Talking economics in Sydney
Fresh Economic Thinking goes on the road
This week I am at the Australian Conference of Economists (ACE) in Sydney.
I’ve been a regular at this conference for the past 15 years. Often I learn some new economic insights. More often I learn new insights about human group behaviour.
After all, a conference like this is a situation where people have disagreements, argue about evidence and methods, and have policy agendas and personal interests. But at the end of the day, everyone is also trying to be part of the same tribe.
It’s quite cool.
Apart from people-watching and trying to learn more economic insights from the conference presenters, here are some things I will be up to this week.
Is there really a “cost of living crisis”?
Tonight I am hosting a Big Dialogue to get to the heart of the cost of living crisis that we hear so much about. Is it real? Was it just an inflation pulse?
The panellists are Jennifer Westacott, Adam Creighton, and Alison Preston. My job as the moderator is to tease out whether there is any agreement amongst the panellists of the cause, remedy, or reality of the crisis, and help understand why there are disagreements.
It should be fun. Tickets are here.
Improving resource royalties
Today I will also present at the conference a report I prepared last year with Tim Helm about a new way to design variable resource royalties that better mimic the type of super-profits tax that is desirable in principle but doesn’t work well in practice.
Some details are in the below FET article.
I’ve included the slides for the presentation for paid subscribers below the paywall at the bottom of this article.
The economics of zoning and housing supply
On Wednesday 9th July I am presenting at a Planning Institute’s “After Hours Planning Series” event about zoning and housing supply and the limits of our knowledge.
My presentation is entitled Upzoning Auckland: A Critical Review of the Evidence, which examines the methods and conclusions of six recent studies regarding the impact of the famous Auckland Unitary Plan on house prices, construction activity, and rents.
Here are three FET articles to get you started.
The slides are available below the paywall for paid FET subscribers. Scroll down to take a look.
In case you missed it
Last week I was part of SBS Insights discussing whether the superannuation system is working for us.
My view is no, and the many reasons why are all in this FET article, which I have now released from behind the paywall in the interest of facilitating an informed debate.
A couple of weeks back I spoke about these same issues with Damian Klassen at Nucleus Wealth, a superannuation management firm. That conversation is below.
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