Search

Byline: Richard O. Sinnott, Abstract Rapid urban growth is occurring across Australia. This has implications for planning and management of cities. Data is key to tackling this. Hitherto, an extensive range of organisations has held the data for Australian cities, crossing government, industry and academia. With the growing demand for open data and capabilities to support big data analytics, new opportunities now exist to rectify this situation. The Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network (AURIN) project has been funded to provide seamless, secure access to data from definitive organisations of Australia. We describe the AURIN platform; it's data, together with a representative big data case study. Article Note: Department of Computing and Information Systems, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010 Australia. Corresponding author: Sinnott, email rsinnott@unimelb.edu.au. The AURIN technical team includes Christopher Bayliss, Andrew Bromage, Gerson Galang, Philip Greenwood, Dr Glenn Tesla Jayaputera, Davis Mota Marques Luca Morandini, Ghazal Nogoorani, Dr Hossein Pursultani, Muhammad Sarwar, Dr William Voorsluys and Dr Ivo Widjaja. The AURIN project is funded through the Australian Education Investment Fund SuperScience initiative. We gratefully acknowledge their support and the broader network of AURIN collaborators.

Byline: Nicholas Reece Abstract Prime Minister Julia Gillard released the 'Australia in the Asian Century' White Paper in October 2012, describing it as 'a roadmap showing how Australia can be a winner in the Asian Century'. This article provides a review of Australia's progress on engagement with Asia 2 years after the White Paper. It covers the political and performance status of key Asia-related initiatives following the election of the Abbott government. It finds a high level of continuity and support for individual policies and objectives in the White Paper. However, there have been some significant changes in policy, emphasis and approach and emerging areas of underperformance. Article Note: Centre for Public Policy, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010 Australia; email < Nicholas.reece@unimelb.edu.au.

The COVID-19 pandemic saw governments around the world suddenly accumulate substantially higher levels of public debt. We consider the level of debt entered into by Australia's federal, state and territory governments and compare this against three metrics for debt sustainability. Using these measures, we find that current and future public debt levels sit within what is regarded as sustainable by scholarly and practitioner opinion. However, we note that recent increases in interest rates will challenge this. We conclude by outlining a range of economic, social and policy challenges arising from the new high public debt environment. Article Note: Zwalf: Monash University, Australia; Scott: Parliament of Victoria, Australia. Corresponding author: Sebastian Zwalf, email: sebastian.zwalf@monash.edu.au The authors wish to acknowledge Adjunct Professor Graeme Hodge, Associate Professor Paul Strangio and Emeritus Professor David Hayward for their generous feedback and assistance with this paper's early drafts. We also extend thanks to Professor Ian McDonald, the Australian Economic Review and an anonymous reviewer for their support and feedback. The paper is substantially improved for all feedback received. We also thank Ms Eva Maree Zwalf and Mr Lucas Wu Peng Scott for typographic and presentation assistance. Byline: Sebastian Zwalf, Robin Scott

Early childhood investment decisions represent critical policy frameworks that ideally reflect a strong evidence base. This review seeks to assess early childhood intervention priorities based on return on investment without limitation by health, education or social science sector. A systematic search of peer-reviewed literature identified 858 eligible papers relating to economic evaluations of intervention in early childhood (0-4 years). Data for this narrative review was provided by 34 papers. The capacity to rank interventions and to compare relevance across disciplines is limited by the degree of heterogeneity across studies and the potential to compare published studies based on journal indices. Article Note: Geelhoed: Telethon Kids Institute, Nedlands, Western Australia, Australia; School of Allied Health, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia 6009 Australia; Bloom: Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, US; Bock and Flatau: Centre for Social Impact, Business School, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia 6009 Australia; Mandzufas and Cross: Telethon Kids Institute, Nedlands, Western Australia, Australia; ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course; School of Population and Global Health, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia 6009 Australia; Li: School of Population and Global Health, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia 6009 Australia. Corresponding author: Mandzufas, email Joelie.mandzufas@telethonkids.org.au. This work was supported by CoLab-Collaborate for Kids, a partnership between the Telethon Kids Institute and the Minderoo Foundation, made possible with funding from the Minderoo Foundation. Staff and external consultants were contracted by CoLab. Donna Cross' contribution to this paper was supported by an NHMRC Research Fellowship GNT 1119339. CAPTION(S): Supporting information. Byline: Elizabeth A. Geelhoed, David E. Bloom, Catherine Bock, Paul Flatau, Joelie Mandzufas, Ian Li, Donna Cross

Decisions regarding personal income tax and transfer reforms are inevitably subject to value judgements. Hence, there is a crucial role for policy analysis in which the implications of clearly expressed values are considered. Tax models play a central role in such analyses. This paper reviews a number of tax models and illustrates their use in the context of the New Zealand income tax and transfer system. It is suggested that the appropriate economic models vary according to: the precise ways in which the policy question is formulated; the underlying behavioural responses to taxation expected across the taxpaying population; the precise definitions of key variables such as income inequality; and the specification of policy objectives such as redistribution, revenue-raising or tax efficiency. Article Note: Wellington School of Business and Government, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Corresponding author: Alinaghi, email nazila.alinaghi@vuw.ac.nz. We thank two referees for comments on an earlier version of this paper. We are grateful to the NZ Treasury for access to the TaxWell microsimulation model, and to Statistics NZ for access to Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) data. Results reported in this paper are not official statistics; they have been created for research purposes from IDI data managed by Statistics New Zealand. The opinions, findings, recommendations and conclusions expressed in this paper are those of the authors not Statistics NZ. Access to the anonymised data used in this study was provided by Statistics NZ in accordance with the security and confidentiality provisions of the Statistics Act 1975. Only people authorised by the Statistics Act 1975 are allowed to see data about a particular person, household, business or organisation and the results in this paper have been confidentialised to protect these groups from identification. Careful consideration has been given to the privacy, security and confidentiality issues associated with using administrative and survey data in the IDI. Further detail can be found in the privacy impact assessment for the Integrated Data Infrastructure available from www.stats.govt.nz. Byline: Nazila Alinaghi, John Creedy, John Creedy

