Resources and needs exist for practical purposes only through somebody knowing about them and the... more Resources and needs exist for practical purposes only through somebody knowing about them and there will always be infinitely more known to all the people together than can be known to the most competent authority. A successful solution can therefore not be based on the authority dealing directly with the objective facts, but must be based on a method of utilising the knowledge dispersed among all members of society, knowledge of which in any particular instance the central authority will usually know neither who possesses it nor whether it exists at all. It can therefore not be utilised by consciously integrating it into a coherent whole, but only through some mechanism which will delegate the particular decisions to those who possess it, and for that purpose supply them with such information about the general situation as will enable them to make the best use of the particular circumstances of which only they know.
The Australians facing the strongest disincentives to work are mostly on middle and lower incomes... more The Australians facing the strongest disincentives to work are mostly on middle and lower incomes argues Nicholas Gruen in this CEDA report. These people are also the ones most likely to respond to the incentive provided by tax cuts. To encourage more work, tax cutting should focus on lowering the bottom (15 per cent) income tax rate, raising the tax-free threshold, and/or introducing a tax device called an "Earned Income Tax Credit" (EITC) for low-income households
Dr Nicholas Gruen is head of the Australian government's Government 2.0 Taskforce, which is i... more Dr Nicholas Gruen is head of the Australian government's Government 2.0 Taskforce, which is in the final stages of a public consultation process. Dr Gruen is due to report his recommendations and findings by December 31. So what are his priorities and how does he answer the sceptics -- not about his taskforce, but about the way government will respond to his findings? Also, Professor Graeme Turner and why he believes there's been a loss of perspective in the rush to celebrate the democratic potential of Web 2.0. >> DOWNLOAD THE MP3 Additional audio with Nic Gruen is available Download audio [dur: 14.51 | 6.9MB]
Agenda: a journal of policy analysis and reform, 1997
The art of good government is to constantly review practices to see where improvements can be mad... more The art of good government is to constantly review practices to see where improvements can be made. The guiding principles should be to design systems that make it clear what the medium-term goals are, to choose goals that can be communicated easily to the public and accepted as being rea sonable, and to ensure that the system is transparent so that people can judge whether policy changes are consistent widi the goals. (Ian Macfarlane, Governor of the Reserve Bank Australia, 1996) CONOMIC reform consists not only of achieving desired economic outcomes but also of building economic institutions that systematically improve the chances that desired economic outcomes will be achieved in the future. Un fortunately, the first of diese tasks often displaces die second. Yet insdtudonal re form can have large and long-lasdng benefits. Institutional reform frequendy involves distancing some area of economic activ ity from die day-to-day workings of government. The Industries Assistance Com mission (IAC), established in 1974, is die paradigm example in Australia. While it remained a stricdy advisory body, it exerted a strong influence on policy. Its radonale was diat it offset die invidious incentives diat governments faced: the few individuals who stood to benefit gready from industry assistance were well organised and capable of exerting considerable political pressure, while die many who stood to lose were poorly organised politically and often unaware of dieir losses. Odier economic reforms have reflected a similar rationale. For example, the corporatisation of government business enterprises has distanced governments from day-to-day commercial decisions; and over die last two decades the Reserve Bank of Australia has built up respect for its independence and its much enhanced role in managing monetary policy. Would institutional reform likewise improve the man agement of fiscal policy? In this article a possible reform to the institutions of fiscal policy is oudined, which would help guard against fiscal irresponsibility at the same time as substantially improving die scope for fiscal policy to be used in the man agement of the economic cycle.
