Using data from 191 Australian state elections, the authors test how voters respond to economic conditions. They find that unemployment has a strong impact on election outcomes, with each additional percentage point of unemployment reducing the incumbent's re-election probability by 3-5 per cent. However, when luck (unemployment in other states) is separated from competence (unemployment...

Using unique information for a cohort of Australian youth, this paper explores the association between youths' perception of control (i.e. locus of control) and three educational outcomes: (i) Year 12 completion, (ii) whether youth obtained an Equivalent National Tertiary Entrance Rank (ENTER) score, and (iii) the actual ENTER score. By using a measure of socio-economic...

Australia’s National Drought Policy is considered to be one of the most advanced in the world, recognising as it does the reality of climate and focusing on adapting farm management to climatic uncertainty rather than simply subsidising agriculture in low rainfall areas. But while the underlying principles of the Policy seem to be sound, after...

This paper considers how asymmetric tax treatment, where labour market earnings are taxed but household production is untaxed, affects educational choice and labour supply in a perfectly competitive labour market. The authors show that taxes on labour market earnings can generate a large (non-marginal) switch to home production and the ensuing deadweight losses are large...

In recent years, the US, UK and Australia have lowered tax rates on high incomes and expanded tax credits and family transfer payments that are withdrawn on the joint income of a couple. These reforms result in significant changes in the structure of marginal and average income tax rates. In this paper the authors present...