Demystifying Central Bank Digital Currency

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.

Leading economists back Federal Government action to curb rising gas and electricity prices

Poll 57

Australia’s top economists have overwhelmingly endorsed intervention to restrain gas and electricity prices, with only three of the 47 leading economists surveyed believing the best thing the government can do is to leave things to the market.

Photo credit: Wes Mountain/The Conversation, CC BY-ND

Unreserved - RBA's latest release of digitised archival records

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.

Death of an eminent Queensland Economist

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.

'It’s important not to overreact’: Australia’s top economists on how to fix high inflation

Poll 55

Australia’s top economists are divided about how to tackle ballooning inflation of 6.1% that’s forecast to climb to a three-decade high of 7.75% by the end of the year.

Wes Mountain/The Conversation, CC BY-ND

Is education or immigration the answer to our skills shortage? We asked 50 economists

Poll 56

Investing in Australians’ education is far more important than immigration in resolving the nation’s skills shortages, according to leading economists surveyed in the lead-up to this week’s jobs and skills summit.

The 50 top Australian economists polled by the Economic Society of Australia and The Conversation are recognised by their peers as leaders in their fields, including economic modelling, labour markets and public policy.

Wes Mountain/The Conversation, CC BY-ND

Vale Professor Geoffrey Brennan

It is with great sadness that the Economic Society of Australia acknowledges the passing of Professor Geoffrey Brennan.

Geoffrey Brennan was an outstanding scholar, who did ground-breaking work in economics and philosophy and at their intersection and played a major role in the development of PPE as a global interdisciplinary research program.

WEN Credible Blog Series Writing Competition - Winners Announcement

In 2022, NSW WEN hosted its inaugural writing competition as part of the Credible Economist series.

ACE 2022

Australian Conference of Economists (ACE) 2022 was held from 10 to 13 July 2022 in Hobart, Tasmania as an in-person event.  Our theme, Economics in the New Normal, sought to address the challenges that a post-pandemic world faces.

Awards 2022

A number of prestigious awards were bestowed upon worthy economists at a recent Zoom ceremony.  Read on to find out who won the 2022 ESA National Awards.

Economic Analysis and Policy (EAP) - Call for Editors

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.

Follow us on Twitter

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.

ACE2021

The Australian Conference of Economists (ACE) 2021 was held from 12 to 14 July 2021 as a fully virtual event.

ACE 2021 celebrated over 100 years of welfare economics and brought together like-minded individuals to explore concepts of allocation, utilisation and distribution of our resources as they relate to the wealth and wellbeing of individuals and our society.

Where permission has been granted, we have uploaded presenations.