Category Archives: Social Policy

The Fertility Rate: the Best Dam(n) Wellbeing Index Going Around?

Posted on February 1, 2023 by Antonios Sarhanis

Valiant attempts have been made to measure happiness and wellbeing. People much smarter than me have developed fancy indices, and people even smarter than that, such as our own Nicholas Gruen, has called bullshit on many of them. What I … Continue reading →

Posted in Ethics, Health, Life, Philosophy, Social Policy, Society | 13 Comments

Economic Ideas and Policy Outcomes: Ross Garnaut’s Gruen Lecture

Posted on July 12, 2022 by Nicholas Gruen

Below is Ross Garnaut’s lecture in honour of my Dad. Economic Ideas and Policy Outcomes: Applications to Climate and Energy Fred Gruen signed up as Professor of Economics in the ANU’s Research School of Social Sciences in 1972, at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics and public policy, History, Libertarian Musings, Philosophy, Political theory, Social Policy | 3 Comments

Critic swallows book

Posted on May 20, 2022 by Nicholas Gruen

The Sydney Book Review is my kind of book review. It’s online and free. Ever since I joined the blogging revolution in 2005 it’s seemed crazy to me (not to mention precious) that so many of our literary publications are … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural Critique, Education, Indigenous, Literature, Social Policy | 1 Comment

How Shorism might win Australia’s federal election

Posted on April 5, 2022 by David Walker

Looking at Australian politics right now, one thing stands out: the federal ALP has become a little Shorist. I don’t know how long it will last, or whether it’s even a conscious strategy. But it’s definitely happening.  What does “Shorist” … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics and public policy, Education, Employment, Inequality, Politics - national, Social Policy | Tagged , | 11 Comments

Science and the universe of is: Design and the multiverse of what might be

Posted on October 16, 2021 by Nicholas Gruen

From a recent podcast interview with Tyson Yunkaporta This post began as a comment on David Walker’s post on David Card’s Nobel Prize for his study which showed that at least in the situation he investigated a smallish rise in … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural Critique, Economics and public policy, Philosophy, Science, Social Policy, Society | 3 Comments

David Card won the 2021 Economics Nobel. Why should we fear minimum wage hikes?

Posted on October 14, 2021 by David Walker

One of economics’ most famous papers – the 1994 minimum wage study by David Card and Alan Krueger – has just won David Card (pictured) half of a Nobel Prize in Economics. The overall reasons for Card’s award are well … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics and public policy, Employment, Social Policy | 9 Comments

Where are the Chinese reforms going?

Posted on September 21, 2021 by Paul Frijters

Let us look at the extraordinary non-covid changes now happening in China. The country has been reforming rapidly the last 20 months and I want to muse about the trajectory these reforms are setting China upon. Many commentators see in … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural Critique, Politics - international, Social Policy, Society | 12 Comments