This article provides a brief and selective review of research studies examining job characteristics and the changing nature of work that have used data from the HILDA Survey. It focuses on research into job satisfaction (and job quality more broadly), working time and forms of employment. Article Note: Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia, email m.wooden@unimelb.edu.au. This paper uses unit record data from release 19 of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey conducted by the Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic and Social Research on behalf of the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS) (doi:10.26193/3QRFMZ). The findings and views reported in this paper, however, are those of the author and should not be attributed to the Australian Government, DSS or the Melbourne Institute. Byline: Mark Wooden

The Queensland Family Cohort Pilot Study follows 450 women over the course of their pregnancy and after giving birth, collecting a wealth of information on socioeconomic characteristics, health, healthcare use and biological samples. The focus of this paper is to demonstrate how these data may be used to measure inequality of opportunity, between advantaged and disadvantaged populations, for mothers, partners and babies, in terms of their mental health and use of scarce health care resources. This paper provides the foundation for future analyses when a wider Queensland study is proposed to collect data from 12,500 families. Article Note: Gannon: Centre for the Business and Economics of Health and School of Economics, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia; Jayawardana: Centre for the Business and Economics of Health, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia; Clifton: Mater Research Institute, University of Queensland, Aubigny Place Level 3, Raymond Terrace, Mater Hill, South Brisbane, QLD 4101, Australia. Corresponding author: Gannon, email brenda.gannon@uq.edu.au CAPTION(S): Supplementary Information Byline: Brenda Gannon, Danusha Jayawardana, Danusha Jayawardana

We evaluate housing affordability in Australia particularly as it relates to the ability of households to purchase a home. An overview of trends in the Australian housing market is provided with a discussion of rising house prices and falling home ownership. We then provide an estimate of the fundamental price of housing at capital-city level based upon the user cost of housing. We also discuss policies that have been used and policies that could be used to improve housing affordability. We conclude with a brief discussion of the long term barriers to housing affordability. Article Note: Cho Institute for Economic and Social Research, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China; Li and Uren: Department of Economics, University of Melbourne, Victoria, 3010, Australia. Correspondence Shuyun May Li, Department of Economics, University of Melbourne. Email: shuyunl@unimelb.edu.au This paper uses unit record data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. The HILDA Project was initiated, and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS) and is managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (Melbourne Institute). The findings and views reported in this paper, however, are those of the author and should not be attributed to either DSS or the Melbourne Institute. This paper also uses house price and rental data provided by CoreLogic. CoreLogic are not responsible for any interpretation we derive from the use of their data. Full details regarding the CoreLogic disclaimer are available at the following link: http://corelogic.com.au/about-us/disclaimer.html Byline: Yunho Cho, Shuyun May Li, Shuyun May Li

This paper presents an original estimation of the size of the ground-rent appropriated by competing social subjects in the Australian economy over the long term, and of several economic variables necessary to accomplish that measurement. The paper also assesses the relative importance of ground-rent in total surplus-value and the Australian process of capital accumulation, finding that it constitutes a significant portion. Finally, the paper estimates the determinants of the ground-rent yielded by mining lands used to produced iron ore and mineral coal during the recent 'commodities price boom', stressing the importance of the location factor. Article Note: CONICET, Argentina; UNSAM, Argentina. Corresponding author: Grinberg, email ngrinberg@unsam.edu.ar.

***** No abstract is available for this article. ***** Article Note: The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research, Melbourne, Australia. The ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course, Australia. Institute of Labor Economics, Bonn, Germany. Corresponding author: Meekes, email: jordy.meekes@unimelb.edu.au. The authors thank participants at the 2019 Reserve Bank of Australia Conference on Low Wage Growth for their insightful comments. They also thank Jeff Borland, Gigi Foster, Wolter Hassink, Dean Hyslop, Inga La[sz], Viet Nguyen and Mark Wooden for their comments. This paper uses unit record data from Release 18 of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. The HILDA Survey is conducted by the Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research on behalf of the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS). However, the findings and views reported in this paper are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Australian Government, DSS or the Melbourne Institute. This research was supported by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course (CE140100027). Guyonne Kalb is a Chief Investigator and Jordy Meekes is a Research Fellow at this Centre. Supporting information: Additional Supporting Information may be found in the online version of this article Additional supporting information may be found in the online version of this article at the publisher's web-site: CAPTION(S): Supplementary Information Byline: Guyonne Kalb, Guyonne Kalb

Despite the high rates of mental disorder in adolescents and young adults, treatment utilisation is low. Using Australian longitudinal administrative and survey data, we show an increasing proportion of young people are accessing nervous system scripts as they age. Younger cohorts have increasingly accessed these scripts earlier; usage is generally higher among disadvantaged groups and in regions with better mental health service access. Less than half of all young adults facing very high psychological distress in 2018 had recently accessed mental health care. Instead of professional help, young people turn to friends and family for help with personal and emotional problems. Article Note: Butterworth: Research School of Population Health, Australian National University and Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research, The University of Melbourne; de New: Centre for Health Economics, Monash Business School, Monash University, Victoria 3145, Australia, RWI Research Network, RWI Research Network, and ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course; Schilling: Department of Surgery, Melbourne Medical School, The University of Melbourne; Saxby: Centre for Health Economics, Monash Business School, Monash University; Petrie: Centre for Health Economics, Monash Business School, Monash University; Wong: Centre for Health Economics, Monash Business School, Monash University and ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course. Corresponding author: de New, email: Sonja.deNew@monash.edu. The order of authors is alphabetical. This work was supported in part by the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Disability and Health [GNT1116385] and the Australian Research Council DP170101434 and DP190102765. We would like to thank Jane Wakeford and the rest of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Microdata Team for their tireless vetting, assistance and support throughout this project. This paper uses two data sets: (i) ABS 2011-2016, Multi-Agency Data Integration Project Basic Longitudinal Extract, 2011-2016 (2011-16 Cohorts). Detailed Microdata, DataLab. Findings based on the use of ABS Microdata; (ii) unit record data from Growing Up in Australia: the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). LSAC is conducted in partnership between the Department of Social Services (DSS), the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) and the ABS. The findings and views reported in this paper, however, are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Australian Government, DSS, AIFS or the ABS (DOI: 10.26193/VTCZFF). Byline: Peter Butterworth, Sonja C. New, Chris Schilling, Karinna Saxby, Dennis Petrie, Clement Wong

