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Last year, researchers published a study in which ten different job training programs were evaluated through randomised trials – the way medical researchers test new drugs.

How many people can you talk to without having to watch what you say? In 1984, Australian adults averaged nine trusted friends. A generation later it had fallen to five.

None of us make our own running shoes, fix our own teeth, or build our own cars.

The COVID pandemic was good for isolationists and xenophobes, and bad for globalisers and internationalists.

In the economy, just as in sport, there are winners and losers. Sometimes you just play better on the day.

Folk music is replete with songs about struggling employees in company towns. In Sixteen Tons, Johnny Cash sings ‘You load 16 tons, what do you get?

My first music purchases were records. Mostly, I bought 45 RPM singles. But when I could afford them, I splurged on 33 RPM albums.

As a keen runner, I’m pretty keen on going where the evidence points. In experiments, high intensity training produces remarkable gains, so I try to build it into every workout.

In 1890, rust fungus wiped out much of Australia’s wheat crop, and the colonies had to import wheat. In response, farmer William Farrer used experiments to try to create a rust-resistant variety.

It’s hard to ignore the growing body of evidence that excessive market concentration can lead to economic problems.

Earlier this month, the competition watchdog released its inquiry into digital services.

A generation ago, rules in some states governed when bakers could bake their bread.

Pharmaceutical company AbbVie make the world’s best-selling arthritis medication. They also specialise in causing pain for tax administrators.

Last year, academics from the University at Albany and the University of Missouri published a research paper arguing that company taxes should be abolished.

Among Australian economists, few public servants are as revered as Roland Wilson, who ran the Treasury, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Department of Labour, serving both sides of polit

Imagine finding a dollar on the ground as you’re walking down the street. It might feel like a bit of luck, a little sign that today is a good day.

Productivity growth is the key driver of living standards over the long run. Yet over recent decades, productivity growth has slowed from a canter to a saunter.

Twelve dollars for an iceberg lettuce. Eleven dollars for a punnet of strawberries. Cooking oil prices boiling over. KFC putting cabbage in its burgers. After decades of stable food prices, suddenly inflation is on the front page of the paper.

In recent weeks, we’ve learned two troubling facts about young Australians: the prevalence of mental disorders has hit a new high, and the rate of volunteering has plumbed a new low.

The cleaning companies were multi‑billion‑dollar firms, but most of their customers were small businesses. So the big firms wrote contracts that allowed them to increase their prices.