Fresh Economic Thinking

A puzzle came via twitter following the crazy story of RBA research claiming that if you remove planning controls, apartment prices will…

Housing supply is one of the most misunderstood processes in economics. The reason for this is that the core standard theory of economics…

A common objective of town planning schemes is the densification of existing suburbs to create “missing middle” density. This is usually…

Cameron Murray Henry Halloran Trust, The University of Sydney 20 March 2020

This is an expanded version of an article first published at The Conversation.

People are often confused about retirement income systems. Understandably so. Most economists, and organisations such as the IMF, OECD…

Bernie Sanders has smashed the Overton window. Rent control is going global.

When the Australia government introduced a cash grant for first home buyers, the aggregate effect was to increase home prices by roughly…

Many people hold the view that rezoning land to allow higher density residential uses on each plot will accelerate the rate of city…

It pays to hold land undeveloped rather than build new homes when prices are rising. This incentive changes the normal supply/demand story.

… but an ownership share of three-dimensional space

It is about time someone was honest about Australia’s superannuation system. This multi-trillion dollar financial monstrosity funnels money…

Recent reports by Grattan Institute and the Reserve Bank of Australia have argued that zoning is a significant cause of Australia’s high…

I have a new paper out — Developers pay developer charges in Cities: The International Journal of Urban Policy and Planning.

If we want to understand urban development our models of it must at least feature the process of development. But in urban economics no one…

Economists continue to ignore the raw economic realities of these important social institutions

We designed the system to be uncompetitive, and banks know it

Investment property income beats actually working for money

After reading recently about how home buyers need to save over $500 per month for 10 years for a deposit in NSW and Victoria, I thought I…

My new book with Prof. Paul Frijters about the grey corruption Game in Australia has been officially released today. It explains how the…