The structure and performance of Tasmanian manufacturing industries

This study makes use of two statistical methods, namely cluster analysis and discriminant analysis, to attempt to identify significant statistical relationships which may exist between various structural characteristics which are perceived to be of importance to the Tasmanian economy and certain aspects of the economic performance of manufacturing activities operating within the economy. Cluster analysis is used to group individual industries into various performance groups, after which discriminant analysis is applied to identify other attributes or characteristics, if any, that effectively distinguish between the clusters. Data is constructed at the 3-digit Australian Standard Industry Classification level for Tasmanian manufacturing industry. The main time period under study is 1975 to 1982, although use is also made of data from earlier years when available. The data is mainly in the form of annual figures, averaged over a number of years. The introductory chapter discusses the objectives of the study and provides a brief explanation of the methodology and approach adopted. The second chapter includes a general overview of the Tasmanian economy and reviews the main reports and studies that have considered the performance of the Tasmanian economy. The purpose of this review is not only to place the present study in context but also to present some of the main notions concerning relationships between structure and performance variables in the Tasmanian economy which have been advanced to date. These notions formed part of the process by which variables were selected for analysis. The methodology and discussion of variables are given in Chapter 3, followed by a fourth chapter reporting the results of this study. Finally, a summary of the work done and the conclusions that can be drawn are presented in the last chapter.