In this paper we investigate the behaviour of net flows of persons between employment, unemployment and not in the labour force in Australia between 1979-2003 and the relationship of these flows to changes in the unemployment rate over that period. We find that: flows from unemployment to...

This paper provides pictures of low pay adult employees in Australia in 2004 drawing on data from the HILDA survey. The low paid are disaggregated into full-time and part-time employees. Estimates from multivariate probit models reveal that low wage employees are more likely to have casual...

We explore a new approach to understanding the evolution of the unemployment rate in Australia. Specifically, we use gross worker flows data to study the consequences of assuming that there is no unique equilibrium rate of unemployment but rather a continuum of stochastic equilibrium rates which...

This paper addresses five related questions. What are the ‘stylised facts’ about the behaviour of flows into and out of unemployment and the Unemployment Rate in Australia, especially in recessions? Why does the number of persons flowing out of Unemployment rise in recessions? How does...

Using a rich longitudinal data set from birth, we explore three estimation issues related to academic performance analysis. Our paper primarily examines the effect of omitting childhood and teenage characteristics (childhood ability, parental resources at different times and peer effects), which...

This research uses the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey to investigate the impacts of health on labour force status of older working-age Australian men. We estimate a model that exploits the longitudinal nature of the data and takes the correlation between the...

This paper describes microsimulation modelling in non-technical terms and explains what can be achieved with microsimulation modelling in general, and the Melbourne Institute Tax and Transfer Simulator (MITTS) in particular. The focus is on behavioural microsimulation modelling, which takes...

Based on labour supply parameter estimates and childcare demand parameters for the Australian population in 2002, this paper illustrates how an extended childcare subsidy proposed by the Taskforce on Care Costs in October 2006 can be evaluated using a microsimulation model. First, the cost to...

This is an introduction to the papers in this special issue on policy simulations discussing a variety of simulation models. Simulation modelling has become a powerful tool to analyse hypothetical and actual policy changes. This issue contains analyses based on both macro- and micro-level data....