Abstract This paper examines the potential effects on inequality and poverty of a minimum wage increase, based on a microsimulation model that captures the details of household composition and the income tax and welfare benefit system and allows for labour supply responses. Results suggest that, largely due to the composition of household incomes, a policy of increasing the minimum wage has a relatively small effect on the inequality of income per adult equivalent person, and a money metric utility measure, using several inequality indices. Hence, the minimum wage policy does not appear to be particularly well targeted, largely due to many low wage earners being secondary earners in higher income households, while many low income households have no wage earners at all. These results are reinforced when allowing for wage spillovers further up the wage distribution. Nevertheless, a minimum wage increase can have a more substantial effect on some poverty measures for sole parents in employment. Article Note: Victoria Business School, Victoria University of Wellington, 23 Lambton Quay, Pipitea Campus, Rutherford House, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand. Corresponding author: Alinaghi, email nazila.alinaghi@vuw.ac.nz. This paper is part of a larger project on 'Improving New Zealand's Tax Policy via International Tax Transfer Model Benchmarking', funded by an Endeavour Research Grant from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and awarded to the Chair in Public Finance. Access to the data used in this paper was provided by Statistics New Zealand in accordance with security and confidentiality provisions of the Statistics Act 1975. The results presented in this study are the work of the authors, not Statistics New Zealand. We have benefited from discussion with Christopher Ball, Nicolas Herault and Guyonne Kalb. We also thank two anonymous referees for their comments. Byline: Nazila Alinaghi, John Creedy, Norman Gemmell

***** No abstract is available for this article. ***** Article Note: La[sz]: Federal Institute for Population Research, Wiesbaden, Germany; Wooden: Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Corresponding author: Wooden, email m.wooden@unimelb.edu.au. A longer version of this paper was first presented at the 2019 Reserve Bank of Australia Conference, Sydney, 4-5 April 2019. It uses unit record data from Release 17 of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey (doi: 10.26193/PTKLYP). The HILDA Survey is conducted by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research on behalf of the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS). The findings and views reported in this paper, however, are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Australian Government, DSS or the Melbourne Institute. Further, this research was supported under the Australian Research Council's Discovery Projects funding scheme (project # DP160103171). Byline: Inga La[sz], Mark Wooden

Byline: John O'Mahony, Rohan Garga, Michael Thomas, Max Kimber Abstract Humanities education and research have been a critical foundation of societies for centuries. However, societal change and the broadening of tertiary education over time have negatively affected the position and perception of the humanities, at least in relative terms. This article aims to redress this slide, informing discussion by bringing together new and existing evidence. We find that businesses, governments and societies in general benefit from humanities-educated individuals. We also find the humanities can improve students' job and earning prospects and equip them with a range of technical and transferrable skills. Article Note: Deloitte Access Economics, Sydney, New South Wales 2000 Australia. Corresponding author: Mahony; email joomahony@deloitte.com.au. This paper uses unit record data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. The HILDA Project was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS) and is managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (Melbourne Institute). The findings and views reported in this paper, however, are those of the authors and should not be attributed to either DSS or the Melbourne Institute.

Many countries have initiated structural reforms in corporate income tax (CIT) to attract investment and promote growth. There has been a continuous decline in CIT rates worldwide. It is expected that cuts in CIT rates may increase after-tax profits and encourage investment. A change in the CIT rate may also be shifted backward (by changing salaries and wages) and/or forward (by changing product prices). These are theoretical possibilities and may not have support from empirical evidence. In this paper we review empirical studies to assess the impact of CIT rate changes on the economy. Article Note: National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, 18/2, Satsang Vihar Marg, New Delhi, India. Corresponding author: Sacchidananda Mukherjee, email: sachs.mse@gmail.com Byline: Sacchidananda Mukherjee, Shivani Badola

Three years into the COVID-19 pandemic, this article considers the longer-lasting economic impacts on the Australian workforce through a gender lens. Using Australian Bureau of Statistics data, it analyses changes in employment, earnings and educational participation relative to the pre-pandemic trends that were predicted to have otherwise occurred. Despite women's employment moving back towards pre-pandemic levels more rapidly than men's, the pandemic also saw a widening of the gender gap in earnings and a larger fall in women's educational participation. This paper highlights the need for ongoing monitoring of labour market indicators through a gender lens to inform more responsive policy design. Article Note: School of Economics, Finance and Marketing, RMIT University; email: leonora.risse@rmit.edu.au. CAPTION(S): Supporting information. Byline: Leonora Risse

Byline: Matthew Taylor Abstract This data survey presents an introduction to the Survey of Income and Housing (SIH), a cross-sectional household survey of individuals living in Australian private dwellings starting in 1969. This article provides an overview of the SIH and a description of the content of the most recent edition collected over the course of the 2015-16 financial year. The overview compares and contrasts the SIH to its longitudinal cousin the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, outlining strengths and limits of both data sources depending on the type of research question. Article Note: ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods, Australian National University, Australian Capital Territory 0200 Australia; email matthew.taylor@anu.edu.au. The author would like to thank Dean Adams and Renee Allwright at the ABS. This article does not reflect the views of the ABS and all errors and omissions are mine. The author would like to thank John Haisken-DeNew for helpful comments on an earlier draft. This paper uses unit record data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. The HILDA Project was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS) and is managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (Melbourne Institute). The findings and views reported in this paper, however, are those of the author and should not be attributed to either DSS or the Melbourne Institute.

