Publications

Constitutions and the political agency of women Siobhan Austen, Astghik Mavisakalyan The underrepresentation of women in parliaments worldwide warrants attention to discern underlying sources. This study examines one potential source: the countries’ constitutions. Based on a large cross-country dataset from 2011, the study demonstrates that women’s representation in parliament is larger... Read article 17 September 2015Journal Articles Read More
Economic Evaluation: Objective, approach, challenges and solutions Rebecca Cassells Keep them Safe (KTS) is the NSW whole-of-government response to the recommendations of the Wood Special Commission. NSW has spent nearly $800m over five years to reform the child protection and early intervention systems, with over 50 different projects being... Read article 7 September 2015Presentations Read More
The Rotterdam demand model half a century on Kenneth Clements, Grace Gao The system-wide approach to demand analysis emphasises the interrelatedness of all n elements of the consumption basket and leads to a set of demand equations characterised by n income elasticities and an n × n matrix of own- and cross-price elasticities. This... Read article 1 September 2015Journal Articles Read More
Russian language skills and employment in the Former Soviet Union Alan Duncan, Astghik Mavisakalyan During the Soviet era, proficiency in the Russian language was often a ticket to attractive employment opportunities in the member republics. Does it still contribute to securing employment in the former Soviet republics after two decades of transition? Using data... Read article 31 July 2015Journal Articles Read More
The Costs of Doing Business in WA Rebecca Cassells, Alan Duncan, Yashar Tarverdi The cost of doing business in Western Australia has long been a rhetoric heard and discussed throughout the state, with increased economic activity in recent times exacerbating the issue. The geography of the state, with its capital – Perth, one... Read article 31 July 2015Focus on WA Read More
Beyond our Means? Rebecca Cassells, Alan Duncan, Simon Kelly, Rachel Ong ViforJ The ability of both households and governments to increase savings and manage debt has been an ongoing policy issue in Australia and throughout the world. Debt can be a good thing if it encourages real asset growth beyond that of... Read article 30 June 2015Focus on The States Read More
Gender in language and gender in employment Astghik Mavisakalyan Women lag behind men in many domains. Feminist scholars have proposed that sex-based grammatical systems in languages reinforce traditional conceptions of gender roles, which in turn contribute to disadvantaging women. This article evaluates the empirical plausibility of this claim in... Read article 17 June 2015Journal Articles Read More
Mortgage equity withdrawal and institutional settings Marietta Haffner, Rachel Ong ViforJ, Gavin Wood In this exploratory paper, we investigate whether there are links between institutional context and the development of markets in home equity conversion that are based on financial instruments facilitating mortgage equity withdrawal (MEW). Using secondary data and literature sources from... Read article 2 June 2015Journal Articles Read More
Australian demographic trends and their implications for housing subsidies Melek Cigdem, Gavin Wood, Rachel Ong ViforJ This Positioning Paper, funded by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), is the first output of a project that aims to forecast future housing subsidies that will accompany projected demographic changes and the challenges these trends may pose... Read article 31 May 2015Research Reports Read More
The Impact of Children on Australian Couples’ Wealth Accumulation Michael Dockery, Sherry Bawa Existing estimates of the cost of children focus on what parents spend on their children, which has limited relevance to parents’ financial capacity to meet those costs. An alternative indicator of the affordability of children, their impact upon couples’ wealth... Read article 7 May 2015Journal Articles Read More
When Two Worlds Collude Michael Dockery, Sherry Bawa Whether or not working from home or ‘telecommuting’ helps workers to balance work and family commitments, as opposed to providing an avenue for work to intrude on family life remains a contentious issue. On balance it seems the flexibility to... Read article 1 May 2015Working Papers Read More
Does school socio-economic status influence university outcomes? Ian W. Li, Michael Dockery This study explores the role of schools’ socioeconomic status in determining academic performance at university. Data for first year domestic undergraduates at an Australian university in 2011 to 2013 are linked to schools’ data to examine the role of student-... Read article 6 April 2015Journal Articles Read More