Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Reviving academic research on Australian economic policy

By Tony Makin - posted Thursday, 14 May 2020


The COVID19 crisis with its distinct health and economic dimensions obviously warrants extensive future Australian university research as a high priority topic.

Some of the critical economic questions that the virus has prompted are: How should we value human life by age cohort? How should the trade-off between saving lives and maintaining employment be gauged? How can monetary and fiscal responses to health crises of this sort be improved? How serious is the attendant hike in Australia's public debt and what new taxation and public expenditure policies are needed to address that debt?

Unfortunately, you can expect very little Australia-focused economic research to emerge from our universities on these topics. This is because there are strong disincentives to exploring Australian economic issues, in contrast to other social science disciplines.

Advertisement

Economists will be the first to tell you that human behaviour is essentially driven by incentives. And strong disincentives now deter academics working in Australian universities from addressing important economic policy issues of relevance to Australia.

Following a campaign by The Australian, the Minister for Education, Dan Tehan, earlier this year announced that the federal government would encourage university research on Australia-focused historical and social themes via a new Australian Research Council (ARC) program.

This special ARC program for the first time explicitly acknowledges the importance of research into Australian society, history and culture, and this is to allocate up to some $12 million for up to forty approved peer reviewed research projects.

Although not large in the context of the ARC's annual budget of hundreds of millions, it does provide a welcome signal to university researchers that focusing on Australia-specific social issues is a worthy endeavour.

Provided the subsequent research output stemming from the new grants program does not degenerate into more intense ideological warfare, rekindling the history wars for instance, Australian taxpayers who pay academics' salaries and fund their research should also welcome the initiative.

What this new, or any other ARC program, omits however, is any mention of encouraging research on Australian economic themes. Yet how well the Australian economy fares especially in recovering from the COVID19 crisis will determine how much revenue is raised to publicly fund academic research on any topic, Australian or non-Australian focused.

Advertisement

It would seem obvious to ordinary taxpayers that Australian government funded economics research should be focused on Australian economic issues, and many undoubtedly presume this, but it's become more the exception than the rule.

This was not the case in the past when Australian academic economists were more engaged in the economic policy debates of the day, for instance about fiscal, monetary, competition, environmental, resources and trade policies.

There are two main reasons for this. First, academic research in economics worldwide has become increasingly technical and divorced from contemporary economic policy issues. It is defined more by the mathematical and statistical techniques deployed (usually the latest fashionable methods taught in US Ivy League graduate schools), than the novelty of the underlying economic ideas.

  1. Pages:
  2. Page 1
  3. 2
  4. All

This article was first published in The Australian.



Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

2 posts so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Tony Makin is professor of economics at the Gold Coast campus of Griffith University and author of Global Imbalances, Exchange Rates and Stabilization Policy recently published by Palgrave Macmillan. He is also an the academic advisory board of the Australian Institute for Progress.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Tony Makin

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Article Tools
Comment 2 comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy