The Productivity commission research paper, ‘The Role of Non-Traditional Work in the Australian Labour Market’ was released on 25 May 2006. There is continuing debate in Australia about the effects of labour market changes on the wellbeing of workers and their families. One such change has...

The Productivity Commission has released its update on the financial performance of 85 Australian, State and Territory Government trading enterprises (GTEs) in July 2006. The report also examines the capital structures of GTEs and capital withdrawal by State and Territory governments. The 85...

This research paper examines some of the key trends in Australia’s agriculture sector over the last 20 years or so. While continuing to grow in absolute terms, the size and importance of agriculture has declined relative to the rest of the economy. Within the sector, there have been marked...

The Productivity Commission released an update on the financial performance of 83 Australian, State and Territory Government trading enterprises in July 2005. The study provides data on their financial performance over time and includes comparisons of performance among GTEs in the same industry....

In April 2005, the research paper into ‘Assistance to Tourism: Exploratory Estimates’ was released. It is the first comprehensive attempt to quantify the extent of assistance to tourism on a comparable basis to that for other industries in Australia. While care is needed in interpreting the...

This report is the latest scorecard on the financial performance of 86 government trading enterprises (GTEs). The report examines the impact on capital management of inadequate compensation for community service obligations and of the persistent poor performance of some GTEs. The 86 GTEs...

The Australian community places significant importance on older people having access to high quality and cost effective aged care services. This is reflected in current institutional and regulatory arrangements, which give considerable weight to achieving equity of access and a minimum...

This research paper which investigated the potential economic and revenue impacts of a National Reform Agenda (NRA) found that the NRA has the potential to significantly raise national output and incomes in Australia. The main purpose of the study was to help governments better understand the...

Pandemic influenza is a regularly recurring form of infectious disease; this work analyses its economic effects. Like many other infectious diseases influenza pandemics are usually of short, sharp duration. Human coronavirus is a less regularly recurring infectious disease. The human coronavirus...

We estimate the marginal excess burden of the GST and its components. Our results show that the GST is highly distortionary in its treatment of intermediate inputs and investment, but is efficient as applied to household consumption. We also estimate the general equilibrium effects of changes to...