Attitudes towards Childcare in Australia

Australians have reservations about formal childcare which have some impact on their approval of maternal employment, although concerns about deleterious effects of employment on mothering have an even stronger impact.     

Childcare Policy to Promote Child Wellbeing

This article reviews current evidence on the impact of childcare on child development and discusses the implications for current and future childcare policy in Australia.     

Childcare Policy: An Introduction and Overview

This article summarises the case for public involvement in the provision of childcare and provides an overview of the contributions to the Policy Forum.     

Childcare and the 'Care Gap' in the United States and Australia

This article discusses solutions to the care gap. The alternatives of on-site and employer-funded, inclusive and mixed-type, and universal childcare are discussed.     

Economic Issues in Health Policy

Economic issues concerning health policy are reviewed and suggestions are made to advance debate on reform.     

Asymmetric Monetary Policy in Australia*

We find evidence for asymmetric behaviour in Australian monetary policy. During 1984–1990, the Reserve Bank of Australia acted with considerable discretion yielding poor performance of an interest rate rule. However, it behaved asymmetrically to inflation and the output gap in downturns and upturns. On embracing inflation targeting from 1991, it enhanced its credibility by anchoring inflation expectations. Not only did its actions become more predictable in 1991–2002, it responded asymmetrically only to output, switching to act more acutely in downturns. Although its asymmetric behaviour could result from asymmetric preferences or non‐linear aggregate supply, our results support the former explanation.     

Macroeconomic Policy in Australia Since the Sixties

This article reviews macroeconomic policy in Australia since the 1960s. It is argued that economic thinking by Australian governments progressed from a Keynesian approach to a classical approach in 1975 and then to a Keynesian-classical synthesis in 1983. To the usual major indicators of macroeconomic performance, unemployment and inflation, the article adds a third indicator, called thrift. Thrift is a measure of how society is allocating its resources between current and future consumption. The record of thrift for Australia since the 1960s is described and evaluated.     

Improving Mineral Taxation Policy in Australia*

Australian State governments have begun to increase royalty rates and other mineral taxes. The most instructive approach to taxation policy for the minerals sector is to set up a general model of mines which year the optimal structure of taxes. A model of mine production under uncertainty is presented. The optimal tax is a single tax with two parts. a bonus bid and conditional tax payments based on the ex-post rent of the mine. The actual structure of taxes levied by State and Commonwealth governments is seen to be distinctly sub-optimal in several respects. Proposals to move the actual to word the optimal structure are made, recognizing some of the constraints on information and the maximum acceptable rate of tax reform .     

2010年澳大利亚的科技政策与高技术领域的发展

2010年,澳大利亚政府积极落实国家创新政策白皮书《驱动创意：一项21世纪的创新议程》,不断完善国家创新体系建设并加强监测与评价,推动公共部门的能力建设。继续加大对科研基础设施的投入,支持重大科学研究项目,鼓励企业与科研机构的合作,提高企业创新能力。在国际科技合作方面,强调与美国、欧洲等发达国家与地区的合作以及与印度、中国等新兴国家的科技合作。     

Macroeconomic Policy and Employment Growth in Australia

Abstract
This article, which explores various aspects of macroeconomic policy and employment growth, is prompted by the relative lack of attention given to these issues in the Green and White Papers on unemployment. The problem of hysteresis reinforces the generally recognised need to reduce the excessive volatility of output and employment growth in Australia. International comparisons presented in the article suggest that Australian output and employment growth have been more volatile than those of the three major OECD countries. Reduction in macroeconomic volatility requires more effective short-term demand management than we have had in the recent past, and in turn, means that we must know more about the strength and timing of the effects of major macroeconomic policy instruments on employment growth and unemployment. This article presents employment growth equations for Australia over the period 1979–93 which incorporate domestic macroeconomic policy effects as well as the influences of the international business cycle. We show that monetary and fiscal policy have had a significant impact on the evolution of employment in Australia and, in particular, that tight monetary and fiscal policy contributed substantially to the recession of 1990–92.     

Monetary Policy in Australia: An Introduction

This Policy Forum brings together three views on the conduct of monetary policy in Australia. It arose from a submission by Peter Stemp which was refereed in the normal manner for contributed papers. One referee, Stephen Grenville, was prompted to forego his anonymity and to submit a paper addressing similar issues but taking a very different approach on the objectives of monetary policy. The editors asked John Pitchford to comment on both papers. The Grenville and Pitchford papers were edited in the manner used for Policy Forum.     

Economic Issues in Health Policy: Comment

This article reviews the adequacy of policy targeting of health market failures and the sector's positioning for the challenges ahead.     

Human Capital Theory and Education Policy in Australia

The human capital model is the basis of neo-classical analysis of labour markets, education and economic growth. However, education policy in Australia has been influenced by models based on screening theory and public choice theory which yield the policy implication that reductions in education spending are generally desirable. In this paper, the competing models, and the evidence supporting them, are surveyed. It is concluded that the human capital model is strongly supported by the available evidence. The predictions of screening models are generally not supported by empirical tests, except where they coincide with those of the human capital model. The main evidence supporting the public choice model, derived from the literature on educational production functions, is shown to be deficient. The principal policy conclusion of the paper is that the negative effects of recent cuts in education spending will outweigh any benefits achieved through reductions in public debt.     

Policy Issues of China's Urban Unemployment

This article investigates causes and characteristics of urban layoff and unemployment. Chinese statistics show that the worsening urban unemployment problem is mainly caused by China's institutional changes, sectoral shifts, and cyclical fluctuations. Workers who are middle-aged, less educated, and female have experienced a higher risk of being laid off and unemployed. This article also discusses policy issues of China's urban layoff and unemployment. Supply-side policies include those that expand education, establish job-training programs, limit massive rural–urban migration in the short run, and rationalize labor force participation rate. Demand-side policies aim to create jobs, including policies such as promoting the service industry, attracting foreign investment, and developing the nonstate economy.