Poll 60

Australia’s leading economists believe Australia can sustain an unemployment rate as low as 3.75% – much lower than the latest Reserve Bank estimate of 4.25% and the Treasury’s latest estimate of 4.5%.

The ESA Central Council and the heads of Economics departments at various Australian universities have had a number of discussions about declining enrolments in Economics and the lack of diversity in enrolments. There are low enrolments of women, but there are also low enrolments of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. This is largely due to the decline in the number of high schools that offer Economics as a subject. High schools in disadvantaged areas are particularly unlikely to offer Economics.

Poll 59

Our panellists were asked the following 2023 budget question: "On May 9, the government delivered a budget designed, in the Treasurer's words, to strike a balance between relief, repair and restraint'.  What grade would you give the budget, given that objective: A, B, C, D, E or F?"

Wes Mountain/The Conversation, CC BY-ND - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/

The Australian Conference of Economists (ACE) 2023 was held from the 9 - 12 July 2023 in Brisbane, Queensland. 

The aim was to organise a conference with interest to all economists, both academic and professional. Only by a balanced approach of practice and theory can we solve the problems our society faces.

Poll 58

When panellests were asked to find an extra A$20 billion per year to fund government priorities like building nuclear submarines and responding to climate change, Australia’s top economists overwhelmingly back land tax, increased resource taxes, an attack on negative gearing and extending the scope of the goods and services tax.

Photo credit by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

The Reserve Bank has been releasing a large volume of digitised archival records to the public through our digital archive (called Unreserved). These records span nearly 200 years of Australia’s economic, financial and social history. The latest release includes records about the work and influence of Dr HC Coombs along with additional records from the Bank’s Research Department, with much of the new information covering the period from the Bank’s ‘separation’ from the original Commonwealth Bank in 1960 through to the early 1970s.

Located in the Botanic Garden in Uppsala, the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (scas) is a
national institute for advanced study. For the academic year 2024-25 the Collegium offers residential
fellowships for senior and early-career scholars from all countries. The Collegium is also offers short-term research stays (approximately two weeks to two months) to scholars from all countries.

The Victorian WEN committee is seeking interested members to join the 2023 Committee as general committee.

Poll 57

Australia’s top economists have overwhelmingly endorsed intervention to restrain gas and electricity prices, with only three of the 47 leading economists surveyed believing the best thing the government can do is to leave things to the market.

Photo credit: Wes Mountain/The Conversation, CC BY-ND

A number of prestigious awards were bestowed upon worthy economists at ACE2023, held in Brisbane.  Read on to find out who won the 2023 ESA National Awards.

Australian Conference of Economists (ACE) 2022 was held from 10 to 13 July 2022 in Hobart, Tasmania as an in-person event.  Our theme, Economics in the New Normal, sought to address the challenges that a post-pandemic world faces.

We are delighted to announce the launch of ESA's Twitter account.  Keep up to date with economics-related topics and be part of the conversation.

The robots are coming. The world of human work is fast disappearing. This is the future according to the doomsayers who seem at present to dominate discussion on the effects of computers in Australia. It’s a catchy story, and perhaps it fits with what we feel is happening around us. But it has rather a big problem. There is not much (or any) evidence to support it.

In the first of a new series of podcasts for members we ask Professor Jeff Borland: Will robots take our jobs?

"If you are not paying for it, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold."
twitter.com/andlewis/status/24380177712 

There is little doubt that consumers have benefited from zero price services from the likes of Facebook, Google and even Visa and Mastercard. But is there such a thing as a free emoji? In this podcast Dr. Stephen King explains the two-sided nature of the markets in which these companies compete. He also discusses how economists have grappled with the complexity of these markets in problems ranging from the misuse of market power to ownership of personalised data.

Jobs matter – they are not only a source of income, but also a source of self-esteem, social interaction, purpose and even community. The concept of work, however, is rapidly changing with the advent of the digital economy and a rapidly aging population. So what can Australians do to improve their job prospects and security?

In this podcast Karen Chester discusses recent trends in Australia’s labour market and the fundamental fractures in Australia’s education and training system that could be leaving us unprepared for our current and future labour markets

Keynote address by Professor Sir Tim Besley to the Australian Conference of Economists, Melbourne 2019

This is a special edition of the regular ESA podcast, featuring a recording of the keynote speech from the Australian Conference of Economists in Melbourne on 15 July 2019. Professor Sir Tim Besley spoke on Why policy economists should study the dynamics of culture.

Keynote address by Professor Wendy Carlin to the Australian Conference of Economists, Melbourne 2019

This is a special edition of the regular ESA podcast, featuring a recording of the keynote speech from the Australian Conference of Economists in Melbourne on 16 July 2019. Professor Wendy Carlin from University College London spoke on the Future of Economics & Economics Education - Insights from Machine Learning.

The University of Melbourne has launched a campaign that's designed to highlight the women in their Faculty and provides career advice to young women.

Follow this link to view the youtube video, which features some of their top female academics (including economist Guyonne Kalb and Abigail Payne).

Short Supply is an annual publication of the Economics Student Society of Australia. Launched in 2015 by ESSA’s Monash University branch, it has served as an outlet for student writers and academics to share thoughts and insights on a particular theme. This year's publication, which was launched in mid-August, focuses on the theme of "disasters". Previous editions of the publication are also available on the ESSA website.

On Wednesday 25 March 2020, Infrastructure Victoria released its latest policy paper on transport network pricing -- Good Move: Fixing Transport Congestion. You can view Infrastructure Victoria's presentation on the paper here.  The Victorian Branch is working with Infrastructure Victoria to bring Economic Society members a webinar or podcast on this research in coming weeks. Stay tuned for more details.

Given the exceptional circumstances surrounding COVID-19, the Victorian Branch of the Economic Society of Australia will be postponing public events until further notice. This includes the Women in Economics Network and the ESA Young Professionals. This is the most sensible course of action to keep our presenters, members, attendees and other members of the community safe. We will closely monitor developments and bring back our events when it is safe to do so.