Government 2.0 Taskforce (Nicholas Gruen, Chair) KEY POINTS ï‚· Government 2.0 or the use of the ne... more Government 2.0 Taskforce (Nicholas Gruen, Chair) KEY POINTS ï‚· Government 2.0 or the use of the new collaborative tools and approaches of Web 2.0 offers an unprecedented opportunity to achieve more open, accountable, responsive and efficient government. ï‚· Though it involves new technology, Government 2.0 is really about a new approach to organising and governing. It will draw people into a closer and more collaborative relationship with their government. Australia has an opportunity to resume its leadership in seizing these opportunities and capturing the resulting social and economic benefits. ï‚· Leadership, and policy and governance changes are needed to shift public sector culture and practice to make government information more accessible and usable, make government more consultative, participatory and transparent, build a culture of online innovation within Government, and to promote collaboration across agencies. ï‚· Government pervades some of the most important aspects of our lives. Government 2.0 can harness the wealth of local and expert knowledge, ideas and enthusiasm of Australians to improve schools, hospitals, workplaces, to enrich our democracy and to improve its own policies, regulation and service delivery. ___________________________ * First published as the Executive Summary and Recommendations in Engage -Getting on with Government 2.0 by the Government 2.0 Taskforce, www.gov2.net.au. The report is available at www.finance.gov.au/publications/gov20taskforcereport and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/au. Members of the Gov 2.0 Taskforce were Dr Nicholas Gruen (Chair), Ms Ann Steward (Deputy Chair), Mr
Export orientation in any particular sector may be defined as a situation in which export product... more Export orientation in any particular sector may be defined as a situation in which export production receives at least as much assistance as import replacement. Rhee calls this 'extended neutrality' for exporters. 1 Of course free trade is a subset of those policies which provide 'extended neutrality' within industries or sectors of the economy. Such as Anne Krueger, Bela Balassa and others associated with the World Bank for instance.
Studies (VISES). He has published and spoken widely on information technology, industry and scien... more Studies (VISES). He has published and spoken widely on information technology, industry and science and technology policy issues, and he has been a regular consultant to national and international agencies, including the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. John's research is at the interface of theory and practice with a strong focus on the policy application of economic and social theory. Consequently, his contribution tends to be in bringing knowledge and research methods to bear on policy issues in an effort to raise the level of policy debate and improve policy outcomes. In 1998, John was awarded a National Australia Day Council, Australia Day Medal for his contribution to industry policy development.
The electron translational effect is treated within a finite basis of wavefunctions of the transi... more The electron translational effect is treated within a finite basis of wavefunctions of the transient quasimolecule. The resulting coupled equations do not show any spurious long-range interactions and are easy to apply.
Business Council of Australia Despite the frequency with which they have been ppomoted as a model... more Business Council of Australia Despite the frequency with which they have been ppomoted as a model of development, East Asian trade policies have had little influence on the normative economics of trade reform. In contrast to directly dismantling protection, developing countries have ofren provided concessional import rights which override existing protection. These instruments include EPZs and duty remission. This paper accommodates these instruments of 'new trade liberalization' within a more general understanding of trade liberalization illustrating their similarities and their differences. Both old and new trade liberalization can, on their own, bring about complete free trade. Needless to say, so far, neither has! [Plolicymakers have something on their side. Recall that deficit spending as an instrument to create employment preceded the General Theory. Economists should be a little more cautious in assuming that policy wisdom is necessarily on their side. In the area of trade policy I. .. doubt whether we are immensely smarter than the policy-makers. Jagdish Bhagwati commenting on the success of North East Asian trade and industry policies, 1973 (1975, p. 513). ' tariff cuts.3 3 These ruies arc sanctioned in textbooks such as Corden, 1974 and Vwsdm 1990, an orientation which has bcen carried through to policy advice. See Industries Assistance Commission 1982.
The paper is intended to broadly reflect an OECD perspective. Nevertheless, examples are taken pa... more The paper is intended to broadly reflect an OECD perspective. Nevertheless, examples are taken particularly, though not exclusively, from the Australian experience. 2. Fiscal Policy and the Characteristics of Economic Reform An important theme of economic reform in the last two decades has been ensuring that decisions are made by the appropriate actors in the economy. Where official trade barriers once influenced the way in which the private sector allocated its resources, today such decisions are made within a much more competitive market framework with firms deciding where they can make the highest return from the deployment of their resources.
Right back to ancient times, people have tried to understand what human wellbeing is, and how it ... more Right back to ancient times, people have tried to understand what human wellbeing is, and how it might be measured. There is no one answer to these questions. But nature - and human conversation - abhors a vacuum. In the 1930s and 40s national accounting was developed to help economic managers iron out economic booms and busts. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) measures the magnitude of trade taking place in the market economy. And rather like a new standard emerging (such as mp3 or mpeg format media) as GDP received more and more usage, somehow it came to be taken as a yardstick of economic progress.
