family life and well-being. This submission addresses themes that pertain to the current state of public interest journalism in Australia and around the world, including the role of government in ensuring a viable, independent and diverse range of media services. This inquiry is taking place at a time when the ranks of journalists employed by major news outlets have been in serious decline for a decade. Australian Research Council

This paper examines the early months of trade in goods between the United Kingdom and European Union in the aftermath of Brexit. Controlling for product-time and partner country effects across all European bilateral trade flows, we isolate the contribution of Brexit on trade in the first half of 2021 from other potential common drivers of trade flows including the COVID-19 pandemic. The results show sharp declines in trade from the UK to the EU, the majority of which can be attributed to a Brexit impact. We also document considerable variation across member states and sectors. The effect of Brexit is highly asymmetric, however, with reduction in trade from the EU to the UK approximately half the size of the fall from the UK to EU. This is likely explained by the more gradual implementation of customs checks by the UK. Reductions in trade are identified from the date of the referendum and no evidence of stockpiling in the months prior to Brexit is found on either side.

Epidemiological data are frequently recorded at coarse spatio-temporal resolutions. The aggregation process is done for several reasons: to protect confidential patients' information, to compare with other datasets at a coarser resolution than the original, or to summarize data in a compact manner. However, we lose detailed patterns that follow the original data, which can be of interest for researchers and public health officials. In this paper we propose the use of the penalized composite link model (Eilers, 2007), together with its mixed model representation, to estimate the underlying trend behind grouped data at a finer spatio-temporal resolution. Also, this model allows the incorporation of fine-scale population into the estimation procedure. We assume the underlying trend is smooth across space and time. The mixed model representation enables the use of sophisticated algorithms such as the SAP algorithm of Rodríguez- Álvarez et al. (2015) for fast estimation of the amount of smoothness. We illustrate our proposal with the analysis of data obtained during the largest outbreak of Q fever in the Netherlands. MTM2011-28285-C02-02, MTM2014-52184-P

Neither standard economic theory nor empirical studies provide an unequivocal answer to the question of the effect of changes in house prices on household consumption. Estimating this effect empirically is demanding because both house prices and consumption are influenced by a number of common factors that are difficult to measure. Norwegian studies of the relationship between house prices and consumption have until now been based on time series for the country as a whole. In this article, I investigate the relationship between house prices and consumption using empirical analysis based on Norwegian data at the county level. The results suggest that there is a significant positive correlation between developments in house prices and household consumption. The estimated effects are consistent with the results of more recent studies based on national data for Norway, but are slightly weaker than the results of similar research in other countries.

Maintaining a low rate of inflation and sustainable economic growth are at the core of monetary policymaking. Price stability is considered a condition for a healthy macroeconomic environment which promotes sustainable growth and a low rate of inflation is necessary to maintain stability in the financial sector as well as to boost investment activities. Motivated by the largely-discussed relationship between inflation and output, this paper examines this relationship for the economy of Suriname over the period 1975 to 2015, utilizing a vector autoregressive model and impulse response functions. The findings of the study reveal how the various sources of inflation impact on the economy of Suriname. Domestic price shocks and money-supply shocks, in particular, seem to substantially impact on economic activity. Exchange-rate shocks are detrimental to domestic prices. Based on the findings of this study, it is highly recommended for the Central Bank of Suriname to continue its prudent monetary policies in order to maintain a stable exchange rate and price stability. The study advocates for maintaining a healthy macroeconomic climate with price stability, which is a crucial condition for Suriname to follow a sustained path for economic growth and development. The author is a staff member of the Research Department of the Central Bank of Suriname. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Bank. Research papers constitute work in progress and are published to elicit comments and to further debate.