The current paper investigates whether the exchange rate asymmetrically influences domestic investment in China. To this end, the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) process is applied to investment data disaggregated by China's 31 provinces. We discover that there is evidence that the ups and downs of the yuan have asymmetric impacts on domestic investment for some provinces, though not all, in both the long- and short-run. Article Note: Lu: Department of Finance and International Trade, Kongju National University, 56 Gongjudaehak, Gongju, Chungcheongnam-do, Korea; Baek: Department of Economics, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 213B Bunnell, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-6080, USA; Nam: Department of International Trade and Commerce, Kongju National University, 56 Gongjudaehak, Gongju, Chungcheongnam-do, Korea. Corresponding author: Baek, email: jbaek3@alaska.edu. Byline: Guimin Lu, Jungo Baek, Soojoong Nam

In Australia there is limited understanding of the scale and nature of energy hardship or poverty. Energy poverty remains a concept with no clear definition and therefore no clear objectives, targets, metrics for data collection nor institutions to monitor and report on. Europe, in the last decade, has gone from limited public recognition of, and policy action on, energy poverty, to now having sophisticated quantitative measurement and monitoring tools, and institutional governance arrangements that promote transparency and accountability. In this paper, drawing on the European experience, we focus attention upon the measures and indicators of energy poverty and discuss their advantages and disadvantages. We propose institutional options for understanding and tackling these problems in the context of Australia's energy transition. Article Note: Chandrashekeran: University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, 3010, Australia; Noka: Oeko-Institut, Berlin, Germany; Bouzarovski: School of Environment, Education and Development, University of Manchester, United Kingdom, Manchester, England. Corresponding author: Chandrashekeran, email Sangeetha.chandra@unimelb.edu.au. Byline: Sangeetha Chandrashekeran, Viktoria Noka, Stefan Bouzarovski

Keywords: Australia; elderly; gender; HILDA; productive non-market activities Abstract Macroeconomic forecasts and program evaluations of health service interventions are pessimistic about ageing populations, given their low work participation and high demand for social services. We estimate the impact of heart disease on paid work and the value of unpaid non-market activities of the Australian elderly, using Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) data, finding significant losses in the value of their contributions to adult care and voluntary work. Impacts on non-market contributions of older women were more significant than for older men. A broader perspective on the value of the contributions made by the elderly is needed to enhance efficiency and (gender) equality. Article Note: Ishida and Mahal: Nossal Institute for Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia; Ludwick: Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia. Corresponding author: Mahal, email ajay.mahal@unimelb.edu.au. An early version of the research reported in this paper was supported by Edwards Life Sciences Inc. CAPTION(S): Supplementary information. Byline: Marie Ishida, Teralynn Ludwick, Ajay Mahal

Detailed labour market and economic data are often released infrequently and with considerable time lags between collection and release, making it difficult for policy-makers to accurately assess current conditions. Nowcasting is an emerging technique in the field of economics that seeks to address this gap by 'predicting the present'. While nowcasting has primarily been used to derive timely estimates of economy-wide indicators such as GDP and unemployment, this article extends this literature to show how big data and machine-learning techniques can be utilised to produce nowcasting estimates at detailed disaggregated levels. A range of traditional and real-time data sources were used to produce, for the first time, a useful and timely indicator-or nowcast-of employment by region and occupation. The resulting Nowcast of Employment by Region and Occupation (NERO) will complement existing sources of labour market information and improve Australia's capacity to understand labour market trends in a more timely and detailed manner. Article Note: National Skills Commission, Australian Government Department of Education Skills and Employment, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia. Corresponding author: Sharma, email Kishor.Sharma@skillscommission.gov.au. The authors are grateful to Bjorn Jarvis of the Australian Bureau of Statistics and to Bilal Rafi and Adam Bialowas of the Department of Education, Skills and Employment for their support and useful insights. They are also grateful to Adam Boyton, David Turvey and Angela Hope of the National Skills Commission for useful comments on an earlier version of the article. Useful comments were also received from Jeff Borland and John P. de New of the University of Melbourne, all of which significantly improved the quality of the article. The participants of the Australian Conference of Economists 2021 also provided insightful comments. All remaining errors are ours. The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the position or policy of the National Skills Commission or the Australian Government. Byline: Samuel Shamiri, Leanne Ngai, Peter Lake, Yin Shan, Amee McMillan, Therese Smith, Kishor Sharma

How large is Australia's fiscal space? Blanchard (2019) shows that as long as the real interest rate R $R$ is below the real growth rate G $G$, a government can sustain a positive primary deficit with a constant (or even declining) ratio of public debt to GDP. In this article, we explain the neutral real interest rate and the reasons for its decline. Then, we discuss the results of a companion paper, Domínguez and Quiggin (2022), in which we quantify the fiscal space for Australia and find that a permanent increase in the primary deficit can be afforded up to reaching a debt to GDP ratio of 79 per cent. Furthermore, this so-called 'free lunch' in the fiscal space can be expanded if debt is used to finance public investment. Article Note: School of Economics, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. Corresponding author: Domínguez, email b.dominguez@uq.edu.au. Byline: Begoña Domínguez, Begoña Domínguez