Dr Nicholas Gruen and Kenney Lin of Lateral Economics offer four good reasons for guarded optimis... more Dr Nicholas Gruen and Kenney Lin of Lateral Economics offer four good reasons for guarded optimism about the impact of rising oil prices, and argue that government policy can help manage the risks. This article is adapted from CEDA's 2006 Economic and Political Overview (EPO), an annual review of key issues for the year ahead.
This report presents an overview of findings (section 1), reviews the international and local Aus... more This report presents an overview of findings (section 1), reviews the international and local Australian policy context for open government and open science data (section 2), explores the economic value of open data (section 3), outlines a way forward (section 4), and provides case studies on the impacts of open data (annexes).
Resources and needs exist for practical purposes only through somebody knowing about them and the... more Resources and needs exist for practical purposes only through somebody knowing about them and there will always be infinitely more known to all the people together than can be known to the most competent authority. A successful solution can therefore not be based on the authority dealing directly with the objective facts, but must be based on a method of utilising the knowledge dispersed among all members of society, knowledge of which in any particular instance the central authority will usually know neither who possesses it nor whether it exists at all. It can therefore not be utilised by consciously integrating it into a coherent whole, but only through some mechanism which will delegate the particular decisions to those who possess it, and for that purpose supply them with such information about the general situation as will enable them to make the best use of the particular circumstances of which only they know.
The Australians facing the strongest disincentives to work are mostly on middle and lower incomes... more The Australians facing the strongest disincentives to work are mostly on middle and lower incomes argues Nicholas Gruen in this CEDA report. These people are also the ones most likely to respond to the incentive provided by tax cuts. To encourage more work, tax cutting should focus on lowering the bottom (15 per cent) income tax rate, raising the tax-free threshold, and/or introducing a tax device called an "Earned Income Tax Credit" (EITC) for low-income households
Dr Nicholas Gruen is head of the Australian government's Government 2.0 Taskforce, which is i... more Dr Nicholas Gruen is head of the Australian government's Government 2.0 Taskforce, which is in the final stages of a public consultation process. Dr Gruen is due to report his recommendations and findings by December 31. So what are his priorities and how does he answer the sceptics -- not about his taskforce, but about the way government will respond to his findings? Also, Professor Graeme Turner and why he believes there's been a loss of perspective in the rush to celebrate the democratic potential of Web 2.0. >> DOWNLOAD THE MP3 Additional audio with Nic Gruen is available Download audio [dur: 14.51 | 6.9MB]
Agenda: a journal of policy analysis and reform, 1997
The art of good government is to constantly review practices to see where improvements can be mad... more The art of good government is to constantly review practices to see where improvements can be made. The guiding principles should be to design systems that make it clear what the medium-term goals are, to choose goals that can be communicated easily to the public and accepted as being rea sonable, and to ensure that the system is transparent so that people can judge whether policy changes are consistent widi the goals. (Ian Macfarlane, Governor of the Reserve Bank Australia, 1996) CONOMIC reform consists not only of achieving desired economic outcomes but also of building economic institutions that systematically improve the chances that desired economic outcomes will be achieved in the future. Un fortunately, the first of diese tasks often displaces die second. Yet insdtudonal re form can have large and long-lasdng benefits. Institutional reform frequendy involves distancing some area of economic activ ity from die day-to-day workings of government. The Industries Assistance Com mission (IAC), established in 1974, is die paradigm example in Australia. While it remained a stricdy advisory body, it exerted a strong influence on policy. Its radonale was diat it offset die invidious incentives diat governments faced: the few individuals who stood to benefit gready from industry assistance were well organised and capable of exerting considerable political pressure, while die many who stood to lose were poorly organised politically and often unaware of dieir losses. Odier economic reforms have reflected a similar rationale. For example, the corporatisation of government business enterprises has distanced governments from day-to-day commercial decisions; and over die last two decades the Reserve Bank of Australia has built up respect for its independence and its much enhanced role in managing monetary policy. Would institutional reform likewise improve the man agement of fiscal policy? In this article a possible reform to the institutions of fiscal policy is oudined, which would help guard against fiscal irresponsibility at the same time as substantially improving die scope for fiscal policy to be used in the man agement of the economic cycle.
