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The 52nd Australian Conference of Economists (ACE2024) is set to take place at the University of Adelaide from July 9-12, 2024. The conference, organized by the Economics Society of Australia and Women in Economics Network, will feature keynote speakers such as Professor Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve Board, Professor Marc Muendler from the University of California at San Diego, and Leonardo Bursztyn from the University of Chicago. Attendees can expect a range of sessions covering academic research, policy discussions, and important economic issues. Selected papers presented at the conference will be published in the Economic Record. For more information, visit the conference website at www.ace24.org or contact the organizing committee via email at ace24info@gmail.com or by calling Mark Henley, President of ESA - SA Branch, at 0404 067011. [Extracted from the article]

The awards were to Professor Lisa Cameron and Professor Ian McDonald. The selection committee comprising the chair, Professor Lionel Page, and committee members, Professor Shuping Shi and Professor Firmin Doko Tchatoka, reviewed papers published in the five issues of the I Economic Record i for 2022. IV Distinguished Fellow Public Policy Award 2023: Professor Meredith Edwards The ESA Distinguished Public Policy Fellow Award honours a distinguished Australian economist for their contribution to the application of economics to public policy. III Distinguished Fellow Award 2023: Professor Lisa Cameron and Professor Ian McDonald The ESA Distinguished Fellow Award honours a distinguished Australian economist for their contribution to the development of economics. [Extracted from the article]

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This paper documents firm mark‐ups and competition in Australia, and their impact on productivity, using administrative data. I find that mark‐ups increased by around 5 per cent since the mid 2000s, less than previously documented for Australia and slightly less than documented for the average advanced economy. While part appears to reflect technological change, part appears to reflect an increase in market power. This increase appears to explain part of the slowdown in productivity growth observed in Australia over the past decade, by slowing the efficient reallocation of resources from low productivity to high productivity firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an online Zoom webinar on 28 January 2022, President Danielle Wood was pleased to announce that Professor David Throsby AO is the Economic Society of Australia Distinguished Fellow for 2021. IV Young Economist Award 2021: Professor Stefanie Schurer In an online Zoom webinar on 28 January 2022, President Danielle Wood was pleased to announce that Professor Stefanie Schurer is the Economic Society of Australia Young Economist for 2021. VII Obituary for Emeritus Professor Geoff Colin Harcourt (UNSW Sydney) AC (1931-2021) Geoff Harcourt was an Australian economist who split most of his time between Australia and Cambridge, UK. V Best Paper Prize in the Economic Record in 2020 The selection committee comprising the chair, Professor Alison Preston, Professor Lisa Farrell and Professor Mariano Kulish reviewed the 28 papers published in the five issues of the I Economic Record i for 2020. [Extracted from the article]

This paper examines capital misallocation of manufacturing firms in Vietnam during the period 2008–17. Three sources of capital misallocation are investigated: adjustment costs, uncertainty and policy distortions. The findings reveal the modest contribution of adjustment costs to total misallocation. In contrast, policy distortions account for 81 per cent of capital misallocation in Vietnam and lead to a total factor productivity gap of 110 per cent in the manufacturing sector relative to the undistorted first‐best level. The paper examines one specific type of policy distortions – preferential treatments of state‐owned enterprises – and finds that these policies cause a 38 per cent loss in aggregate manufacturing productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overall, then, we have a pretty comprehensive survey of behavioural public finance - one well suited to the public finance economist who is looking to expand his or her toolkit. But after this opening, the Element turns its focus to the academic discipline of public finance, offering an instructive history of its development, and describing the ways in which behavioural economics influenced this literature. This focus makes this Element most useful to academics working in behavioural finance, who wish to understand how behavioural economics impacts their field and how they too can publish behavioural public finance papers. [Extracted from the article]

Presents several abstracts of papers delivered on economic in Melbourne, Australia. 'The Economics of an Offshore Island,' by G.G. Firth; 'Some Aspects of Private Pension Funds and the Capital Market,' by P.J. Rose; 'Long-Run Overseas Trade Prospects for Farm Products,' by R.H. Snape.

In 2011, I delivered a keynote address titled 'Predicting the Present with Google Trends' at the annual meeting of the Australian Conference of Economists. Working with my colleague Hyunyoung Choi, that talk turned into a paper that was subsequently published in the June 2012 proceedings of this journal. The paper received over 3000 citations in Google Scholar. This enthusiastic reception encouraged me to continue work with my colleague Steve Scott to develop new tools and new examples which are described in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper produces aggregate and industry estimates of total factor productivity (TFP) for New Zealand. TFP is estimated based on constant elasticity of substitution (CES) production functions that permit varying assumptions about factor augmentation and that allow for industry‐specific values of the elasticity of substitution between inputs. The CES approach simultaneously explains changes in labour share and output over time, and provides estimates of the contribution of capital and labour to productivity in New Zealand. The results suggest that negative capital‐augmenting technical change in several industries has weighed on productivity in New Zealand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alcohol taxation is an important policy instrument for correcting for market failures associated with excessive alcohol consumption. This paper examines the beverage‐specific negative externalities by providing empirical evidence linking ten alcoholic beverage types to drink‐driving and hazardous, disturbing or abusive behaviours when intoxicated, using data from six waves of an Australian recreational drug survey. We find that regular‐strength beer and pre‐mixed spirits in a can rank the highest in their links to negative behaviours, followed by mid‐strength beer, cask wine, and bottled spirits. Conversely, drinking low‐strength beer or fortified wine reduces the probability of these risky and unlawful behaviours. Bottled wine is shown to be associated with an elevated chance of drink‐driving but a reduced chance of other negative behaviours. In contrast to the existing volumetric tax rates for per litre of alcohol, of all harmful beverage types, cask wine appears to be significantly undertaxed relative to its external costs to society. We also note that regular‐ and mid‐strength beer are comparable to pre‐mixed drinks in terms of external costs, and yet there is a significant disparity across their tax rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the relationship of central banks with other governmental monetary policy decision makers was examined. Currently, all major currencies are not tied to the value of any commodity and their value is based on the inclination of people to accept them as payment. The monetary policy systems now being practiced by many central banks was first proposed by John Maynard Keynes in 1923, with the concept of 'managed currency.' While central banks have developed a role as advisor and assistant to governments on matters of monetary policy, it was suggested that the power of central banks to create money and develop monetary policies should be separated from other government functions.

Presents ways of improving the allocation of land between speculators and users in Australia. Influence of land speculation on the operation of the land market; Efficiency using land resources; Consideration of capital gains as taxable income.

Presents several abstracts on economics. 'Organization and Innovation,' by F.J. Willet; 'Economic Theory and Underdeveloped Countries,' by D.H. Whitehead; 'Some Development Problems in Asian Countries,' by A.M. Kerr.

Although Tony was an accomplished economic theorist, his passion was applied public policy and the contribution economics could make to improving the economic welfare of Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. I By Professor Martin Richardson, Australian National University, and Professor Binh Tran-Nam, University of New South Wales i VII Vale Professor Anthony John Makin Anthony John Makin was born in Toowoomba, Queensland, on 7 June 1955 and passed away on 26 November 2021 at the age of 66. He made important contributions to four related areas of studies: natural resources and environmental economics; international trade; theory of dynamic games and dynamic optimisation; and applied microeconomic theory, particularly industrial organisation theory and public economics. Tony was Professor of Economics in the Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics at Griffith Business School, Griffith University, and Director of Griffith's APEC Study Centre. [Extracted from the article]