Suchergebnisse

AbstractWe, as taxpayers, face challenging problems in assisting the well‐being of old people mainly because preparing for and living through old age is a risky business. Through government, taxpayers can provide some insurance against the risks of old age, especially the risk of bad health and the risk of a long life. However, the ageing population suggests that maintaining this support will require increased taxation. This article quantifies this challenge for Australia and concludes that although increased taxation may be required it will be easily affordable from the much higher incomes generally received due to the secular increase in productivity.

AbstractUsing the Keynesian model set out in McDonald (2020), in which downward wage rigidity is supported by worker loss aversion with respect to wages, this article shows that a period of social distancing (SD) can leave a post‐SD economy with both stimulatory and depressive effects. A loss of productive capacity is stimulating. Costs of restarting firms, lower labour productivity when restarted and a desire to restore wealth from debt incurred during the period of SD are depressive. If, as seems highly probable, the net effect on economic activity is negative then a fiscal expansion can restore activity. To avoid an increased government budget deficit, this expansion would probably require an increased tax rate. Reductions in real wages may also be necessary. A desire to balance the government budget combined with no increase in the tax rate would be unfortunate, because it would cause a further contraction in activity from its post‐SD level.

AbstractThe economics of ageing is the study of economic decision‐making by individuals and government aimed at fostering well‐being in old age. These decisions include preparing for old age and dealing with the risks of old age. The risks are substantial. Using the life‐cycle model, this article considers the risks for well‐being that people face in retirement and the role of government and private insurance in meeting those risks. The perspective of the life‐cycle model is also used to consider the gender gap in wealth on retirement.

AbstractTo address the economic problems facing Australia in 1986 required wage restraint, which required in turn overcoming loss aversion by workers with respect to their wages. The Prices and Incomes Accord was able to do this. Attempts to address Australia's current economic problems are stymied by tax resistance. Addressing tax resistance requires overcoming loss aversion by voters with respect to their post‐tax incomes. The success of the Accord suggests that Accord‐type policies could reduce tax resistance by broadening people's perspective beyond their post‐tax incomes to the broader spread of benefits for them and others.

AbstractAt the current time, the measurement of well‐being is the subject of controversy and debate. This introduction briefly summarises the four contributions to this debate published in this Policy Forum. All the articles are critical of using gross domestic product per capita as a measure of well‐being and offer various suggestions for an improved measure.

In this paper some economic perspectives on social exclusion are presented. The perspectives come from traditional areas of economics, especially human capital theory, and from the new area of behavioural economics, especially present bias and the status externality. They show that happiness, human capital and individual choice can yield insights for the study of social exclusion. The economic perspectives discussed in this paper can help respond to the suggestion by Mary Daly and Hilary Silver to move beyond the concept of social exclusion to a "fully‐articulated theory" of social exclusion. Furthermore they support the judgement of Ruth Levitas that in the public debate there is inadequate pressure for redistribution, excessive moral blame placed on the socially excluded, and an excessive concern for labour force participation at the expense of non‐market activity, as expressed in her development and discussion of the RED‐MUD‐SID framework of discourses.