Publications
Woort Koorliny: Australian Indigenous Employment Index 2022
The Indigenous Employment Index was commissioned by Minderoo’s Generation One initiative, partnering with Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre and Murawin Consulting, as an Australian first to identify and measure practices within large organisations that increase and improve Indigenous employment. The goal... Read article

BCEC Monthly Labour Market Update – April 2022
Unemployment rate hits record low Australia’s official unemployment rate is now at the lowest level since the current labour force series commenced 44 years ago, in February 1978. The new record of 3.9 per cent was in fact awarded retrospectively... Read article

Family and Domestic Violence Leave Review
The Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre was commissioned to undertake an independent economic analysis of the cost of providing paid family and domestic violence leave to workers on the modern award wage by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) as... Read article

BCEC Policy Briefing: Western Australia State Budget 2022-23
This new BCEC Policy Brief assesses the Western Australia State Budget 2022-23 delivered by WA Premier and Treasurer Mark McGowan on 12 May. Premier McGowan took advantage of the state’s strong economic performance to hand down a measured budget that... Read article

Conflicts and son preference: micro-level evidence from 58 countries
Research on the association between armed conflict and son preference has largely been based on single-country studies, often presenting descriptive patterns. This paper empirically analyses the association between conflict and son preference using a sample of more than 1.1 million... Read article

BCEC Monthly Labour Market Update – March 2022
How low can you go? With newfound interest in the national unemployment rate arising from the federal election campaign trail, all eyes were on the release of the March figure to see if it would break through the 4 per... Read article

Parental expectations of children’s higher education participation in Australia
The role of parental expectations in determining children’s higher education participation is important in understanding both participation and potential policy responses Using a nationally representative longitudinal survey of Australian households, providing repeat observations on expectations for individual children, this study... Read article

Course non-completion and multiple qualifications: re-estimating the returns to education in Australia
Among Australian studies estimating returns to education, there is a consensus that education is a highly profitable investment. Conventional estimates of returns to education examine earnings conditional upon individuals’ years of education, with years spent in education typically inferred from... Read article

BCEC Quarterly Economic Commentary – March 2022
This Western Australia Quarterly Economic Commentary analyses the most recent data on economic and social indicators for WA. Seize the day: Border reopening presents opportunities for economic diversification, but it is not as simple as turning the tap back on. After two... Read article

Presentation – Behind the Line: Poverty and disadvantage in Australia 2022
View the presentation by John Curtin Distinguished Professor Alan Duncan, Director of the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, from the launch of the Behind the Line: Poverty and disadvantage in Australia 2022 report on Thursday 3 March, 2022. This report, the ninth... Read article

Behind the Line: Poverty and disadvantage in Australia 2022
This report, the ninth in the Focus on the States series, provides the latest examination of the prevalence of poverty within Australia, how this has changed over time, and which groups in society face the greatest risks of financial hardship and... Read article

BCEC Monthly Labour Market Update – January 2022
The national recovery takes a sickie As speculation mounts around the national unemployment rate breaking through the 4 per cent barrier and the potential implications for wages growth, the unemployment rate for Australia held steady at 4.2 per cent in... Read article
