Category Archives: Australian Politics

Leaders as Readers (prequel)

Posted on March 1, 2010 by

Macgregor Duncan and I have written a piece on politicians’ reading habits, which will be out in the Australian Literary Review on Wednesday (at which point I’ll post the full spreadsheet of results on my academic website). In the meantime, … Continue reading →

Posted in Australian Politics

Death and Taxes

Posted on February 18, 2010 by

In politics, death is a remarkably potent card to play. But its rhetorical power needs to be matched by a bit of substance. Every year, about 130,000 Australians die. Each of these deaths are tragic (I’m not saying this lightly … Continue reading →

Posted in Australian Politics | 12 Comments

Look at the changes, not at the levels

Posted on December 14, 2009 by

A few people have asked me recently for my view on “The Spirit Level” by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, which is apparently having some impact in policy circles. John Kay’s view in the FT comes closest to my own: … Continue reading →

Posted in Australian Politics, Health economics, Inequality, Macroeconomics | 9 Comments

Do you see Obama as Black or White?

Posted on December 11, 2009 by

[Tirta Susilo is a PhD student in psychology, and a co-author of mine on a recent study, published in (appropriately enough) the Journal of Economic Psychology. Tirta has written a guest-post on some fascinating new research about skin colour and … Continue reading →

Posted in Australian Politics, US Politics | 1 Comment

Of politics, tax and monetary policy

Posted on December 10, 2009 by

Ross Gittins gave a fascinating talk on Monday to the Australian Business Economists Annual Forecasting Conference, and he’s kindly agreed to let me post it here. Full text over the fold.

Posted in Australian Politics, Macroeconomics, Tax | 1 Comment

The economics of refugee flows

Posted on November 2, 2009 by

With some notable exceptions, the Australian public debate over refugees has so far been conducted largely in an evidence-free zone. So I’ve asked my colleague Tim Hatton to send me through his recent writings on the topic. Tim has written … Continue reading →

Posted in Australian Politics, Trade & Development

Do Household Handouts Help?

Posted on September 22, 2009 by

My op-ed today is on the touchy topic of stimulus spending. Full text over the fold (with the usual hyperlinks for anyone interested in reading the original research).

Posted in Australian Politics, Macroeconomics | 1 Comment