Publications
Re-imagining the future for desert Australia
Desert regions of the world comprise about 25% of the world’s land surface and are home to 500 million people, yet are often portrayed as extreme places with resident communities marginalised from mainstream development. Australia has a relatively vast desert... Read article
happy workers: How satisfied are Australians at work?
In 2017, around 12 million Australians will work an estimated total of 20 billion hours in paid employment. An average Australian man can expect to spend half of their waking lives at a paying job and an average Australian woman... Read article
Far removed: an insight into the labour markets of remote communities in central Australia
There are ongoing debates about the livelihoods of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians living in remote communities, and the role for policy in addressing socio-economic equity and the economic viability of those communities. The characteristics and dynamics of remote... Read article
Life on the edge: a perspective on precarious home ownership in Australia and the UK
This paper focuses on two countries with debt-funded ownership-centred housing systems, Australia and the UK. Financially, there are similarities between these two societies, which have relatively ‘complete’, reasonably well-regulated mortgage markets, had limited exposure to the extremes of subprime, and... Read article
Aboriginal assets? The impact of major agreements associated with native title in Western Australia
Agreements negotiated under the regime created by the Native Title Act (1993) are often seen as having the potential to address disadvantage faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and promote Aboriginal economic independence. This applies particularly to regional... Read article
Gender Equity Insights 2017: Inside Australia’s Gender Pay Gap
The persistence of the gender pay gap in the Australian labour market is perplexing. The past decades have seen some major advances for women in the workforce and intentional policy initiatives that have targeted a reduction of the pay gap... Read article
A new look at the channels from housing to employment decisions
The purpose of this study, funded by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), is to investigate the role of current housing assistance arrangements, housing wealth and mortgages in individuals’ employment decisions. The study also explores whether bequests or... Read article
Exchange rate fluctuations and immigrants’ labour market outcomes
In this paper, we exploit plausibly exogenous changes in exchange rates across home countries over time and panel data to identify the causal impact of exchange rate fluctuations on Australian immigrants’ labour market outcomes. We present new and robust evidence... Read article
Parental health and children’s cognitive and non-cognitive development
This paper examines the effects of parental health on cognitive and non-cognitive development in Australian children. The underlying nationally representative panel data and a child fixed effects estimator are used to deal with unobserved heterogeneity. We find that only father’s... Read article
Housing equity withdrawal: perceptions of obstacles among Australian home owners and service providers
Housing wealth dominates the asset portfolios of the older population in Australia and many other countries. Given the anticipated spike in fiscal costs associated with population ageing, there is growing policy interest in housing equity withdrawal (HEW) to finance living... Read article
On the role of governance and health aid on child mortality
Globally, child mortality rates continue to be unacceptably high despite improvement in child health outcomes. The role of macro level indicators, such as governance and health aid on child mortality, remains under-researched. The aim of this article is to analyse... Read article
Culture, housing, remoteness and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child development.
The limited empirical evidence available in Australia points to beneficial effects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ identification with their culture across a range of outcome domains. Living in remote communities, with limited mainstream economic opportunity, services and infrastructure... Read article