The growth of Chinese global official finance has stimulated great interest among foreign aid advocates. Yet, until now, a lack of systematic data reporting has limited our understanding of Chinese official finance. Against this background, this article describes and compares two internationally comparable Chinese datasets from 2005 to 2014: AidData and the China Global Investment Tracker (CGIT). This study summarises China's priority areas of investment and the actual volume of Chinese finance, including a breakdown of these estimates by region and sector. Despite significant disparities between the two databases, this study shows that Chinese investment preferences in terms of locality and priority sectors are broadly consistent with the existing pattern. Article Note: Victoria Institute of Strategic Economic Studies (VISES), Institute for Sustainable Industries and Living Cities (ISILC), Room# 1328, Level 13, 300 Flinders St, Victoria 3000, Australia. Corresponding author: Ahmed, email salma.ahmed@vu.edu.au. We thank the editor Professor John P. De New for his helpful comments on the earlier version of the paper. CAPTION(S): Supporting information. Byline: Salma Ahmed, Bruce Rasmussen, Peter Sheehan

We present the first estimates of intergenerational wealth mobility for Australia. The rank correlation is 0.253, compared to 0.306 for the United States using comparable methods. This correlation varies greatly by child age when wealth is observed, from 0.1 before age 30, to 0.5 after age 40. This sharp increase with age is stronger than for other countries, is not explained by sample selection bias and is not specific to particular types of wealth. We also argue that neither income mobility nor wealth mobility, as operationalised in empirical work, align neatly with the wealth concept in the Becker & Tomes framework. Article Note: We thank Andrew Leigh, Simon Halphen Boserup, the editor Ross Williams, two anonymous referees and participants at various seminars for comments on earlier versions. This paper uses unit record data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. The unit record data from the HILDA Survey was obtained from the Australian Data Archive, which is hosted by The Australian National University. The HILDA Survey was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS) and is managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (Melbourne Institute). The findings and views based on the data, however, are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Australian Government, DSS, the Melbourne Institute, the Australian Data Archive or The Australian National University and none of those entities bear any responsibility for the analysis or interpretation of the unit record data from the HILDA Survey provided by the authors. Byline: Peter Siminski, Sin Hung (Timothy) Yu

Australia has a long-standing dependence on foreign investment to make up the difference between domestic saving and investment opportunities. There is, nevertheless, an ongoing debate about the merits or otherwise of inward foreign investment. There has also been a recent tightening of criteria governing foreign investment. The OECD assesses Australia's foreign direct investment regime to be one of the most restrictive in the OECD area, while broader discussions have considered the potential for a decline in Australia's credit rating. This paper uses a dynamic global general equilibrium model-GDyn-FS-to report on the national and sectoral effects of a decline in the desirability of investing in Australia, relative to other countries. Byline: Paul Gretton

Byline: Michael B. Coelli Abstract There are conflicting findings in the literature about whether occupational differences contribute to the Australian gender wage gap. Most papers conclude that they do not, while two papers conclude that they can explain a sizeable amount of the gap. These papers use different estimation methods and levels of occupational aggregation. I show that constructing decompositions using much more disaggregated occupational categories than those used in previous Australian research yield large positive contributions of occupational differences to the gap. Differences in estimation method (particularly regarding the inclusion or otherwise of industry indicators) also affect estimates. Article Note: Department of Economics, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010 Australia; email mcoelli@unimelb.edu.au. Many thanks to David Ong for research assistance and to Jeff Borland, Deborah Cobb-Clark and Paul Miller for useful comments and suggestions. Participants at the 2011 Australasian Meetings of the Econometric Society in Adelaide and the University of New South Wales also provided useful suggestions. This article reports statistical analysis based on unconfidentialised unit record data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. The HILDA Survey project was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) and is managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (Melbourne Institute). The findings and views reported in this article, however, are those of the author, and should not be attributed to FaHCSIA or the Melbourne Institute. I thank Michelle Summerfield of the Melbourne Institute for her assistance in accessing the In Confidence version of the HILDA Survey. Financial support was provided by the Faculty of Business and Economics, The University of Melbourne.

The Australian Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety made 148 recommendations to reform Australian aged care. The recommendations concerning the sector's workforce are integral to ensuring that the widespread neglect and failures characterising the sector be addressed and prevented. This paper discusses several of the Commission's recommendations in relation to issues that we see as foundational for ensuring sustained success of urgent sector-wide reform. We focus on mandated staffing levels and skills mix, attraction and retention, education and training, staff registration, and funding transparency and accountability. Article Note: Bonner: Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) South Australian Branch, Adelaide 5008, Australia; Peters: Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) Federal Office, Melbourne 3000, Australia; Butler: UniSA Clinical and Health Sciences, Rosemary Bryant AO Research Centre, The University of South Australia, Adelaide 5000, Australia. Corresponding author: Bonner, email rob.bonner@anmfsa.org.au. Byline: Rob Bonner, Micah D. J. Peters, Micah D. J. Peters

Abstract In this paper I adapt a common model used in economics to study the diffusion of innovations to model the transmission of a virus. Emphasis is placed on the evolution of the number of new infections and the cumulative total number of infections over time and how they might be influenced by different policies. Although the model is very simple it does yield some useful implications for public policy. Article Note: Dixon: Department of Economics, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3101, Australia. Corresponding author: Robert Dixon, email: r.dixon@unimelb.edu.au Supporting information: Additional Supporting Information may be found in the online version of this article Additional supporting information may be found in the online version of this article at the publisher's web-site: CAPTION(S): Supporting information. Byline: Robert Dixon

This paper examines the economic rationale and welfare effects of permitting the parallel importation of sound recordings and the likely impact on piracy levels. For more than a decade now there has been considerable, often heated, debate over the issue of the parallel importation of sound recordings into Australia. Citing anti-competitive monopolistic distribution, an increasingly integrated global market and the challenges of new technologies, the Australian government recently passed the Copyright Amendment Act (No.2) 1998, which permits the parallel importation of 'non-infringing' copies of a sound recording. This paper investigates the economic rationale underpinning this regulatory change and, using a partial equilibrium model attempts to measure the likely welfare effects on consumers, copyright owners and the nation. In addition the paper examines the likely welfare impact of piracy within the new regulatory framework. This paper demonstrates that in a global music market characterised by exclusive territorial licences and price discrimination, the removal of parallel import restrictions by a small net-importer of intellectual property may be welfare enhancing for the nation. This welfare gain is at the expense of largely foreign copyright owners.

