Glenn Withers

Do Migrants Rob Jobs? Lessons of Australian History, 1861–1991

Historically, lands of recent settlement have had a thirst for immigrants, but one that has been procyclical (negatively related to unemployment rates). For a period in the early 1980s, Australias major political parties supported high immigration in spite of rising unemployment. This article explores the long-run relationship between immigration and local unemployment, posing the question, “Do migrants rob jobs?†It also seeks to apply long-run historical analysis to recent economic debate: would Australias unemployment rate have been lower in very recent times without so many immigrants?

Strategic bias and demand for public goods: Theory and an application to the arts

Abstract This paper provides new evidence on bias in preference revelation and valuation of public goods. It does so through the systematic definition of free-rider, mixed-good, information and social choice problems and by a survey application to the case of valuing social benefit from the arts. These sources of bias are each found to be significant. It is also found that free-rider behaviour is random with respect to observable socio-demographic characteristics. Allowing for bias, aggregate public good benefit necessary for public support of arts is still established. The study therefore demonstrates not only the significance of free-rider and other biases in eliciting public good demand, but also practicable techniques for allowing for these effects via a survey method.

Population Ageing and the Role of Immigration

No abstract available.

The labour market

© Simon Ville and Glenn Withers 2015. Introduction This chapter focuses on four key aspects of the development of the Australian labour market since Federation. First are the patterns in the total labour supply as influenced by population increase, participation, hours of work and trends in labour-force composition. Second is the growth in workforce skills, as represented by the changing role and place of education, including vocational training. Third is the evolution of Australias distinctive pattern of industrial relations, including the structure of wages. Fourth are the trends and fluctuations in average wages and unemployment. Labour supply and population At the aggregate level, the 20th-century labour market is a story of the size and structure of the population driving the scale of the labour force available for the Australian economy. The basic drivers are those of population growth through migration and natural increase, and of workforce participation, including changes in female participation and youth and older worker engagement.

The Cambridge Economic History of Australia

Australias economic history is the story of the transformation of an indigenous economy and a small convict settlement into a nation of nearly 23 million people with advanced economic, social and political structures. It is a history of vast lands with rich, exploitable resources, of adversity in war, and of prosperity and nation building. It is also a history of human behaviour and the institutions created to harness and govern human endeavour. This account provides a systematic and comprehensive treatment of the nations economic foundations, growth, resilience and future, in an engaging, contemporary narrative. It examines key themes such as the centrality of land and its usage, the role of migrant human capital, the tension between development and the environment, and Australias interaction with the international economy. Written by a team of eminent economic historians, The Cambridge Economic History of Australia is the definitive study of Australias economic past and present.

Individual preferences and the demand for military expenditure

Whose preferences determine the tradeoff between security and civilian output in deciding upon budget allocations to defence? This paper considers the role that consumer preferences might play in influencing military spending. We propose normative criteria to judge the economic or political efficiency of defence provision at a given time, and test them using Australian survey‐based micro‐data. Our results suggest that the political system has not delivered a simple social‐choice translation of individual preferences into collective outcomes, nor has it delivered results consistent with simple majority‐voting median preferences.

Television Viewing and ABC Program Policy: An Econometric Study

There has been a long-standing debate over whether the ABC should engage in programming that is directly competitive with commercial television stations. This study uses an econometric model of television viewing to examine determinants of television set ownership and use, of ABC viewing levels and of diversity in programming. It is established that complementary not competitive programming most enhances ABC viewing levels, though production of greater diversity of television programming may require higher levels of ABC expenditure.

Armed forces recruitment in Great Britain

This paper focuses on the interaction between government defence objectives and budget policy. By developing a theory of recruit behaviour and estimating the associated recruitment function, the study examines how alternative defence manpower requirements might be met and indicates the budgetary implications of this. The recruit theory is derived from the general theory of occupational choice and function estimation is by ordinary least squares regression techniques. The budget analysis is carried out in a simulation exercise which combines the supply analysis with manpower requirement specifications. The exercise well illustrates the defence manning—budget cost trade-off and the implications of institutional constraints such as sole reliance upon volunteer recruitment and the operation of a wages and incomes policy.

The evolution of Australian macroeconomic strategy since World War 2

The range and volume of local manufactures increased over time, but, in the 19th century, the natural resource sectors were the prime drivers of Australias economic performance. This chapter explores the growth in employment, value of production and labour productivity of different industries. Nineteenth-century development laid a substantial foundation for industrialisation, manufacturings share of GDP stood at around 12 per cent in 1901. The direction of technological change, until the 1970s, favoured high-volume production of standardised machinery, in particular, the capital-intensive mass production of standardised components to narrow tolerances, which also provided economies at the assembly stage. Consumer spending on durables began to increase in the 1920s with the introduction of more mass-produced and affordable items, beginning with the motor vehicle and household electrical goods, such as jugs, toasters and radios. Industrialisation added a range of new, technically sophisticated industries, including consumer goods, producer goods and intermediate materials, to the industrial base established by Federation.

Some Social Effects of Draft Eligibility in Australia

In June 1970 the present author surveyed a random sample of 430 male students at La Trobe University.’ Eleven per cent of respondents who were, or had been of National Service ballot age and were eligible for service, indicated that they had deferred making important educational decisions until their ballot results were known. Fourteen per cent of post-graduate students in the sample considered National Service a ’significant factor’ in their decision to under-