Spark Grants for Social Science Week events. The Academy is delighted to launch of a new small grants program to support social science organisations to hold in-person and online events during the annual Social Sciences Week program: 8-14 September 2025. 

Rechnitz Memorial Award for Indigenous society, culture and language. Nominations are open for the Academy’s inaugural Rechnitz Memorial Award, recognising excellence in research leadership and advancement of knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander society, culture and language. 

The current Executive terms finish on 31 August 2025 and the roles of Central Council President, Secretary and Treasurer will be up for election.

The 2025 ACE Committee is extending the call for abstracts for ACE by two weeks to COB Monday 14 April 2025.

The Committee especially welcomes abstracts for papers that fit the Conference theme Economics for a Changing World, that address major current issues, as well as the education of economists, and any papers describing high quality research in economic-related subjects.

Register and Submit your Abstract

Poll 66

Top economists say Trump’s policies will hit Australian economic growth and push up inflation and interest rates in the US.

The 8th Australian Gender Economics Workshop (#AGEW2025) was hosted by the University of Wollongong in partnership with the Women in Economics Network and was organised by Alfredo Paloyo. The workshop took place on 6‒7 February 2025 in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. Wollongong is in Dharawal Country.

Poll 65

Panellists are unanimous in believing Australia’s housing market is in crisis.

Offered a choice of 14 measures identified by the Economic Society of Australia as likely to restrain prices for buyers and renters, none of the 49 leading economists polled picked: “do nothing, the market will determine appropriate prices”.

A number of prestigious awards were bestowed upon worthy economists at ACE24, held in Adelaide.  Read on to find out who won the 2024 ESA National Awards.

Poll 64

Panelists were asked to comment on two questions: 

Is the budget likely to achieve its aim of getting inflation back within the RBA target band by the end of this year and back to 2.75% by mid next year?

And

On May 14, the government delivered a budget designed, in the Treasurer's words, to "focus on fighting inflation in the near term and then growth in the medium term " - What grade would you give the budget, given that objective? A, B, C, D, E or F

Wes Mountain/The Conversation, CC BY-ND https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/

The Australian Conference of Economists was held in Adelaide, SA from 10-12 July.  Presented papers will be published on our website in due course. 

Next year's ACE will be held at UTS in Sydney and coincides with the Society's 100 year anniversary.  Preparations are well underway to bring members a very special event - please stay tuned for more details about ACE25.  In the meantime, hold the date of 6-9 July 2025 and register your interest via the dedicated ACE25 website.

Congratulations to Deborah Ann Cobb-Clark AO for her recognition in the 2024 Australia Day Honours list for distinguished service to economic research, to tertiary education, and to the social sciences. Deborah has been appointed as an Officer of the Order (AO).

Click here to read the full citation.

The Reserve Bank has been releasing a large volume of digitised archival records to the public through our digital archive (called Unreserved). These records span nearly 200 years of Australia’s economic, financial and social history. The latest release includes records about the work and influence of Dr HC Coombs along with additional records from the Bank’s Research Department, with much of the new information covering the period from the Bank’s ‘separation’ from the original Commonwealth Bank in 1960 through to the early 1970s.

The payment system is changing in profound ways around the world as individuals demand faster payments, nonbank entities are seeking a greater role in facilitating payments, and a wide range of investors appear to believe that there is a significant role for cryptocurrencies as investment and as payment instruments. As a result, the concept of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) has gained traction, with an increasing number of central banks around the world announcing efforts to explore CBDC use and designs.

The event was held on Thursday Nov 10, 2022, 5:00 pm at QUT. The video recording can be watched on our YouTube Channel.

A number of prestigious awards were bestowed upon worthy economists at ACE2023, held in Brisbane.  Read on to find out who won the 2023 ESA National Awards.

Economic Analysis and Policy (EAP) has improved its performance considerably since it was taken over by Elsevier back in 2014. The combination of an online-only publication strategy, together with the steady editorial guidance of the Managing Editor since 2008, has been successful in increasing the journal’s outreach and placing EAP ready for its next step: an editorial team that will be diverse and specialised at the same time.

It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Emeritus Professor Clem Tisdell from the School of Economics at The University of Queensland on 14 July 2022.

We are delighted to announce the launch of ESA's Twitter account.  Keep up to date with economics-related topics and be part of the conversation.