The existing literature has ignored the impact of a goods and services tax on the degree of competition in product markets. This paper outlines the circumstances under which such a tax may enhance industry competitiveness. This paper explores the effects of a goods and services tax on the degree of competition in an oligopolistic industry and identifies a new mechanism through which the tax influences product market competition. The analysis focuses upon the effects of the tax in a concentrated industry and it is demonstrated that there exist circumstances under which the tax may promote competition by rendering tacit collusion more difficult.

This paper compares income and expenditure inequalities over 1975-76 to 1993-94. While the inequalities differ in their nature and movements, both approaches show that the 'within group' inequality dominates the 'between group' effect when the population is divided into household types. Using Australian unit record data this paper compares income and expenditure inequalities over the period 1975-76 to 1993-94. The study finds inconsistencies between the two inequality movements over much of this period. We also observe differences in the nature of income and consumption disparities. Both approaches show that the 'within group' inequality dominates the 'between group' component when the population is divided into household types. The inequality estimates are sensitive to the equivalence scale used as the household size deflator but not to the cost of living index used as the price deflator.

This paper makes new projections of government social outlays for Australia. The calculations suggest that government social outlays will increase considerably as a percentage of GDP over the next 50 years, by 7.3 per cent of GDP in the base case. This is a greater increase than that found by previous investigators. Over 60 per cent of this increase will occur between 2011 and 2031, the years when the baby boom generation retires. The major contribution to this increase will have come from increased government outlays on social security. Lower rates of net immigration are shown to yield an even larger increase in the percentage of government social outlays in GDP. The paper also considers the disincentive effect of taxation and the effect of increasing the age of retirement. However, notwithstanding the trends suggested by the projections, the paper argues that there are a number of reasons to be sanguine about the implications of ageing on the share of government outlays in GDP.

This paper examines the potential role for fuel substitution in electricity production in reducing carbon dioxide emissions over a ten-year time horizon. This is achieved by adding fuel substitution to output changes resulting from demand responses arising from a tax on carbon dioxide emissions. A time profile of adjustments is developed. The tax required for Australia to meet a 20 per cent reduction in emissions from 1993 levels is calculated and effects on inequality and social welfare are examined. The paper also examines the potential effect of a subsidy towards the use of low-emission fuels, financed from the carbon tax. A subsidy produces an improvement in emissions abatement and a lower tax required to reach the emissions target.

Abstract This paper evaluates the revenue effort of Indian states during the 13th and 14th Finance Commission periods and estimates the impact of central transfers recommended by the Finance Commission on the relative revenue effort of states. Using panel data the study finds that Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and Kerala are the top five states with the greatest relative revenue effort. Further, the impact of central transfers on revenue effort was found to be negative, suggesting that greater devolution encourages laxity in the state's tax collection efficiency by providing perverse incentives. Byline: Avipsa Mohanty, Dinabandhu Sethi, Asit Ranjan Mohanty

Deregulation of natural gas pipeline transportation is less likely to be as successful in Australia as in North America. Australian tariff policy is insufficient for promoting firm service, and should include arrangements for third party and spot access pricing. Australia also lacks an established gas pipeline network which would promote efficient pricing of excess capacity., This paper reviews the development of open access and deregulation of trunk pipeline natural gas transportation in Australia and the United States. It investigates Australian policy developments in the setting of reference tariffs for firm service, but argues that the institutional arrangements for granting third party access, and the pricing of that access on a spot or interruptible basis, are at least as important as tariffs for firm service. The paper concludes that, in the absence of an established pipeline network, pipelines may have little incentive to price their excess capacity efficiently. In this case, attempts to promote an efficient allocative outcome through privatisation and open access in Australia are unlikely to be as successful as they have been in North America.

Abstract As by-products, emissions follow economic fluctuations. Ignoring this fact in environmental policies can lead to unexpected emissions fluctuations and an increase in intervention costs. Using a real business cycle model, we compare two policies: a fixed tax policy where the price is constant over time and a variable tax regime where the tax rate is set at the beginning of each period. We find that while both programs result in lower emissions, a variable tax regime is preferable since first, it can ensure that the maximum welfare is always achieved, and second, it is more effective in stabilising emissions. Article Note: Ramezani: SMART Infrastructure Facility, Faculty of Engineering, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia; Harvie: School of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Faculty of Business, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia; Arjomandi: School of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Faculty of Business, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia. Corresponding author: Ramezani, email faribark@uow.edu.au.The authors wish to thank anonymous reviewers and the editor for very helpful comments on earlier drafts of the paper. Byline: Fariba Ramezani, Charles Harvie, Amir Arjomandi

Abstract This study estimates the impact of foreign demand for Australian residential real estate on property prices. Using postcode-level administrative data and fixed-effects regression techniques we find a positive relationship between foreign investment approvals and price growth. Our analysis suggests that, on average, foreign investment contributed between $80 and $122 to quarterly price growth in Sydney and Melbourne between July 2010 and March 2015. This is a small proportion of the increase in property prices over the period. Article Note: This paper has benefited from the assistance of Ross Williams, Robert Breunig, Tanuja Doss, Emma Schultz, Markus Brueckner, Glenn Otto, Sam Hill, Michael Kouparitsas, Yi Yong Cai, Angelia Grant, Linus Gustafsson, Luke Willard, Hamish McDonald, Nigel Ray, John Lonsdale, Roger Brake, Sina Grasmann, Nicole Merrilees, Derrick Calder, David Earl and Sriram Shankar. We also thank the University of New South Wales and seminar participants at the Australian National University's Research School of Economics, and the Victorian Treasury/Productivity Commission Seminar Series. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. Declarations of interest: none. This research does not necessarily represent the views of the Treasury or the Australian Government. Byline: Chris Wokker, John Swieringa

