This paper aims to provide an overview of the changing role of part-time work in Australia and was released on 12 June 2008. The objectives of the paper are to - provide a comparison of part-time work in Australia and overseas, and possible reasons for our relatively high reliance on this form...

The Productivity Commission Staff Working Paper, ‘Men not at Work - An Analysis of Men Outside the Workforce’ (by Ralph Lattimore), was released in January 2007. This paper analyses the characteristics of adult men outside the labour force in Australia. The paper finds that, in contrast to...

Births in Australia are at an historical high - with around 285 000 babies born in 2007. This corresponds to an estimated total fertility rate of 1.93 babies per woman, the highest since the early 1980s. This is not a one-off event as fertility rates have been generally rising for the last 6...

New Zealand has had a complex process of adjusting commercial policy since the economic reforms began in 1984. This paper reports on the results of a research project to estimate the trends in industry assistance over this period and the variance of assistance within 2-digit industry groupings.

As we emerge from a deep and long recession, the debate must shift again to how New Zealand can lift its productivity growth rate. New Zealand has already done much work in getting the economic environment right for business growth. The reforms of the 1980s and early 1990s removed many of the...

International trade protectionism is frequently supported on the assumption that importables provide more jobs for unskilled labour than does the exportable sector. This contention is questioned here by reference to the factor intensity of New Zealand trade. Exportables are found to be more...