Publications
Paradise Postponed: Future Tense and Religiosity
This paper identifies a new source of differences in religiosity: the presence of future tense marking in language. We argue that the rewards and punishments that incentivise religious behaviour are less effective for speakers of languages that contain future tense... Read article
Macroeconomic fluctuations in home countries and immigrants’ well-being
This article exploits plausibly exogenous changes in macroeconomic conditions across home countries over time and panel individual data to examine the causal impact of home countries’ macroeconomic conditions on immigrants’ well-being in Australia. We present new and robust evidence that... Read article
BCEC Monthly Labour Market Update – January 2020
The BCEC Monthly Labour Market Update provides expert insights and analysis around the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) labour force data release, focusing on employment patterns across state and territories. Key findings from January 2020 data include: Reaching 150,000 jobs by... Read article
BCEC Monthly Labour Market Update – December 2019
The BCEC Monthly Labour Market Update provides expert insights and analysis around the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) labour force data release, focusing on employment patterns across state and territories. Key findings from December 2019 data include: Labour market holds steady... Read article
BCEC Monthly Labour Market Update – November 2019
Welcome to the November 2019 edition of the BCEC Monthly Labour Market Update (MLMU). This latest MLMU release provides expert insights and analysis around the latest ABS Labour Force data release for November 2019, focusing on employment patterns across state... Read article
BCEC Quarterly Economic Commentary – December 2019
This Western Australia Quarterly Economic Commentary analyses the most recent data on economic and social indicators for WA. Key findings from this edition include: Mixed economic tidings for WA this Christmas With the recently announced Mid-Year Financial Projections Statement, WA Treasurer Ben... Read article
Can bribery buy health? Evidence from post-communist countries
Corruption is pervasive, but we know little about its effects on individual lives. This paper examines whether living in a corrupt society has deleterious effects on health. Using individual-level data from 28 post-communist countries, we demonstrate that bribing for public... Read article
The unintended consequences of increasing returns to scale in geographical economics
Increasing returns to scale is now fundamental to both economics and economic geography. But first generation theories of endogenous growth imply an empirically-refuted scale effect. This scale effect and assumptions to negate the scale effect both imply unintentional spatial consequences.... Read article
Inter-generational transmission of Indigenous culture and children’s wellbeing: Evidence from Australia
A limited body of empirical evidence suggests a strong sense of cultural identity promotes wellbeing and other socio-economic outcomes for First Nations people, including for Indigenous Australians. A challenge to this evidence is potential endogeneity: that Indigenous people who achieve... Read article
BCEC Briefing Note: WA Economic Update 2019
This BCEC Briefing Note examines the latest WA economic data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. While the WA economy continues to grow, the GSP figures released today show only a very modest growth of 0.98 per cent over... Read article
A multi-sector model of relatedness, growth and industry clustering
This article builds an understanding of regional innovation specialisation by developing a multi-sector model with endogenous growth through quality improving innovations and spillovers from related technologies. The model provides an approach to incorporate the relatedness literature within the mainstream theoretical... Read article
Finding a Place to Call Home
What are the key issues and challenges relating to immigration in Australia? Where do immigrants come from, where do they settle, and what types of jobs do they do? How do migrants affect the wages? To what extent do we... Read article