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Category: Economic growth

Benefits of free trade and better FTA governance – Paul Kerin on Alan Jones

Paul Kerin appeared on Alan Jones’ radio program yesterday making the case for free trade and the need to improve governance arrangements that would help ensure that future Free Trade Agreements deliver more of the considerable benefits that are potentially available. This follows on from the article that 7 leading economists (including former Industries Assistance […]

Posted in Business economics, Economic growth, Economic reform, International trade, Paul Kerin, Public policy | Tagged |

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The looming downside of household leverage – Mike Fitzsimmons & Paul Kerin

Today’s Australian contains a piece by Mike Fitzsimmons and Paul Kerin. The authors note the substantial increase is household leverage over the last quarter of a century, particularly the rise  (more than tripling) of household debt relative to cash disposable income. While this may in part be a good thing (reflecting better credit access in […]

Posted in Business economics, Economic growth, Economic regulation, Paul Kerin, Public policy | Tagged |

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Call for key reforms in trade negotiations

I was honoured to be one of the economists who put their names to a major feature in today’s Australian, titled “Free trade mythology”. Despite the title, we are very much pro free trade – but we call for a number of reforms to our trade negotiation and communication governance processes and a renewed emphasis on […]

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SA green shoots but soft fundamentals – NAB

The NAB’s latest State Update for South Australia and State Economic Handbook (the latter covering all states) both indicate that some “green shoots” are emerging in SA, but SA’s economic fundamentals remain “soft” relative to other states. Both reports are available here. The green shoots include improvements in business conditions, business confidence, household income and […]

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The three ‘C’s for policies to improve national productivity – Dean Parham

The election showed the electorate is fractious and demanding. With narrow-interest parties now elected to parliament, policymaking in pursuit of the long-term national interest is going to be challenging, if not problematic. This comes at a time when the need for Australia to adjust to more-difficult times has become even more pressing. In the background […]

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The Citizens Jury and the Proposed Nuclear Dump – Dick Blandy

“Citizens’ jury questions economics of nuke dump” is the headline to Rebecca Puddy’s article on page 2 of The Australian on Monday 11 July, 2016. Ms Puddy’s article begins: “The bid to establish a nuclear waste facility in South Australia has suffered a further setback, after an independent “citizens’ jury” raised concerns about the economic […]

Posted in Business economics, Dick Blandy, Economic growth, Public policy, South Australian economy | Tagged |

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Voting again beats minority government – Paul Kerin

In an article in today’s Australian, I expand on the argument I made on the Adelaide Economic Policy Forum article last Monday (available here) that unless one party can form a majority Federal government, it would be in the public interest to go back to the polls. The key point is that a majority government […]

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Governance arrangements and trade negotiations – Bill Carmichael

Bill Carmichael, the legendary former Chairman of the Industries Assistance Commission, was a very influential figure behind major economic reforms that have delivered substantial benefits to Australia. We are delighted that Bill has submitted an important paper titled Governance arrangements for future trade negotiations to the Adelaide Economic Policy Forum. Bill’s paper is about the […]

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Services the key to post-election growth – Christopher Findlay

As we move into the post-Federal-election period, there is continuing debate about where growth will come from and what voters thought of the pitches on this question made by the various parties. Data always helps these debates and here’s an example. This is a story about exports – and services exports in particular. An article […]

Posted in Business economics, Christopher Findlay, Economic growth, Economic research, Public policy, South Australian Centre for Economic Studies | Tagged |

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Federal election: should we vote again to save the economy? – Paul Kerin

In my January column in Company Director, titled “The election effect” (and available here), I pointed out that economic research shows that in the year leading up to an election, business investment is (on average) about 5% lower than it otherwise would be. As business investment accounts for about 15% of GDP, a typical election […]

Posted in Business economics, Economic growth, Economic research, Paul Kerin, Public policy, South Australian economy | Tagged |

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