In the past decade or so there has been a substantial rise in the indebtedness and debt-servicing obligations of Australian households. This has been accompanied by a trend increase in labour force participation (LFP) for women and more recently for men. Microeconomic data show a clear positive correlation between indebtedness and LFP. This paper models...

The West Kimberley region of Western Australia is the latest potential focus of the minerals boom currently sweeping many parts of remote Australia. There have been growing demands for a detailed profile of socioeconomic conditions in the region set within a framework of understanding the dynamics of Indigenous labour demand and supply. John Taylor provides...

The National Reform Agenda (NRA) proposed in 2006 by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) includes a human capital stream of reforms, designed to effect changes in health, education and work incentives. In 2006, the Productivity Commission undertook an assessment of the economic and fiscal impacts that NRA might produce by 2030, including impacts flowing...

In an integrated world economy, trade and flows of capital, labour, raw materials and technology are inter-related. Labour movements in the Asian region therefore have to be seen in the context of an integrated world economy - but one where vast differences in income, wages and human resource development provide strong incentives for workers to...

This paper first analyses the demand for and cost of formal and informal childcare for couple and sole parent families, shedding light on factors which affect the demand for childcare. The predicted demand of formal childcare and the predicted costs of informal childcare arising from these models are then used to impute total childcare costs...