Abstract Neoclassical economic theory and its supply-side account of the drivers of economic growth has been influential amongst Australian economic policymakers and advisors. In the post-Keynesian tradition, we argue instead that aggregate demand drives economic growth, even in the medium term. In particular, the investment and innovation that depends upon that investment are mainly determined by the investment response to consumer demand. Currently, weak wages growth in Australia is weakening that consumer demand. The paper examines the causes of weak wages growth and offers solutions. Article Note: Bell: Department of Political Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; Keating: Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. Corresponding author: Bell, email stephen.bell@uq.edu.au [Corrections added on 4 October 2019 after first online publication: the opening quote by Philip Lowe, as referenced within the article, has been inserted.] Byline: Stephen Bell, Michael Keating

Abstract This paper provides an overview of research into the phenomenon of whether climatic factors, such as temperature and weather-related disasters, affect the decision to migrate. As an example, we examine migration flows from 198 countries to Australia for the time span from 1980 to 2015. Our results show that temperature does not have a robust, significant effect on migration flows, while weather-related disasters do significantly affect flows to Australia. Byline: Dennis Wesselbaum

Abstract This paper develops two state-of-the-art uncertainty indices for New Zealand by exploiting two separate data-rich environments. The first index follows the methodology outlined in Jurado, Ludvigson and Ng (2015) to construct an estimate of uncertainty based on a large New Zealand macro dataset. The second index is constructed based on freely accessible and real time Google Trends data to provide a real-time and freely-accessible measure of uncertainty as in Castelnuovo and Tran (2017) and Shields and Tran (2018). Both indices do a reasonable job measuring uncertainty in New Zealand. VAR evidence documents significant impacts of uncertainty shocks on GDP in New Zealand. CAPTION(S): Supplementary Information Byline: Trung Duc Tran, Tugrul Vehbi, Tugrul Vehbi

Abstract This article discusses how teaching public economics is, and should be, related to national cultures. The article shows how the US culture of distrust of government influences the two major US texts (Rosen and Gayer 2014; Gruber 2016) that dominate the teaching of public economics in Australia and elsewhere. By contrast, Stiglitz and Rosengard's (2015) text on public economics emphasises the role of government in providing social welfare. These traditions may be described as neo-liberal and social democratic respectively. I conclude that the social democratic approach reflects Australian culture and is more appropriate for teaching public economics in Australian universities. Article Note: Applied Economics Pty Ltd, Sydney, NSW 2000 Australia. Email pabelson@appliedeconomics.com.au. I would like to thank Professors Nicholas Barr, Robert Breunig, Andrew Leigh (now MP), Michael McClure and Glenn Withers as well as colleague Tim Dalton for their helpful comments on a progress draft. I also thank Professors Harvey Rosen and Jon Gruber for their responses. While I have adopted many suggestions, I have not adopted all of them and the paper is wholly my responsibility. Byline: Peter Abelson

Byline: Stephen Kirchner Abstract Uncertainty about economic policy in Australia and the United States has increased episodically since the Global Financial Crisis. Existing research focuses on the effects on economic activity, employment and investment. I extend this work to examine the effect of policy uncertainty on global trade volumes, industrial production and cross-border trade and investment for Australia and the United States. Australia's relative resilience to policy uncertainty shocks reflects a larger role for the exchange rate in intermediating foreign shocks and the absence of a recession in Australia during the sample period considered. Article Note: United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia. Email < stephen.kirchner@sydney.edu.au. The author would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for comments on an earlier version of this paper.

Byline: Kenneth Clements, Jiawei Si Abstract Australian universities now produce about 100 economics PhD graduates each year. Many graduates, perhaps most, aspire to an academic position. How many ultimately achieve this ambition? Relatedly, how long does the PhD take to complete, how many publications emerge from the research and how useful do graduates regard their PhD studies-was it time well spent? These questions relate to the social value of the substantial investment devoted to PhD training in economics, questions which have gone largely unaddressed up to now. The article also contains information on recent trends in graduate numbers and identifies which universities have consistently been the leading producers. Article Note: Business School, University of Western Australia, Western Australia 6009 Australia. Corresponding author: Clements, email < ken.clements@uwa.edu.au. We are grateful to a number of UWA economics PhDs who responded to our requests for information on their activities; Michael McLure and other UWA Economics colleagues for advice; the UWA Library, especially Special Collections Librarian Kael Driscoll, and Robyn Oliver from the UWA Graduate Research School for providing data; Michael Azariadis, UWA Graduate Research School, for advice; and Tom Simpson and Long Vo for research assistance. Clements also acknowledges useful discussions with and feedback from PhDs students, past and present, from UWA and elsewhere, as well as helpful comments from participants at the 2017 PhD Conference in Economics and Business, held at The University of Melbourne, at which he spoke on some of the matters covered in this paper. Jenny Lye provided most helpful comments on an earlier draft. Thanks are also due to an anonymous referee for useful comments. This research was financed in part by BHP. Sadly, Jiawei Si died before publication.

