During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Commonwealth Government provided a range of financial support measures to alleviate the adverse economic consequences faced by individuals and businesses, and stimulate economic activity. The authors analyse the effectiveness of four support measures. By understanding the effectiveness of these measures, governments can be ready to respond to future economic downturns...

Youth mental health has been on the decline since the early 2010s. Is social media to blame? The e61 Institute sheds new light on this question by analysing drivers of mental health in this submission to the Joint Select Committee on Social Media and Australian Society.

Australian women earn on average 15% less per hour than men. But what drives this pay gap? Is it rooted in different occupational choices between men and women? Or does it reflect differences in pay across genders for identical occupations? The authors of this paper answer these questions using population-wide taxation data covering the Australian...

One common critique of the unemployment rate in Australia is that it understates the true level of spare capacity in the economy by excluding individuals who are willing and able to work, but are currently classified as Not in the Labour Force (NILF). The author of this paper outlines some alternative approaches for measuring unemployment.

The number of unemployment benefit recipients who remained on the unemployment benefit long-term (for two or more years) has climbed from 150,000 to nearly half a million between 2006 and early 2023. Does such a steep rise reflect a growing culture of benefit dependency in Australia? The authors of this paper find that it does...