{"title":"The Cost of Congestion for State and Local General Government Services in Australia","authors":"Felix Chan, Jeffrey D. Petchey","doi":"10.1111/1467-8462.12543","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-8462.12543","url":null,"abstract":"<p>As the population increases, spending on publicly provided goods must also increase if there is congestion and governments want to maintain provision of the same level of benefit to everyone. This article estimates a parameter capturing this impact of congestion for the state and local component of the general government sector in Australia. It shows the congestion parameter is likely to be between 0.51 and 0.84 implying super congestion and/or decreasing returns to scale have dominated the supply of these goods. The per person cost of congestion has been rising and differs across states. Larger jurisdictions also have relatively higher per person congestion costs.</p>","PeriodicalId":46348,"journal":{"name":"Australian Economic Review","volume":"57 3","pages":"224-244"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-8462.12543","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139769243","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Australian Economy in 2023–24: Navigating a Narrow Path","authors":"Viet Nguyen, Tim Robinson, Sarantis Tsiaplias","doi":"10.1111/1467-8462.12542","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-8462.12542","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The economy grew at a moderate pace in 2022–23 as Australians adjusted to rising costs of living. The aggressive tightening of monetary policy has eased inflationary pressure, but inflation remains high. Strong labour market performance has been the brightest note in the current Australian macroeconomic landscape, although labour productivity growth was disappointing. The ongoing geopolitical conflict in Europe with its ensuing geoeconomic fragmentation, and the recent conflict in the Middle East increased global uncertainty and volatility in food and energy prices. This, together with the slowdown in China, added further downside risks to the outlook for the economy in 2023–24.</p>","PeriodicalId":46348,"journal":{"name":"Australian Economic Review","volume":"57 1","pages":"5-20"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-8462.12542","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139625782","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ritalin, Animal Spirits and the Productivity Puzzle","authors":"Tony Ward","doi":"10.1111/1467-8462.12541","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-8462.12541","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article argues the importance of animal spirits throughout the economy in improving productivity performance. It overviews the idea of animal spirits and people's level of confidence in undertaking economic activity. It then notes a gap, a missing residual, in economists' efforts to understand productivity growth. Two well-documented measures indicating animal spirits are the levels of social trust and of corruption. Surveying the literature, the article shows both of these correlate with economic performance, and demonstrates they are correlated with each other. A case study of the impact of changes in corruption levels shows animal spirits can have significant effects.</p>","PeriodicalId":46348,"journal":{"name":"Australian Economic Review","volume":"57 2","pages":"129-142"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-8462.12541","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138957184","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Redefining Parent's Unpaid Labour: Distinguishing Errands from Housework for Targeted Mental Health Policy","authors":"Nataliya Ilyushina","doi":"10.1111/1467-8462.12539","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8462.12539","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Studies of the association between unpaid housework and wellbeing, especially for parents, has produced either negative or inconclusive results in previous studies. One potential oversight is that ‘housework’ often includes activities with a counteracting effect on mental health. By employing the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) data set that differentiates ‘housework’ from more routine tasks included in the ‘errands’ variable I illustrate the difference in the pattern of how these variables are linked to parents' mental health. By identifying specific groups of unpaid tasks that are most detrimental to mental health, policymakers can prioritise these areas, ensuring that negative associations are not wrongly attributed to all housework activities.</p>","PeriodicalId":46348,"journal":{"name":"Australian Economic Review","volume":"56 4","pages":"516-523"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-8462.12539","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138578231","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Bamboo Curtain: The Grim Australian Consequences of China Conflict","authors":"Rod Tyers, Yixiao Zhou","doi":"10.1111/1467-8462.12535","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-8462.12535","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The Australian economy has benefited from several decades of extraordinary Chinese expansion. Slowing growth has diminished these gains and geopolitics between China and western democracies has seen restricted commerce between China and Australia. We use a global economic model to assess the consequences were these tensions to restrict all associated commerce, yielding an Australian real GDP contraction of 6 per cent. A ‘bamboo curtain’, restricting all commerce between western democracies and all other regions, would see massive global losses, with Australia's economic welfare impaired most, while some short-run relief could stem from small-country monetary ‘free riding’.