Andrew Leigh says: Jeff Borland has a splendid article (gated, sorry) in the latest Australian Economic Review on what happens to the labour market in recessions. 4 Key points: The impact across industries differs greatly. In past recessions, employment tends to fall in agriculture, manufacturing and construction, but also tends to rise in ‘recreation and personal services’, and sometimes also in…
Category Archives Economics
The Black-White Test Score Gap Down-under. Andrew Leigh observes: Discussing NT schools, the CIS’s Helen Hughes writes: This week all Australian children in school years 3, 5, 7 and 9 sat numeracy and literacy tests for the second time. The tests are to give Australians an annual snapshot of basic educational progress. The first national ‘NAPLAN’ tests, held in May…
Facts versus faith. Joshua Gans - I was asked to write an opinion piece about Kevin Rudd’s essay in The Monthly on the GFC which, by the way, should stand for Great Fracking Complacency. It is in today’s Age and my opinion and disappointment speaks for itself. (Others seem more willing to carry ideological baggage than I am). Forget ideology…
Should we bother trying to save energy?. Not according to the Australia Institute who today came out with a press release on the insulation package, arguing that with the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, it won't reduce emissions.The Government says the scheme will help households save energy and cut carbon emissions by up to 49 million tonnes by 2020. But the…
Building the education revolution. The Government has announced Building the Education Revolution, a $14.7 billion long term investment to improve the quality of facilities, like gymnasiums, libraries and science labs in Australian schools. Prime Minister of Australia, 3 February 2009. Comment: This appears to be a truly massive amount of money, I hope the expertise and coordination is equal to…
Protecting rural economies in Scotland. Scotland's rural schools can be fundamental to safeguarding small, fragile local economies and the Scottish Government is committed to protecting their often unique place in the community. [eGov monitor - A Policy Dialogue Platform - Education & Skills]
Recipe for Disaster: The Formula That Killed Wall Street. A year ago, it was hardly unthinkable that a math wizard like David X. Li might someday earn a Nobel Prize. After all, financial economists—even Wall Street quants—have received the Nobel in economics before, and Li's work on measuring risk has had more impact, more quickly, than previous Nobel Prize-winning contributions…
The weight of water behind a 500-foot dam in China may have triggered the massive magnitude 7.9 earthquake in May that killed more than 70,000 people. Link: Man-Made Dam May Have Triggered Great China Quake.
Joshua Gans: The RBA Board meets tomorrow for the first time in 2009. As I argued last week, in my view the RBA ought to be cutting far more aggressively, and there is no reason not to use most or all of the ammunition they have available - cutting interest rates to 2% or below. There is no inflation risk,…