Young workers’ careers typically progress by climbing a ladder of job opportunities. But during a slowdown, young workers start on a lower rung and progress more slowly up the jobs ladder.

In this podcast, Commissioner Catherine de Fontenay from the Productivity Commission and Professor Jeff Borland from the University of Melbourne discuss recent research on youth incomes and explain the implications of their research for young people in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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.

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.

Growing industries may well be a long game, taking decades. What type of polices and processes do we need to support and nurture them in our increasingly globalised world?

In this podcast, Professor Beth Webster discusses what innovation is, how economists have studied innovation, and what they have uncovered about conditions that foster innovation.

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

About 50 years ago the landmark equal pay case in Australia introduced principles for equal pay for men and women. Despite our efforts, women still earn substantially less than men. Recent statistics published by Workplace Gender Equality Agency indicate that the national wage gap was 14.6% in August 2018 (source: https://www.wgea.gov.au/addressing-pay-equity/what-gender-pay-gap).

In this podcast, Dr Leonora Risse discusses her research into a common piece of advice for women – to be more confident in the workplace. Dr Risse explains how she estimated the relationship between confidence and pay and promotions, separately for men and women, using the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey data. We discuss her unexpected findings, as well as the implications of her research for Australians and organisations working towards reducing the gender pay gap.

Creating a level playing field - evidence from three field experiments

About 50 years ago the landmark equal pay case in Australia introduced principles for equal pay for men and women. Despite our efforts, women still earn substantially less than men. Recent statistics published by Workplace Gender Equality Agency indicate that the average full-time base salary gender pay gap was 16.2% in 2017-18 (source:https://www.wgea.gov.au/topics/gender-pay-gap)

This is the second of two ESA podcasts that explore current research into the drivers of the gender wage gap. It additionally explores research on reducing the wage gap for minority groups.

In this podcast, Professor Andreas Leibbrandt discusses his field experiments that examine how seemingly minor differences in real job ad descriptions affect the behaviour of applicants. With this experimental framework he has investigated contextual factors that affect: whether women sort out of competitive workplaces, whether women initiate salary negotiations and whether equal opportunity statements increase applications from minority groups. We discuss the possible mechanisms behind his field experiment results, and implications for organisations aiming to reduce wage gaps.

Voters are abandoning the major parties. More than one-in-four Australians voted for anyone except the ALP, LNP, or the Greens in the Senate in 2016, compared to just over one-in-ten voters in 2007.

Why are Australians so disillusioned with the political mainstream? And are there similarities with the rise of ‘outsider politics’ in other countries including the Trump presidential victory and Brexit?

In this podcast Danielle Wood discusses her research on voting patterns, which draws on techniques from economics, psychology and political science to understand the rising minor party vote in Australia.

"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.

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?