How economists would raise $20 billion per year

Poll 58

When panellests were asked to find an extra A$20 billion per year to fund government priorities like building nuclear submarines and responding to climate change, Australia’s top economists overwhelmingly back land tax, increased resource taxes, an attack on negative gearing and extending the scope of the goods and services tax.

Photo credit by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

Australian Conference of Economists 2023

The Australian Conference of Economists (ACE) 2023 will be held from the 9 - 12 July 2023 in Brisbane, Queensland. 

Our aim is to organise a conference with interest to all economists, both academic and professional. Only by a balanced approach of practice and theory can we solve the problems our society faces.

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 additional records from the Bank’s Research Department in the 1970s which span issues of contemporary relevance in relation to inflation shocks, the first Research Discussion Papers and early quantitative work on economic modelling and forecasting.

Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study - Fellowship and Short-term Research Stays

Located in the Botanic Garden in Uppsala, the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (scas) is a
national institute for advanced study. For the academic year 2024-25 the Collegium offers residential
fellowships for senior and early-career scholars from all countries. The Collegium is also offers short-term research stays (approximately two weeks to two months) to scholars from all countries.

Eminent Speaker Series 2023

The Central Council Executive is delighted to see the return of the Eminent Speaker Series.  Professor Joshua Gans of University of Toronto will visit three locations as part of this program.  If you missed seeing Professor Gans in person, you can follow the links here to catch up on his presentation.

Call for Papers - IEA Congress

The call for papers for contributed sessions closes on Feb 28.  Papers can be submitted here.

Leading economists back Federal Government action to curb rising gas and electricity prices

Poll 57

Australia’s top economists have overwhelmingly endorsed intervention to restrain gas and electricity prices, with only three of the 47 leading economists surveyed believing the best thing the government can do is to leave things to the market.

Photo credit: Wes Mountain/The Conversation, CC BY-ND

Unreserved - RBA's latest release of digitised archival records

The Reserve Bank has been releasing a large volume of digitised archival records to the public through our digital archive (called Unreserved). These records span nearly 200 years of Australia’s economic, financial and social history. The latest release includes records about the work and influence of Dr HC Coombs along with additional records from the Bank’s Research Department, with much of the new information covering the period from the Bank’s ‘separation’ from the original Commonwealth Bank in 1960 through to the early 1970s.

Is education or immigration the answer to our skills shortage? We asked 50 economists

Poll 56

Investing in Australians’ education is far more important than immigration in resolving the nation’s skills shortages, according to leading economists surveyed in the lead-up to this week’s jobs and skills summit.

The 50 top Australian economists polled by the Economic Society of Australia and The Conversation are recognised by their peers as leaders in their fields, including economic modelling, labour markets and public policy.

Wes Mountain/The Conversation, CC BY-ND

Central Council Executive, 2022-2025

Following the Central Council meeting held at ACE 2022, we are pleased to confirm that Catherine de Fontenay was elected unopposed as President; Russell Ross was re-elected unopposed as Secretary; and following a secret ballot, Benedict Davies was re-elected (with 100% of the votes cast) as Treasurer.

Central Council would like to acknowledge and thank outgoing President Danielle Wood for her enormous contribution to the Society.  You can read more about Central Council's Executive here.

'It’s important not to overreact’: Australia’s top economists on how to fix high inflation

Poll 55

Australia’s top economists are divided about how to tackle ballooning inflation of 6.1% that’s forecast to climb to a three-decade high of 7.75% by the end of the year.

Wes Mountain/The Conversation, CC BY-ND

Awards 2022

A number of prestigious awards were bestowed upon worthy economists at a recent Zoom ceremony.  Read on to find out who won the 2022 ESA National Awards.

WEN Credible Blog Series Writing Competition - Winners Announcement

In 2022, NSW WEN hosted its inaugural writing competition as part of the Credible Economist series.

ACE 2022

Australian Conference of Economists (ACE) 2022 was held from 10 to 13 July 2022 in Hobart, Tasmania as an in-person event.  Our theme, Economics in the New Normal, sought to address the challenges that a post-pandemic world faces.

Vale Professor Geoffrey Brennan

It is with great sadness that the Economic Society of Australia acknowledges the passing of Professor Geoffrey Brennan.

Geoffrey Brennan was an outstanding scholar, who did ground-breaking work in economics and philosophy and at their intersection and played a major role in the development of PPE as a global interdisciplinary research program.

ACE2021

The Australian Conference of Economists (ACE) 2021 was held from 12 to 14 July 2021 as a fully virtual event.

ACE 2021 celebrated over 100 years of welfare economics and brought together like-minded individuals to explore concepts of allocation, utilisation and distribution of our resources as they relate to the wealth and wellbeing of individuals and our society.

Where permission has been granted, we have uploaded presenations.