An agenda for social democracy (2009)
The global financial crisis provides an opportunity for the world to rethink its economic and political structures, according to this essay.John Quiggin proposes a long term response to the global...
The limits of markets: the politics of water management in rural Australia (2008)
The intensity of conflict over water and water management has been increasing. Focusing on the recent federalist compact, the National Water Initiative (NWI), the use of market and property rights...
Uncertainty and climate change policy (2008)
This paper consists of a summary of the main sources of uncertainty about climate change, and a discussion of the major implications for economic analysis and the formulation of climate policy....
Uncertainty and climate change policy (2008)
This paper consists of a summary of the main sources of uncertainty about climate change, and a discussion of the major implications for economic analysis and the formulation of climate policy....
Election 2007: water policy (2007)
Australia's current water shortages reflect policy mistakes going back many decades, argues John Quiggin. It will take at least a decade to resolve the resulting problems. A policy of delayed...
The practicalities of emissions trading (2007)
With both major parties proposing to develop an emissions trading regime, this paper discusses some important practical issues and trade-offs. In the past year, climate change has moved from...
Risk and social democracy (2007)
‘Risk’ has become a central theme in 21st-century policy thinking. The fact that individuals and families are vulnerable to a wide range of social, economic and other risks, and that collective...
The risk society: social democracy in an uncertain world (2007)
John Quiggin examines the role of government as the ultimate risk manager. He argues that risk will be the defining concept of the 21st century, the way that globalisation was for the 1990s. Any...
Stories about productivity (2007)
When asked about their methodological practices, most economists claim to practise some form of instrumentalist positivism, as advocated by Friedman or appeal to Popper’s notions of falsification,...
This paper reviews the typical elements of a technology-focused climate policy (currently adopted by the USA and Australia under the umbrella of Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and...
Election 2007: water policy (2007)
Australia's current water shortages reflect policy mistakes going back many decades, argues John Quiggin. It will take at least a decade to resolve the resulting problems. A policy of delayed...
The practicalities of emissions trading (2007)
With both major parties proposing to develop an emissions trading regime, this paper discusses some important practical issues and trade-offs. In the past year, climate change has moved from...
Risk and social democracy (2007)
‘Risk’ has become a central theme in 21st-century policy thinking. The fact that individuals and families are vulnerable to a wide range of social, economic and other risks, and that collective...
The risk society: social democracy in an uncertain world (2007)
John Quiggin examines the role of government as the ultimate risk manager. He argues that risk will be the defining concept of the 21st century, the way that globalisation was for the 1990s. Any...
Stories about productivity (2007)
When asked about their methodological practices, most economists claim to practise some form of instrumentalist positivism, as advocated by Friedman or appeal to Popper’s notions of falsification,...
This paper reviews the typical elements of a technology-focused climate policy (currently adopted by the USA and Australia under the umbrella of Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and...
Oil output may well be at or near its peak level, and oil prices are likely to remain high for the foreseeable future. But adjusting to changes in relative prices is what market economies do best, at...
Oil output may well be at or near its peak level, and oil prices are likely to remain high for the foreseeable future. But adjusting to changes in relative prices is what market economies do best, at...
Labor's economic policy options in the coming election (2004)
Labor has yet to announce the tax policy foreshadowed as a response to the 2004-5 Budget. But, as Kim Beazley's 'small target strategy' in 2001 demonstrated, this approach can be disastrous. John...
Trade agreements and democratic values (2004)
The increasingly broad scope of international trade agreements has raised widespread concern about the implications for popular sovereignty. Internationally, most attention has been focused on the...
Labor's economic policy options in the coming election (2004)
Labor has yet to announce the tax policy foreshadowed as a response to the 2004-5 Budget. But, as Kim Beazley's 'small target strategy' in 2001 demonstrated, this approach can be disastrous. John...
Trade agreements and democratic values (2004)
The increasingly broad scope of international trade agreements has raised widespread concern about the implications for popular sovereignty. Internationally, most attention has been focused on the...
Rejuvenating financial penalties: using the tax system to collect fines (2003)
Chapman, Bruce, Freiberg, Arie, Quiggin, John, Tait, David
The current system for the imposition and collection of fines in Australia is significantly flawed. Fines are often inappropriately imposed or not imposed, inequitable, have high default rates and...
The welfare effects of income-contingent financing for higher education (2003)
In this paper, it is shown that educational financing schemes with income-contingent re-payments provide a mixture of consumption-smoothing benefits and insurance against the uncertain outcomes of...
Menezes, Flavio, Quiggin, John
We introduce the notion of an outcome space, in which strategic interactions are embedded. This allows us to investigate the idea that one strategic interaction might be an expanded version of...