Byline: Richard Evans, Angus Moore, Daniel M Rees Abstract We examine the cyclical relationship between labour market participation and economic activity in Australia. We find that the participation rate has a large and economically meaningful cyclical component. By cohort, the participation rates of young people, 25-54 year-old females and older males are the most responsive to changes in economic conditions. If the participation rate did not adjust, expansions would be more inflationary; on the other hand, recessions would be more disinflationary and lead to larger increases in involuntary unemployment. Article Note: Economic Analysis Department, Reserve Bank of Australia, New South Wales 2001, Australia. Corresponding author: Rees, email reesd@rba.gov.au. This is an extended version of an article published in the September 2018 issue of the RBA Bulletin. We would like to thank Lynne Cockerell, Luci Ellis, Darren Flood, Alexandra Heath and participants at the Reserve Bank of Australia Economic Research Seminar for helpful comments and suggestions. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Reserve Bank of Australia

Byline: Lucy Greig, Amy Rice, Tugrul Vehbi, Benjamin Wong Abstract We study the effect of uncertainty in New Zealand, a small open economy, by considering global and New Zealand-specific uncertainty proxies, including several US- and global-centric measures and two novel New Zealand-specific uncertainty proxies constructed using surveys of New Zealand firms and professional forecasters. We study the effect of uncertainty on a set of New Zealand macroeconomic variables. While all of the uncertainty proxies contain valuable information to understand macroeconomic fluctuations in New Zealand, a simple SVAR analysis suggests that global uncertainty is more important than domestic uncertainty in driving the New Zealand business cycle. The implications of uncertainty for monetary policy largely depend on how heightened uncertainty interacts with monetary policy objectives. Article Note: Greig, Rice, Vehbi and Wong: Reserve Bank of New Zealand, Wellington 6140 New Zealand. Corresponding author: Vehbi, email Tugrul.Vehbi@rbnz.govt.nz. We would like to thank seminar participants at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, Otago University and, in particular, Christie Smith for their valuable comments. The views expressed here are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. The material in this article draws heavily on a paper by Rice, Vehbi and Wong ([Rice, A., 2017], forthcoming).

Byline: Richard Pomfret, Patricia Sourdin Abstract The impact on Australia of the 2004EU enlargement highlighted a major change in the global economy. Previous EU enlargements, notably British accession in 1973, diverted trade from third countries such as Australia. After 2004, trade between Australia and new Eastern European EU members boomed. Deep integration allowed EU firms to create regional value chains. Cars produced in regional value chains, often with final assembly in Eastern Europe, are globally competitive. Reduced trade costs contributed to competitiveness, even in distant Australia, where Volkswagen, Audi, Peugeot and Holden cars are imported from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. Article Note: Pomfret: School of Economics, The University of Adelaide, South Australia 5005 Australia, and School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University, Bologna 40126 Italy; Sourdin: School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University, Bologna 40126 Italy. Corresponding author: Pomfret, email richard.pomfret@adelaide.edu.au. The research was supported by a grant from the EU Centre for Global Affairs at the University of Adelaide. The project is reported in the University of Adelaide's School of Economics Working Paper 'Trade between Australia and the EU, 1990-2015', available at http://www.economics.adelaide.edu.au/research/papers/doc/wp2016-10.pdf, which provides more detail of the data and methods.

Byline: Efrem Castelnuovo, Guay Lim, Giovanni Pellegrino Abstract This article summarises the academic contributions presented and discussed during the 2016 edition of the Melbourne Institute Macroeconomic Policy Meetings, which focused on the role played by uncertainty for a number of countries' business cycle. Considerations on the interaction between uncertainty and financial frictions, the global dimension of uncertainty, uncertainty shocks in times of unconventional monetary policy and the imperfect knowledge that agents have over policy targets are among the discussions entertained in this article. The main insights coming from those papers are connected with the extant literature and directions for future research are offered. Article Note: Castelnuovo: Department of Economics and Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010 Australia; Lim and Pellegrino: Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010 Australia. Corresponding author: Castelnuovo, email < efrem.castelnuovo@unimelb.edu.au. Financial support from the Australian Research Council via the Discovery Grant DP160102281 is gratefully acknowledged.

Byline: Chris Ryan Abstract Papers that aim to measure peer effects on the educational outcomes of an individual face at least two problems in estimating them convincingly. The first is a sorting problem: in education, individuals who are already alike tend to sort together into similar schools or institutions. The second is the reflection problem: if my peers affect me, do I not also affect them? Solutions to these problems are not straightforward and the methods often used in the literature are contentious, as this review aims to make clear. External manipulation of peer groups, via quasi- or full randomisation, provides a necessary starting point. Article Note: Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research and ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010 Australia; email ryan.c@unimelb.edu.au. Thanks to Michael Coelli and two anonymous referees for helpful comments on an earlier draft. The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this review and for any errors or biases it contains.

Byline: Philip Clarke, Guido Erreygers Abstract Here we highlight a neglected contribution of Alexander Sutherland (1852-1902) to Australian health economics. Sutherland read a paper on health insurance at the Melbourne Social Science Congress that was organised in the context of the International Exhibition of 1880-1881. He proposed combining life and health insurance into a single product and to require those who are insured to obtain regular medical check-ups. The aim was to provide the insurer with information on the behaviours of the insured and to promote healthy lifestyles. These proposals were not well received at the time and have been largely forgotten, but may be relevant today. Article Note: Clarke: Centre for Health Policy, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010 Australia; Erreygers: Centre for Health Policy, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010 Australia, and Department of Economics, University of Antwerp, Antwerpen 2000 Belgium. Corresponding author: Clarke, email < philip.clarke@unimelb.edu.au. We thank John Gonzalez, Joseph P. Newhouse, Lies Vidts and the reviewers of this Journal for their suggestions and comments. Guido Erreygers gratefully acknowledges the financial support of Research Fund - Flanders (FWO). All errors are our responsibility.

Byline: David Smith, Therese Smith Abstract With the recent Australian Bureau of Statistics release of the Australian Census and Migrants Integrated Dataset (ACMID), we can, for the first time ever, analyse migrant Census data by visa category. For policy-makers, this is an important development: the categories of migrants are quite distinct in terms of composition and what constitutes a successful outcome will vary markedly among different groups. This article presents findings from a brief analysis of the ACMID, providing new insights into how different groups of migrants fare over time and focusing on the 'three E's': English proficiency, education and employment. Article Note: The views expressed in the paper do not necessarily represent the views or any policy commitment of the Australian Government. Economic Analysis Unit, Department of Immigration and Border Protection, Australian Capital Territory 2617 Australia. Corresponding author: Therese Smith, email < therese.smith@immi.gov.au.