Peter Dawkins

The Growth of Jobless Households in Australia

In this article it is shown that individual-based measures of joblessness and household measures of joblessness have diverged over the last twenty years with joblessness becoming increasingly concentrated in certain households.

Towards Full Employment

Faster economic growth and wage restraint, especially for the low skilled, are necessary to increase employment. The tax and social security systems are more appropriate ways to compensate those with low incomes.

The income distributive implications of recent private health insurance policy reforms in Australia

The Australian government implemented a series of private health insurance (PHI) policy reforms between 1997 and 2000. As a result, the proportion of the population with PHI coverage increased by more than 35%. However, this study found significant evidence that the policy reform disproportionately favours high-income earners. In particular, the 30% premium subsidy represents a windfall gain for households which would have purchased PHI even without the rebate. The amount of such gain is estimated to be around

Towards a Negative Income Tax System for Australia

900 million per year, a large proportion of which went to higher income households.

The Economic Effects of Deregulation and Decentralisation of Wage Determination

The undue complexity of the Australian tax‐transfer system is outlined as are the associated high effective marginal tax rates for many individuals and families. A negative income tax system is a possible solution to these problems. The most radical version of negative income tax is a ‘basic income/flat tax’ system which combines universal tax credits (that vary according to presence of children, disability etc.) and a flat tax rate on private income. Using NATSEM’s microsimulation model STINMOD it is found that to ensure that no current social security beneficiaries become worse off under such a system would either be very expensive to introduce or require a tax rate that is likely to be unacceptably high. Less radical versions of negative income tax are also costed, incorporating the possibility of varying tax rates, the tapering out of tax credits, and placing some restrictions on the granting of tax credits. This makes negative income tax look more feasible. The analysis does not incorporate behavioural responses. Since the motivation for a negative income tax system is largely to achieve such responses (for example, labour supply responses), this feasibility analysis might have been unduly harsh. Research is required to incorporate behavioural responses into the analysis.

The Interaction of Tax and Social Security: Introduction and Overview

The arguments for and against deregulation and decentralisation of wage determti nation are discussed and the experiences of New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States are reviewed. International comparative research, especially by Calmfors and Driffill (1987) and Dowrick (1993) is discussed. It is concluded that it is very bard to determine the effects of deregulation or decentralisation, because of the problem of establishing the counterfactual. Nonetheless, there is theory and evidence to support the idea that more decentralised and deregulated wage determination can promote efficiency, but will often lead to a wideuing distribution of earnings. It is noted that to a large extent such changes to wage determination are probably endogenous, being determined by such factors as technological change and international competition, and are thus perhaps as much an outcome as a cause. It is argued that despite much criticism of tbe Calmfors and Driffill bypothesis, there is still much merit in it. To tbe extent that it can provide a useful guide to policy in Australia, decentralisation of wage determination appears to be a more viable optioil than centralisation. If adopted, changes to the tax/transfer system sbould also be contemplated to belp promote both efficient and equitable outcomes.

The OECD Review of Innovations in Labour Market Policies: The Australian Way

this paper introduces the Policy Forum, identifying the need for reform of the interaction of the tax and social security systems and foreshadowing approaches to such reform.

The quality of British management: Asia‐Pacific perceptions

No abstract available.

The Economics of Health and Health Policy: An Introduction

A stratified random sample of respondents was identified from databases compiled by associate researchers located in each of five countries, namely Singapore, Malaysia Taiwan, Indonesia and Japan. The aim of the study was to establish which dimensions of management skill are important to regional customers; to compare British management skills on these dimensions with those of major trading nations active in the region and to prioritise key areas for improvement if Britain is to become a valued member of the region. The major conclusion of this study was that British managers were generally perceived, amongst managers in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan and Japan, to be inferior to Japanese and US managers and, in most areas, inferior to German managers. British managers were ranked fourth above Australian and Taiwanese managers, who were ranked as the weakest amongst the countries being investigated on a number of skills.

Towards a Hard‐Headed but Soft‐Hearted Approach to Economic and Social Policy: Comments on the Books by Fred Argy and Mark Latham

This article provides an introductory overview of the Policy Forum and a discussion of research needs in the economics of health and health policy.