Latest News
AGEW 2025
The 8th Australian Gender Economics Workshop (#AGEW2025) is hosted by the University of Wollongong in partnership with the Women in Economics Network and is organised by Alfredo Paloyo. The workshop will take place on 6‒7 February 2025 in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. Wollongong is in Dharawal Country.
Housing Reform
Poll 65
Panellists are unanimous in believing Australia’s housing market is in crisis.
Offered a choice of 14 measures identified by the Economic Society of Australia as likely to restrain prices for buyers and renters, none of the 49 leading economists polled picked: “do nothing, the market will determine appropriate prices”.
Responses (967)Vale, Philip Macgregor Norman
Philip, an Honorary Fellow of the Economic Society of Australia died recently after a short illness.
As a long-time member of the Victoria branch, he was President and also Treasurer. After his father Arthur Norman died, his mother Jean Macgregor married Richard Downing, the Ritchie Professor of Economic Research, at the University of Melbourne and editor of the Economic Record.
Awards 2024
A number of prestigious awards were bestowed upon worthy economists at ACE24, held in Adelaide. Read on to find out who won the 2024 ESA National Awards.
Budget 2024
Poll 64
Panelists were asked to comment on two questions:
Is the budget likely to achieve its aim of getting inflation back within the RBA target band by the end of this year and back to 2.75% by mid next year?
And
On May 14, the government delivered a budget designed, in the Treasurer's words, to "focus on fighting inflation in the near term and then growth in the medium term " - What grade would you give the budget, given that objective? A, B, C, D, E or F
Wes Mountain/The Conversation, CC BY-ND https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/
Responses (990)ACE 2024
The Australian Conference of Economists was held in Adelaide, SA from 10-12 July. Presented papers will be published on our website in due course.
Next year's ACE will be held at UTS in Sydney and coincides with the Society's 100 year anniversary. Preparations are well underway to bring members a very special event - please stay tuned for more details about ACE25. In the meantime, hold the date of 6-9 July 2025 and register your interest via the dedicated ACE25 website.
Western Australian GST deal
Poll 63
April Poll - panellists were asked about the GST deal with Western Australia. The following two questions were posed:
"Is the long-standing arrangement broadly the best method of distributing the nationally-collected GST revenue?" and "Should the 2018 changes be kept or scrapped?"
Responses (997)IEA Update from Dani Rodrik
The most important development to report is that our project on Advancing Women in Leadership in Economics, with the acronym IEA-WE, has been fully launched. This is a multi-year project that has been generously funded by Co-Impact Foundation and the Open Society Foundation.
Transition to net zero - ape the US Inflation Reduction Act?
Poll 62
Panellists were asked "Which of the options set out below best describes the kind of approach the Australian government should take to the US Inflation Reduction Act? (Pick 1)"
Unreserved - RBA's latest release of digitised archival records
The latest tranche of archival records has been released in the Bank’s digital archive, Unreserved. It includes early economic analysis conducted by the central bank from 1930 to 1970.
Stiglitz Essay Prize Award
The Economic Society of Australia sponsors an annual Stiglitz Essay Prize in honour of Joseph Stiglitz. The Prize is awarded by the International Economic Association, an association founded in 1950 to support the study of economics across countries, with a particular focus on emerging economies. The ESA is a member of the IEA.
Christopher Parsons (UWA), presented the award on behalf of the Society.
Events
UNSW Economics Summer School
Date: Monday Dec 9, 2024, 8:30 am
The UNSW Sydney Summer School offers two courses: (i) Empirical Methods for Causal Inference and (ii) Expectations in Macroeconomics.
These intensive graduate-level courses are aimed at students, researchers and professionals and provide a combination of lectures and practical examples and tools. Taught by world-leading experts in the respective fields, our courses will bring participants to the current frontier in economic research.
View...WEN VIC Breakfast Event: Gatekeepers and norms: barriers to achieving gender equality
Event Type: ESA Event
Date: Thursday Dec 12, 2024, 8:30 am
The Women in Economics Network (WEN) Victoria branch invites you to join us for breakrast on Thursday 12 December to explore some of the barriers to achieving gender equality. Join Dr Marina Gertsberg from Melbourne University and Sruthi Srikanthan from Deloitte Access Economics as they discuss the impacts of biased gatekeepers and gender norms in achieving gender equality.
View...Centenary Celebration of ESA Queensland
Event Type: ESA Event
Date: Thursday Dec 12, 2024, 5:30 pm
THE ECONOMIC SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA TURNS 100
Join us for our Centenary Celebration of ESA Queensland with a dinner featuring a intergenerational panel of QLD ‘state of origin’ economists
Karen Chester, Peter Harris AO & Associate Professor Leonora Risse
ESA QLD life member Jon Stanford recently unearthed that November 2024 is the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Australia’s very first ESA branch. And yes, it had to be in Queensland.
ESA Members and your guests are invited to our Centenary Celebration Dinner for the Economics Society of Australia (QLD).
Sorry: Bookings are now closed
View...The Works of the 2024 Nobel Prize Winners - A Discussion
Event Type: ESA Event
Date: Thursday Dec 12, 2024, 6:00 pm
ESA NSW Branch extends a warm invite to join our End of 2024 Topic and In-Person Meeting. Professor Hugh Harley (USyd) and David Orsmond (McQ) will talk on the fascinating and important works of the 2024 Nobel Prize Winners Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson.
View...WEN-NSW Coffee Roulette
Date: Tuesday Dec 31, 2024, 12:00 pm
We are thrilled to announce the second round of the NSW Women in Economics Network (WEN) Coffee Roulette program beginning in September 2024 — an initiative designed to strengthen connections and foster a vibrant community among women economists in NSW.
View...AGEW 2025
Event Type: WEN event
Date: Thursday Feb 6, 2025, 12:00 am
The 8th Australian Gender Economics Workshop (#AGEW2025) is hosted by the University of Wollongong in partnership with the Women in Economics Network and is organised by Alfredo Paloyo. The workshop will take place on 6‒7 February 2025 in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. Wollongong is in Dharawal Country.
View...Women in Economics (WEN) - AARES Breakfast
Event Type: ESA Event
Date: Thursday Feb 13, 2025, 7:00 am
The WEN-AARES Breakfast offers a space for WEN Qld local members to connect with each other and to meet with women economists attending the AARES conference over a relaxing informal breakfast. This joint event is a great opportunity to expand your networks and mix with conference delegates from all over Australia and the world.
BEST Conference 2025
Event Type: Wide/Public Interest
Date: Thursday Feb 13, 2025, 8:30 am
6th Annual BEST Conference on Human Behaviour and Decision Making 2025
In 2025, the 6th annual “BEST Conference on Human Behaviour and Decision Making” will be held on Thursday 13 February and Friday 14 February at the Queensland University of Technology, Gardens Point Campus, Brisbane Australia.
View...ABARES Conference 2025
Event Type: Partner Event
Date: Tuesday Mar 4, 2025, 8:30 am
From: Australian Capital Territory
ABARES CONFERENCE : OUTLOOK 2025
Insights for Action: Fostering Growth in a Changing World
With the theme Insights for Action: Fostering Growth in a Changing World, the 2025 conference highlights ABARES' role in delivering data and insights that inform policies, programs and service delivery.
Visit www.agriculture.gov.au/event/abares-outlook to secure your spot or to view program session details.
Welcome
Welcome to the National website of the Economic Society of Australia (The Society). The Society is primarily concerned with promoting discussion and debate of economic issues within Australia.