 | Author's Name: Jenny Gordon Date: Thu 16 Feb 2023 |
Jenny Gordon
Dr Jenny Gordon
Dr Jenny Gordon is a Honorary Professor at the Centre for Social Research and Methods, at the Australian National University. She is also a non-resident fellow at the Lowy Institute, one of Australia’s leading think tanks on foreign policy. Jenny is a member of the Australian International Agricultural Research Centre’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Advisory Panel, and on the Asian Development Bank Institute’s (ADBI) Advisory Committee. She is currently a co-chair for the taskforce on Peace, Stability and Governance for the T7, organised by the ADBI.
Jenny was the Chief Economist at DFAT from 2019 to 2021, joining DFAT from Nous Group, where she was the Chief Economist. Jenny spent 10 years with the Australian Productivity Commission as Principal Adviser (Research). Prior to this she was a partner at the Centre for International Economics (TheCIE). She has a PhD in Economics from Harvard University and started her professional career at the Reserve Bank of Australia.
Subject Area Expertise
Integrating social and environmental feedback loops into economic analysis.
Responses (1)
Productivity in Federal Budget
Poll 69
'Skills, competition, infrastructure': top economists tell Chalmers what belongs in his productivity package. Top economists want Treasurer Jim Chalmers to spend his 12 May Budget fixing the supply side of the Australian economy.
Reform the capital gains tax so that it encourages productive investment, reduce/remove the discount for passive investment (allow for income averaging over the asset holding period to deal with the lump sum problem pushing into the top tax bracket in the year of realisation).
More Comments
The question is about productivity so reforms that address the mismatch in job skills to needs, improve competitive pressures, and reduce transaction costs have a positive benefit. But right now I would say changing the PPRT to capture the windfall gains from gas suppliers should be a priority. It has no productivity cost and will help fund the investments needed to skills and infrastructure that do have productivity benefits.
1. Expand the National Skills Agreement to fund additional fee-free TAFE places in priority shortage occupations
2. Strengthen anti-trust laws and increase funding for the ACCC to more actively prevent (and dismantle) anti-competitive consolidation in highly concentrated sectors
3. Bring forward and expand investment in freight and supply chain infrastructure to reduce business transport costs