Pooling data for 1905 to 2000, we find no systematic relationship between top income shares and economic growth in a panel of 12 developed nations observed for between 22 and 85 years. After 1960, however, a one percentage point rise in the top decile’s income share is associated with a...

In “Happiness and the Human Development Index: The Paradox of Australia,” Blanchflower and Oswald (2005) observe an apparent puzzle: they claim that Australia ranks highly in the Human Development Index (HDI), but relatively poorly in happiness. However, when we compare their happiness data...

In this paper we estimate the elasticity of the labour supply to a firm, using data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. Estimation of this elasticity is of particular interest because of its relevance to the debate about the competitiveness of labour...

A country's most important asset is its people. This paper outlines the development of Britain's human resources since the middle of the 19th century. It focuses on four key elements. The first is the demographic transition - the processes through which birth rates and death rates fell, leading...

There has been a great deal of turnmoil in the Australian labour market over the past 25 years. This paper describes the main features of the changes which have occured over the principal dimensions of the work environment.

The relationship between the social welfare system and employment incentives has received considerable attention in the literature. This paper uses data from the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Survey to consider these issues for indigenous Australians. Two measures are...

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relative importance of internal and external factors on the demand for skilled immigration visas to Australia.

In 1986, Congress attempted to reduce the incentives for unauthorized migration by eliminating U.S. employment opportunities for unauthorized workers. To recognize the commitment that many unauthorized workers had already made to the U.S. labor market, amnesty was granted to approximately 1.7...

Much of the debate surrounding the impact of immigration of the economy relates to the consequences of immigration for aggregate unemployment. In this paper we explore a related but more specific issue: the consequences of immigration on the probability of unemployed residents gaining a job....