Family background is known to have a substantial impact on students’ literacy and numeracy results. This raises questions about whether any of the remaining differences in results are due to school performance – or whether they are merely due to random noise. This article reviews research from the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)...

The OECD has found that Australia’s economic performance is not as strong as might be expected given the strength of its economic policy settings. Differences in geography – distance to world markets, natural resource endowments, and population settlement patterns – help explain differences in economic performance across OECD countries. But these findings reinforce, rather than...

While previous terms of trade booms have tended to be short lived, there are reasons to believe that the current boom could be more enduring. This paper considers the implications for the Australian economy in the event that recent rises in the terms of trade are sustained, with a focus on labour market, industry and...

The sub-prime crisis shows that it is not enough for Australia to regulate its own financial system well, according to this paper. It is also in Australia’s interests to work towards forms of global coordination, global monitoring and global crisis response which lessen the frequency and duration of these financial shocks. Most of the obvious...

On 5 February 2008 the federal government announced the formation of the Financial Services Working Group dedicated to looking at the key issues associated with financial services advice and disclosure. The Working Group comprises senior officials from the Department of Treasury, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Department of Finance and Deregulation.