It is commonplace in Australian policy debate for groups presumed to be adversely affected by proposed policies to provide estimates of the undesirable consequences of change. A highly public example of the above is the claim by the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA), based on work done in 2009...

It is arguably the case that insufficient income support is restricting the educational choices of mature aged persons with dependants and other financial burdens. Removing financial barriers to further education may improve the opportunities for mature aged persons to re-skill, enabling...

The collection of the National Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Social Survey (NATSISS) in 2002 provides a valuable new source of data on Indigenous labour force status. Apart from the 1994 NATSIS until now the only useful data available to assess the labour market circumstances of Indigenous...

In this special issue of the AJLE, we bring together eight papers based for the most part on the first wave of HILDA Survey. While longitudinal surveys are like good wines-growing in value (generally) with age-the richness of the HILDA wave 1 data means that we can gain significant new insights...

This article introduces the papers presented at the conference ‘Creating Jobs – the Role of Government’ held at the Australian National University, 6-7 September 2001, and offers some critical comments on what was learned at the Conference and on where further research is still required.

This paper provides estimates of the effects of divorce on the lifetime incomes of mothers. This is an issue that is not well explored in most countries, and has been essentially untouched empirically in the Australian context. The paper extends the existing literature, which has generally...

The relative costs of taking employment or receiving welfare are usually understood through comparisons of a person’s social security entitlements and their wage alternative, known as replacement rates. In some situations it appears that the additional income from working is negligible, and...

Australia’s National Drought Policy is in need of significant reform. The following analysis considers the potential role to be played by loans provided by the government to farm businesses in periods of adversity, to be repaid depending on future revenue streams. While the economic case for...

Income Contingent Loans (ICLs) have a long history in labour economics. Indeed, Australian labour economists have played a seminal role in the conceptual development of the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) in Australia – a process which demonstrated how such policies can overcome...