Economics - Research Publications
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ItemOpportunities and Challenges for CGE Models in Analysing Taxation(WILEY, 2018-03)Taxation analysis seeks to describe the effects of current taxes, make forecasts and assess proposed reform options. In each case, the effects on market outcomes, distribution of the tax burden and distortions to decisions and economic efficiency are estimated. When second‐round effects are important, including for most taxes on business and where exemptions from comprehensive tax bases are significant, general equilibrium models are required. A computer general equilibrium model (CGE) with detailed and disaggregated industry, product and factor markets has great potential to quantify the general equilibrium effects of taxation. Challenges and areas for development of available CGE models for taxation analysis include the following: disaggregation of households to assess distribution effects and allow for different elasticities; modelling the effects of the hybrid tax treatment of different household saving and investment options; disaggregation of some business decisions to capture the effects of departures from comprehensive tax bases and of decision‐makers facing different tax systems; and modelling and conveying the implications of imperfect knowledge of key assumptions and parameters.
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ItemA Comparison of Policy Instruments to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions(WILEY, 2016-09)Tax, emission trading schemes, regulations and subsidy policy instruments to reduce Australian greenhouse gas emissions are assessed. Australian recent and proposed examples are used as illustrations. Comparative pollution reduction cost, tax interaction distortion costs, redistribution effects and operating cost properties are evaluated. A tax instrument with a comprehensive base, combined with recycling the revenue windfall to households, is argued to be a suitable guideline for future policy; some regulations to counter information and other market failures can be important complements.
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ItemAntipodean agricultural and resource economics at 60: booming sector economics(WILEY, 2016-10)Contributions of Australian economists to understand the effects of a boom export industry are reviewed. Effects are considered on: the real exchange rate; output, prices and factor incomes of the boom industry, other trade‐exposed industries and nontraded industries; and national income and its distribution. Theoretical models and empirical models are reviewed. Different effects are considered for supply‐side‐ versus demand‐side‐driven booms, and then for the price increase, investment increase and production increase phases of the boom. Evaluations of industry and macroeconomic policy options are canvassed.
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ItemEnvironmental Water Efficiency: Maximizing Benefits and Minimizing Costs of Environmental Water Use and Management(WILEY, 2018)Environmental water management is a relatively new discipline, with concepts, management practice and institutional mechanisms that are still emerging. The efficient and effective use of environmental water to maximize environmental benefits, or environmental water use efficiency, is one such emerging concept. Currently, much of the focus is on allocative efficiency, where the objective is to achieve a better balance between consumptive and environmental water uses in a cost‐effective way. However, this may not provide the most efficient and effective way to manage environmental water in the long term, where managers are seeking productive (or operational) efficiency. Here, the objective is to maximize environmental outcomes relative to the cost of managing the available resource. This paper explores the concept of water use efficiency in the context of environmental water.
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ItemEffects of supermarket monopsony pricing on agriculture(WILEY, 2018-10)Potential effects of alleged monopsony pricing of farm food products by supermarkets on farm product prices, quantities, incomes and land values are assessed relative to competitive behaviour. A long‐run comparative static equilibrium model is used. For export‐competing and import‐competing products, the farm food input supply curve facing the supermarkets is close to perfectly elastic and this limits monopsony behaviour. At the margin, the opportunity to reallocate agricultural land between traded and nontraded farm products means a highly elastic supply function for nontraded food inputs facing supermarkets and very limited monopsony effects.
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ItemPolicy Options to Reduce Electricity Greenhouse Gas Emissions(WILEY, 2018-12)Abstract The design and effects of different schemes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production and consumption of electricity are modelled. The tax scheme achieves the lowest cost per unit emission reduction because it encourages both businesses and consumers to reduce emissions, and the recycled windfall revenue can meet equity objectives. Comparing the Emissions Intensity Scheme (EIS), Clean Energy Target (CET) and Renewable Energy Target (RET) schemes with common government revenue neutral and emissions reduction design outcomes, the EIS provides better incentives to generators to find the lower cost per unit emissions reduction.
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ItemFederalism and Tax Reform(WILEY, 2018-06)Abstract The form and potential contributions of cooperative federalism and the additional skills and tasks required of the public service to turn well‐known and developed tax reforms into actual reforms are evaluated. Cooperative federalism seems necessary for reforms involving state taxes and changes in the mix of taxes. Additional public sector skills and involvement in developing details of tax reform packages and their implementation, and then monitoring the outcomes, are important to raise community understanding of, and confidence in, taxation reform.
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ItemAn employment equation for Australia: 1966-2001( 2004-01)We model the relationship between hours of work and employment and argue thatunless actual hours are varying with a change in ‘standard hours’, actual hours shouldnot appear in the long-run component of an equation for employment. If howeverstandard hours are changing then it is desirable that this variable be incorporated intothe employment equation. Our theoretical model yields an expression for the elasticityof employment with respect to standard hours which shows that the elasticity isrelated to the size of the premium for overtime. Using quarterly data for the period1966:3 – 2001:3 we estimate a new employment equation for Australia incorporatingstandard hours of work. We find empirical support for our approach and we providenew estimates of the elasticity of employment with respect to the real wage and GDP.We also find a marked asymmetry in the response of employment to variations in realGDP and real wages in recession periods as against non-recession periods.
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ItemA framework for understanding changes in the unemployment rate in a flows context: an examination net flows in the Australian labour market( 2004-08)In this paper we develop a framework which is appropriate for the systematic investigation ofthe relationship between net (and gross) flows between different labour market states andmovements in the unemployment rate. We use that framework to investigate the behaviour ofnet flows of persons between employment, unemployment and not in the labour force inAustralia between 1979-2003 and the relationship of these flows to changes in theunemployment rate over that period. We find that: flows from unemployment to employmentexceed flows from employment to unemployment and that this is the case even in recessions;flows from employment to not in the labour force exceed flows from not in the labour force toemployment and that this is the case even in booms, and; flows from not in the labour force tounemployment exceed flows from unemployment to not in the labour force even inrecessions. Another important finding is that the reason why the participation rate isnegatively correlated with the unemployment rate is because net flows from employment toboth unemployment and to not in the labour force are highly correlated. It cannot be explainedby flows occurring between unemployment and not in the labour force.
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ItemPolicy options to reduce unemployment: TRYM simulations( 2001-05)This paper evaluates different policy options to reduce unemployment by using a version of the TRYM model. For the purpose of this paper, the TRYM model has been modified in several respects, particularly by combining the private business and government trading enterprise sectors. For the long run, the neoclassical model closure means that the unemployment rate converges to an exogenously set NAIRU rate. For the short and medium run, periods well in excess of ten years, policy simulations show that macroeconomic policy changes, wage changes, labour productivity changes, and NAIRU changes affect employment and unemployment. Further, these policy effects are produced whether the model begins in a disequilibrium situation of unemployment above the NAIRU or at the long run equilibrium growth path with unemployment equal to the NAIRU.