The new normal – How Covid changed the way we shop

With COVID cases in the tens of thousands around the country, the nation’s shops are less busy than usual for the January sales, but the pandemic may have also changed the way we shop forever.

Tempting back the backpackers

Making working holiday travel easy, fun and safe is not only vital to getting Australia’s tourism industry back on track – it’s critical for the country’s long-term engagement with the world.

New tool tracks national resource footprints

Australian researchers working with the United Nations have developed a tool to drive practical change in the world’s global resource consumption through better understanding how many resources each country consumes.

Remembering Geoff Harcourt

Australian economics has lost one of its most internationally renowned and prolific scholars with the passing of Geoffrey Harcourt at the age of 90.

Opening Australia’s trade window

Trade-related regulatory requirements are administered and enforced by more than 30 agencies at the federal level in Australia, as well as some at the state and territory level, with little coordination between them.

Chill, folks

True wages growth, and true price growth, is probably less than the official figures suggest – meaning there’s no need for alarm about inflation in Australia.

A power shift in global economics

Low interest rates and COVID-19 mean governments, not central banks, now control the world’s key economic levers.

Are Australians breaking up with casual work?

More casual jobs are becoming available as hospitality and other sectors open back up, but will casual employees be willing to return to a working situation that treated them so poorly in the pandemic?

Embracing the opportunities of Industry 4.0 in northern Australia

Industries, manufacturing and agribusiness in the north need to reimagine their operating models and pursue new ways of doing business based on the opportunities offered by Industry 4.0.

Economics in the real world

The Nobel committee’s decision to award its economics prize for 2021 to David Card, Josh Angrist and Guido Imbens marks the culmination of a revolution in the way economists approach the world that began more than 30 years ago.

Boosting Indonesia–Australia economic relations

The future of Indonesia–Australia economic relations will see an intersection of various interests, including government, business communities, and intellectuals from Indonesia and Australia.

Saving free trade in the post-COVID world

The post-pandemic recovery offers an opportunity recalibrate existing policies to maintain the fruits of the last few decades of trade liberalisation while making its benefits more equitable across societies.