Migration
Striking a balance on immigration
Australia should prioritise skilled migrants by using prices and incentives instead of queues and quotas.
Migration
Migration
A policy win, Albanese's inflation challenge, and Housing's silver lining
No quotas on international students (good riddance); how people think of money could cost Albanese at the next election; at least Australia's housing market still functions like a market; why Europe stagnates; the not-so Future Fund, trade thoughts, Elon Musk's incentives, and the future of war.
Migration
Quotas are always the wrong option
While quotas may seem like an easy fix for Australia's international student influx, a dynamic fee-based system would more efficiently balance demand, distribute benefits equitably, and avoid the perverse incentives of arbitrary caps.
Migration
Migrants aren't causing inflation
Inflation is caused by fiscal and monetary policy, not by migrants or other supply shocks, which can only temporarily affect measured inflation by altering relative prices in the economy.
Population
Australia's demographic dilemma
Australia's migration slowdown will ease housing issues but exacerbate its ageing population and fiscal problems, requiring unpopular entitlement reform and improved fertility rates to sustainably fund old-age benefits.
Migration
Cutting migration won't solve the housing crisis
Peter Dutton claims cutting migration will free up over 100,000 homes and fix Australia's housing crisis. But his numbers don't add up and the impact will likely be minimal. Dutton's playing to anti-migration sentiment rather than addressing the real policy drivers behind unaffordable housing.
Population
Migration fearmongering helps no one
The numbers are in: in 2022-23, Australia’s population grew by 624,100 people, or around 2.4%. That’s a huge figure – a record, in fact – and it was driven by the net addition of 518,090 overseas migrants. As you might expect, the media jumped all over it:
Migration
How not to do migration
Australia has a long and successful history of immigration. Migrants contribute economically, help fill labour shortages, improve the country’s demographics and provide important cultural diversity. But as countries like Sweden have learned, migration can also present significant challenges. For example, last week independent economist Chris Richardson claimed that “we’
Migration
Don’t blame immigrants for the housing mess
Whether immigrants fuel inflation is a complicated question, in part because there’s no single, uniform “immigrant”. Immigrants can be students, skilled workers, entire families, refugees, retirees, or backpackers. Their ages also vary, as do their consumption, savings, and working patterns. Each of those features, and how they all come
Housing
Numbers tell the story
According to this tweet (usual caveats apply), a new Deutsche Bank report implied that Australia’s housing crisis is about to get much, much worse: “[W]e estimate that net new migration will be around 530,000 for the financial year 2022-23, but only around 180,000 dwellings will be