It is widely held that imperfect capital markets mean that individuals from poor backgrounds cannot borrow to finance educational investments. But are these credit constraints an empirical reality? The 1995 Canadian Out of Employment Panel is used to take a new approach to this question by exploring the financial resources and skill formation choices of...

The authors describe Australia's Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS), and analyse its impact on the social composition of university participation before and after the introduction of HECS. Their findings suggest that income contingent charging systems for higher education have the potential to protect the access of the disadvantaged.

The current system for imposition and collection of fines in Australia is significantly flawed. Fines are often inappropriately imposed/not imposed, inequitable, have high default rates and are expensive to enforce. This paper suggests an alternative scheme for the enforcement and collection of fines, a Fine Enforcement Collection Scheme (FECS), based on the principles underlying the...

This paper analyses the incidence and impact of unemployment among young Australians. It is argued that the scale and seriousness of the current youth problem are often overstated. There is no evidence that the aggregate unemployment experience of young Australians has changed over the last two decades.

Under the National Drought Policy, created in 1992, federal government support for farmers comes predominantly in two forms: interest rate subsidies and a special welfare payment. Support under these programs is only available to farmers in defined areas which have been declared to be experiencing 'exceptional circumstances'. In this paper Bruce Chapman and Linda Botterill...