The impact of Industrial Relations changes on workers – do economists agree?
The last few years have seen significant legislation changes in the area of industrial relations. The prior decade also saw significant changes in firms’ hiring practices, and an explosion of platform work, considered by some to be a loophole in current labour legislation.
How do economists evaluate these changes in industrial relations? How do IR changes affect the unemployment rate? What does that mean for the welfare of ‘insiders’ (workers who remain employed) and ‘outsiders’ (the unemployed and new arrivals in the job market)? What are the implications for productivity and growth? What evidence do we have so far about the impact of new legislation?
About our Panel
Professor Alison Booth, Research School of Economics, Australian National University. Professor Booth’s research spans labour and experimental economics, with interests in cultural influences on economic preferences, gender economics, and imperfect competition in labour markets. She is a Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, the Institute of Labor Economics, and the Institute for Employment Research. She is also a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, the Econometric Society, and a Founding Fellow of the European Association of Labour Economists. She received the Distinguished Fellow Award from the Economic Society of Australia and was elected to the Executive Committee of the International Economic Association in 2017.
John Quiggin is a VC Senior Fellow in Economics at the University of Queensland. He is prominent both as a research economist and as a commentator on Australian economic policy. He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society, the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and many other learned societies and institutions. He has produced over 1500 publications, including six books and over 200 refereed journal articles, in fields including decision theory, environmental economics, production economics, and the theory of economic growth. He has also written on policy topics including climate change, micro-economic reform, privatisation, employment policy and the management of the Murray-Darling river system. His latest book, Economics in Two Lessons: Why Markets Work so Well and Why they can Fail so Badly, was released in 2019 by Princeton University Press.
Michael Brennan is the CEO of the e61 Institute. He is an experienced economic policy professional, having been a former Chair of the Australian Productivity Commission and Deputy Secretary of the Australian Treasury.
This panel discussion was moderated by ESA's National President, Catherine de Fontenay.
