Research

What's New • Labour Markets in Australia •

 Programs and Policy Evaluation and Design • Australian Economic History • Applied Microeconomics 

What's New?

• Submission to Productivity Inquiry Draft report on ECEC (February 2024)

• Submission to 'Independent evaluation of JobKeeper' (July 2023)

• Submission to Productivity Commission Inquiry into Early Childhood Education and Care: Interpreting program evaluation studies of the impact of ECEC on child development (May 2023)

• Submission to the House of Representatives Select Committee on Workforce Australia (February 2023)

• Fiscal policy for COVID-19: An assessment (Australian Economic Review, March 2023)

• JoKeeper: An initial assessment (with Jennifer Hunt, Australian Economic Review, March 2023)

• EYEP Report no.5 - 36 months in the Early Years Education Program: Impacts on children and their primary caregivers (October 2022)

• Multi-agent models: A survey

Labour Markets in Australia

Review

• Submission to the Employment White Paper (November 2022)

• Labour supply and policy (Australian Journal of Labour Economics, December 2022)

• Scarring effects: A review of main literature and a small piece of Australian evidence (Australian Journal of Labour Economics, July 2020)

• A review of methods applied in international research on the employment effects of the minimum wage (Report prepared for FWC, March 2018)

• Labour market inequality in Australia (joint with Mick Coelli) (Economic Record, 2016)

• The Australian labour market: The more things change...(Australian Economic Review, 2015; 2014 Gilbin Lecture at the University of Tasmania)

• Industrial relations reform in Australia: Chasing a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? (Australian Economic Review, 2012)

• What happens to the Australian labour market during recessions? (Australian Economic Review, 2009)

• The Australian labour market in the 2000s: A quiet decade (2011 RBA Conference Volume)

• What Can a Young Labour Economist (or Any Economist) Learn from Bob Gregory? (Economic Record, 2006)

• Microeconomic Reform in Australia - An Introduction

• Transitions to Retirement: A Review

• Labour Market and Industrial Relations (Cambridge Handbook of Social Sciences, 2003)

• Microeconomic Reform and Displaced Workers An Introduction (Productivity Commission Workshop, 2008)

• Earnings Inequality in Australia: Changes, Causes and Consequences (Economic Record, 1999)

• Economic Explanations of Earnings Distribution Trends in the International Literature and Application to New Zealand (NZ Treasury Working Paper, 2000)

Assorted recent topics

• Is it 'dog days' for the young in the Australian labour market (with Michael Coelli) ( Australian Economic Review, December 2021)

• The labour market for Uber drivers in Australia (with Oliver Alexander, Andrew Charlton and Amit Singh, Australian Economic Review, March 2022)

• The Australian labour market and the early impact of COVID-19: An assessment (with Andrew Charlton) (Australian Economic Review, September 2020)

Impacts of technology and trade

• The dragon down under: The regional labour market impact of growth in imports to China (Regional Studies, with Michael Coelli and James Maccarrone, 2023)

• The Australian labour market and IT-enabled technological change (with Michael Coelli, January 2023)

• The impact of international trade in manufacturing employment: Evidence from the China shock (with Aaron Blanco, Michael Coelli and James Maccarrone) (Economic Record, June 2021)

• Behind the headline number: Why not to rely on Frey and Osborne's predictions of potential job loss from automation (with Michael Coelli) (October 2019)

• Are robots taking our jobs? (with Michael Coelli, Australian Economic Review, 2017)

• Job polarisation in Australia (joint with Michael Coelli, Economic Record 2016)

Unemployment

• Recent Unemployment Experience in New Zealand

• Dimensions, Structure and History of Australian Unemployment (1998 RBA Conference volume) (joint with Steven Kennedy)

• Unemployment in Australia - What do Existing Models Tell Us? Cross-Country Studies (Melbourne Institute Working Paper, 2000) (joint with Ian McDonald)

 Earnings

• Unpacking the Beauty Premium:Is it Looks or Ego? (Economic Record, 2014) (joint with Andrew Leigh)

Program and Policy Evaluation and Design

Labour Market Programs

• Did the Australian JobKeeper program save jobs by subsidizing temporary layoffs? (with Jenny Hunt, November 2021)

• Statement to Senate Economics Committee Inquiry into JobMaker (November 2020)

• Individual placement and support for vocational recovery in first episode psychosis (British Journal of Psychiatry, 2019) (with Eoin Killackey et al.)

• What are best-practice employment programs for jobseekers facing high barriers to employment? (MI Policy Brief 4/16)

• Wage subsidy programs: A primer (Australian Journal of Labour Economics, 2016)

• Dealing with unemployment: What should be the role of labour market programs? (Evidence Base, 2015)

• A randomized controlled trial of vocational intervention for young people with first-episode psychosis: method (Early Intervention in Psychiatry, 2013)

• 'Does coordination of welfare services' delivery make a difference for extremely disadvantaged jobseekers? Evidence from the ‘YP4’ trial' (Economic Record, 2013) (joint with Roger Wilkins and Yi-Ping Tseng)

• Can Mandatory Labour Market Programs Improve Labour Market Outcomes for Young Job Seekers?: Compliance and Participation Effects from the Mutual Obligation Initiative in Australia

• Does a Minimum Job Search Requirement for Unemployment Payment Recipients Reduce Their Time On Payments? Evidence from the Job Seeker Diary in Australia (Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 2007) (joint with Yi-Ping Tseng)

• Does 'Work for the Dole' work? (Applied Economics, 2011) (joint with Yi-Ping Tseng)

Early years intervention

• EYEP Trial - Report no.4: 24 months in the Early Years Education Program: Assessment of the impact on children and their primary caregivers (May 2019)

• EYEP Trial - Report no.2: The first twelve months in the Early Years Education Program: An initial assessment of the impact on children and their primary caregivers (March 2018) 

• Improving lifetime trajectories for vulnerable young children and families living with significant stress and social disadvantage: the early years education randomised controlled trial (BMC Journal, 2014)

• EYEP trial - Report no.1: Participants in the Trial of the Early Years Education Program (June 2017) 

Review Papers

• Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Methods of Microeconomic Program and Policy Evaluation (Productivity Commission Conference Volume, 2005) (joint with Roger Wilkins and Y-Ping Tseng)

Australian Economic History

• The Impact of the 1896 Factory and Shops Act on Victorian Labour Markets (joint with Andrew Seltzer) (2018, Journal of Economic History)

• Microeconomic reform

• Why is Australia so rich? (And why is this even a sensible question?)

Applied Microeconomics

Economics of Sport

• A new measure of team performance in player drafts: The DPI (with Binuk Kodituwakku) (2017)

• AFL team performance and expenditure: Is it how much money your club spends, or how they spend it, that matters? (joint with Ross Booth, 2013)

• Escalation effects and the player draft in the AFL (Labour Economics, 2011) (joint with Leng Lee and Robert Macdonald)

• Do Teams Always Lose to Win? Performance Incentives and the Player Draft in the Australian Football League (Journal of Sports Economics, 2009) (joint with Mark Chicu and Robert Macdonald)

• Production Functions for Sporting Teams

• The Production of Professional Team Sports

• Demand for Sport (Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 2003) (joint with Robert Macdonald