Active labour market policy and macroeconomic stabilisation (2002)
Downturns in the job market have traditionally led to the creation of new government labour market schemes from the ground up. But in this paper economist John Quiggin considers the feasibility of a...
Active labour market policy and macroeconomic stabilisation (2002)
Downturns in the job market have traditionally led to the creation of new government labour market schemes from the ground up. But in this paper economist John Quiggin considers the feasibility of a...
Noise Trader Risk and the Political Economy of Privatisation (2001)
The 'noise trader' model of De Long et al. provides a plausible account of the determination of the equity premium. Extension of the model to allow for privatization of publicly-owned assets yields...
A Note on Indirect Certainty Equivalents for the Firm Facing Price and Production Uncertainty (2001)
Quiggin, John, Chambers, R. G.
Not supplied
Primal and Dual Approaches to the Analysis of Risk Aversion (2001)
Quiggin, John, Chambers, R. G.
Not supplied
Production Externalities and Multi-Task Principal-Agent Problems (2001)
Quiggin, John, Chambers, R. G.
Not supplied
The Equity Premium Puzzle: Explanations and Implications (2001)
Analysis of the equity premium puzzle has focused on private sector capital markets. The object of this paper is to consider the welfare and policy implications of each of the broad classes of...
A Model-Free Definition of Increasing Uncertainty (2001)
We present a definition of increasing uncertainty, independent of any notion of subjective probabilities, or of any particular model of preferences. Our notion of an elementary increase in the...
Background Risk in Generalized Expected Utility Theory (2001)
In this paper, it is shown that, for a wide range of risk-averse generalized expected utility preferences, independent risks are com-plementary, contrary to the results for expected utility...
Does Rational Addiction Imply Irrational Non-Addiction? (2001)
In this note, the implications of rational addiction theory for the acquisition of habits and addiction are explored. It is shown that, if age-specific death rates are uniform, habits should either...
Increasing and Decreasing Risk Aversion for Generalized Preferences (2001)
Quiggin, John, Chambers, Robert G.
In this paper, concepts of comparative risk aversion are developed for generalized risk averse preferences. These measures are applied to the development of general concepts of increasing and...
Incentives and Motivation in Agency Contracts (2001)
Quiggin, John, Chambers, Robert G.
Not Supplied.
The unemployment trap meets the age-earnings profile (2000)
Chapman, Bruce, Jordan, James, Oliver, Ken, Quiggin, John
The relative costs of taking employment or receiving welfare are usually understood through comparisons of a person’s social security entitlements and their wage alternative, known as replacement...
A TEST OF COMPETING EXPLANATIONS OF COMPENSATION DEMANDED (1999)
HOROWITZ, JOHN K., MCCONNELL, K. E., QUIGGIN, JOHN
We find that prospect theory behavior is significantly more prevalent than utility theory behavior in experiments involving multiple, real items. In the experiments, subjects were endowed with three...
True Measures of GDP and Convergence (1996)
Widely-used purchasing power parity measures of per capita GDP are subject to substitution bias and are not true quantity indexes. Varian's (1983) non-parametric construction of a true multilateral...
The Economics of Farm Fragmentation: Evidence from Ghana and Rwanda (1992)
Blarel, Benoit, Hazell, Peter, Place, Frank, Quiggin, John
Farm fragmentation, in which a household operates more than one separate parcel of land, is a common phenomenon in Sub-Saharan Africa. Concerned by the perceived costs of fragmented as opposed to...
Unemployment traps and age-earnings profiles: estimates for Australia in 2000
The relative costs of taking employment or receiving welfare are usually understood through comparisons of a person’s social security entitlements and their wage alternative, known as replacement...
Flavio Menezes, John Quiggin, Liam Wagner
The terms "grandfather clause" and "grandfathering" describe elements of a policy programme in which existing participants in an activity are protected from the impact of regulations, restrictions or...
Quiggin Responds to "Neither Borrower nor Lender Be" by Thomas J. Grennes
Thomas Grennes’s letter criticizing my article, "The Unsustainability of the US Trade Deficit," fails to distinguish between the trade deficit and the current account deficit, and therefore does...
What Does the Equity Premium Mean?
Simon Grant and John Quiggin argue that taking the equity premium seriously—-the well-known fact that the average annual historical return of stocks is seven times that of government bonds and...
The Unsustainability of U.S. Trade Deficits
Although substantial current account deficits can be sustained indefinitely, large deficits in goods and services trade cannot be. Even to stabilise the current account deficit, the United States...