This paper studies the effect of the zone tax offset (ZTO), a place based income subsidy implemented in rural Australia since 1945. The policy was intended to improve the welfare of inhabitants and provide an incentive for settlement. Our empirical approach exploits the geographical discontinuity in the eligibility for the subsidy to identify its causal effect on population growth. Using data on population by locality from the historical censuses we find that the ZTO had a positive but only temporary effect on population growth in the targeted areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
This empirical study explores financial links between indigenous and non-indigenous economic systems in a remote river catchment in Northern Australia (the Mitchell). It finds evidence of a profound and asymmetric 'disconnect' between these economies: an exogenous increase in indigenous incomes raises the incomes of non-indigenous people, but the reverse is not true. Evidently, those seeking to improve the incomes of indigenous people in Northern Australia cannot simply seek to ( i) increase payments to indigenous people, or ( ii) expand the non-indigenous sector hoping that some benefits will 'trickle down'. Instead, structural change is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]