Labour market. The unemployment numbers yesterday were again remarkably good relative to what is happening elsewhere in the world. The headline u/e rate is up to 5.8%. Since July last year we’ve lost about 160,000 full time jobs, but part time jobs are up about 127,000. Of course we need to create jobs to stop the unemployment rate from rising,…
Tag Archives Joshua Gans
Local Government first to 2.0. In Australia, Government 2.0 is being pursued at a national level. However, in the US, some big cities have moved first. Here is an article about New York City’s initiatives and here is another about Boston’s moves [HT: Darren Challis] Early days yet but very interesting. [Core Economics]
Inequality and Growth. Joshua Gans has a new paper out with Dan Andrews and Christopher Jencks, on the relationship between inequality and growth. We reach a finding that is pretty standard in this literature – when we restrict the sample to 1960-2000, more inequality seems to be good for growth. However, if the inequality arises from a transfer from the bottom…
Facts versus faith. Joshua Gans - I was asked to write an opinion piece about Kevin Rudd’s essay in The Monthly on the GFC which, by the way, should stand for Great Fracking Complacency. It is in today’s Age and my opinion and disappointment speaks for itself. (Others seem more willing to carry ideological baggage than I am). Forget ideology…
Should we bother trying to save energy?. Not according to the Australia Institute who today came out with a press release on the insulation package, arguing that with the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, it won't reduce emissions.The Government says the scheme will help households save energy and cut carbon emissions by up to 49 million tonnes by 2020. But the…
The coming wave of Super and Tax debate... When will the country notice? Josh Gans comments..... Super-schmoopa. I have thought for some time that the real crisis in consumer confidence would come when Australians received the 6 monthly superannuation account statements. I got mine in December and much to my surprise it appeared to have lost only a little more…
Joshua Gans on Paul Krugman's "The return of Depression Economics". Well I finished the revised edition of Paul Krugman’s The Return of Depression Economics. He wrote the original almost 10 years ago with much the same theme: that we have not solved the boom and bust cycle and risk of prolonged recession and even depression remains. He deserves kudos for…