While the first half of the 20th century was characterized by total war, the second half witnessed, at least in the Western world, a massive expansion of the modern welfare state. A growing share of the population was covered by ever more generous systems of social protection that dramatically...

This paper presents the first set of contribution agreements that had been finalized with contributors by the time of the operationalization of the Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) on October 12, 2022. The six finalized agreements provide for contributions in a total amount of about SDR...

This Selected Issues paper analyzes inflation dynamics in Australia, with a special focus on wages. The paper finds inflation dynamics in Australia are similar to what is seen in most advanced economies in recent quarters, with inflation primarily driven by cyclically sensitive components. While...

The 2022 Article IV Consultation discusses that with a rapid post-pandemic economic recovery and favorable terms of trade, Australia has reached a stronger cyclical position than many other advanced economies, with limited scarring. Inflation has risen to significantly above target, prompting...

We investigate the impact of health on working hours in recognition of the fact that leaving the labour market due to persistently low levels of health stock or due to new health shocks, is only one of the possibilities open to employees. We use the first six waves of the HILDA survey to...

We estimate the effect of early child development on maternal labor force participation using data from teacher assessments. Mothers might react to having a poorly developing child by dropping out of the formal labor force in order to spend more time with their child, or they could potentially...