</p>","PeriodicalId":46348,"journal":{"name":"Australian Economic Review","volume":"57 1","pages":"41-60"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-8462.12535","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138589188","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Investment Policy Impacts on the Australian Aboriginal Art Market","authors":"Jenny Lye, Joe Hirschberg","doi":"10.1111/1467-8462.12532","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-8462.12532","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Legislation designed for one purpose may have unrelated side effects. In this article we examine the impact of recent changes in the application of the <i>sole purpose test</i> for artworks to be used as assets in retirement funds on the Australian Aboriginal art market. This is important since art sales represent a significant source of non-government income for remote Australian Aboriginal communities. In this article we estimate the impact of this change and others on the price index based on the hammer prices paid for 13,555 works by 187 artists at art auctions from 1994 to 2019.</p>","PeriodicalId":46348,"journal":{"name":"Australian Economic Review","volume":"57 1","pages":"21-40"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-8462.12532","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138561516","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Review of Government Venture Capital in China: History, Drawbacks and Remedies","authors":"Chongqi Sun, Geran Tian","doi":"10.1111/1467-8462.12536","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-8462.12536","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The past 40 years have witnessed the growth of government venture capital (GVC) in China. This work reviews the brief history of GVC in China, as an example of emerging markets, and puts forward several major drawbacks. First, it is unclear which bureau is exactly responsible for GVC, resulting in redundant, sometimes conflicting regulations. Second, a lack of integrated financial planning leads to a mismatch between the situation of local enterprises and actual investments. Moreover, due to the lack of a market-oriented management system, GVC fund managers are not fully motivated. We propose corresponding remedies and discuss the implications.</p>","PeriodicalId":46348,"journal":{"name":"Australian Economic Review","volume":"57 1","pages":"61-70"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138599719","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Distributional Comparisons Using the Gini Inequality Measure","authors":"John Creedy","doi":"10.1111/1467-8462.12534","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-8462.12534","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article is aimed at undergraduate and graduate economics students, as well as public sector economists, who are interested in inequality measurement. It examines the use of the Gini inequality measure to compare income distributions. The implicit distributional value judgements are made explicit, via the use of a particular form of Social Welfare Function. Emphasis is given to the interpretation of changes in inequality.</p>","PeriodicalId":46348,"journal":{"name":"Australian Economic Review","volume":"56 4","pages":"538-550"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138503916","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Economic Consequences of Mr Trump and Mr Biden","authors":"Ross Garnaut","doi":"10.1111/1467-8462.12533","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-8462.12533","url":null,"abstract":"Max Corden and Ross Garnaut published ‘The Economic Consequences of Mr Trump’ in this journal in 2018. This paper examines what has transpired in the US economy against that article. It notes continuity in budget and trade policy from the Trump Presidency to the Biden Presidency. The continuity in macro‐fiscal and trade policies is accompanied by a significant departure in the focus of fiscal expansion: Mr Biden's strong support for decarbonisation. The article applies Max Corden's approach to international economics to the question: should Australia emulate Mr Biden's combination of budget, protection and decarbonisation policies?","PeriodicalId":46348,"journal":{"name":"Australian Economic Review","volume":"56 4","pages":"417-430"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-8462.12533","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138503918","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Gender Gaps in Unpaid Domestic and Care Work: Putting The Pandemic in (a Life Course) Perspective","authors":"Janeen Baxter, Alice Campbell, Rennie Lee","doi":"10.1111/1467-8462.12538","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-8462.12538","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Our paper examines trends in gender inequalities in unpaid domestic and care work over the short- and long-term in Australia, including assessing the impact of the COVID-19 lockdowns. We use the concept of time—historical, biographical and transitional—as a framework for our analyses. Drawing on data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, we find wide and continuing gender gaps in unpaid work over the past two decades. We demonstrate that parenthood is a far greater producer and exacerbator of gender inequalities in unpaid domestic and care work than COVID-19 lockdowns.</p>","PeriodicalId":46348,"journal":{"name":"Australian Economic Review","volume":"56 4","pages":"502-515"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-8462.12538","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138503919","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}