This report explores how governments can overcome barriers to deliver high-quality impact evaluations to contribute to policy development. It sets out the main evaluation methods available, ranging from randomised trials to quasi-experimental approaches, and highlights the conditions under which each can be applied.

This evaluation tested whether an extra email reminder could improve timely charity reporting. Involving 15,000 charities, the trial showed that sending a direct reminder to someone responsible increased on-time submissions from 56% to 62%. The approach worked across all charity types, proving simple nudges can boost compliance.

Randomised trials are a powerful tool for estimating the ‘causal effects’ of a program or policy. This report takes stock of the published randomised policy trials that have been conducted in Australia, examines the ethics and cultural appropriateness of randomised trials, and discusses future directions for randomised policy trials in Australia.

This paper consider trends in income and expenditure inequality in Australia using data from the last four Household Expenditure Surveys and Income Distribution Surveys conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The results suggest that income inequality increased during the 1990s, but that expenditure inequality remained stable.