Government 2.0 Taskforce (Nicholas Gruen, Chair) KEY POINTS ï‚· Government 2.0 or the use of the ne... more Government 2.0 Taskforce (Nicholas Gruen, Chair) KEY POINTS ï‚· Government 2.0 or the use of the new collaborative tools and approaches of Web 2.0 offers an unprecedented opportunity to achieve more open, accountable, responsive and efficient government. ï‚· Though it involves new technology, Government 2.0 is really about a new approach to organising and governing. It will draw people into a closer and more collaborative relationship with their government. Australia has an opportunity to resume its leadership in seizing these opportunities and capturing the resulting social and economic benefits. ï‚· Leadership, and policy and governance changes are needed to shift public sector culture and practice to make government information more accessible and usable, make government more consultative, participatory and transparent, build a culture of online innovation within Government, and to promote collaboration across agencies. ï‚· Government pervades some of the most important aspects of our lives. Government 2.0 can harness the wealth of local and expert knowledge, ideas and enthusiasm of Australians to improve schools, hospitals, workplaces, to enrich our democracy and to improve its own policies, regulation and service delivery. ___________________________ * First published as the Executive Summary and Recommendations in Engage -Getting on with Government 2.0 by the Government 2.0 Taskforce, www.gov2.net.au. The report is available at www.finance.gov.au/publications/gov20taskforcereport and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/au. Members of the Gov 2.0 Taskforce were Dr Nicholas Gruen (Chair), Ms Ann Steward (Deputy Chair), Mr
Export orientation in any particular sector may be defined as a situation in which export product... more Export orientation in any particular sector may be defined as a situation in which export production receives at least as much assistance as import replacement. Rhee calls this 'extended neutrality' for exporters. 1 Of course free trade is a subset of those policies which provide 'extended neutrality' within industries or sectors of the economy. Such as Anne Krueger, Bela Balassa and others associated with the World Bank for instance.
Studies (VISES). He has published and spoken widely on information technology, industry and scien... more Studies (VISES). He has published and spoken widely on information technology, industry and science and technology policy issues, and he has been a regular consultant to national and international agencies, including the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. John's research is at the interface of theory and practice with a strong focus on the policy application of economic and social theory. Consequently, his contribution tends to be in bringing knowledge and research methods to bear on policy issues in an effort to raise the level of policy debate and improve policy outcomes. In 1998, John was awarded a National Australia Day Council, Australia Day Medal for his contribution to industry policy development.
The electron translational effect is treated within a finite basis of wavefunctions of the transi... more The electron translational effect is treated within a finite basis of wavefunctions of the transient quasimolecule. The resulting coupled equations do not show any spurious long-range interactions and are easy to apply.
Business Council of Australia Despite the frequency with which they have been ppomoted as a model... more Business Council of Australia Despite the frequency with which they have been ppomoted as a model of development, East Asian trade policies have had little influence on the normative economics of trade reform. In contrast to directly dismantling protection, developing countries have ofren provided concessional import rights which override existing protection. These instruments include EPZs and duty remission. This paper accommodates these instruments of 'new trade liberalization' within a more general understanding of trade liberalization illustrating their similarities and their differences. Both old and new trade liberalization can, on their own, bring about complete free trade. Needless to say, so far, neither has! [Plolicymakers have something on their side. Recall that deficit spending as an instrument to create employment preceded the General Theory. Economists should be a little more cautious in assuming that policy wisdom is necessarily on their side. In the area of trade policy I. .. doubt whether we are immensely smarter than the policy-makers. Jagdish Bhagwati commenting on the success of North East Asian trade and industry policies, 1973 (1975, p. 513). ' tariff cuts.3 3 These ruies arc sanctioned in textbooks such as Corden, 1974 and Vwsdm 1990, an orientation which has bcen carried through to policy advice. See Industries Assistance Commission 1982.
The paper is intended to broadly reflect an OECD perspective. Nevertheless, examples are taken pa... more The paper is intended to broadly reflect an OECD perspective. Nevertheless, examples are taken particularly, though not exclusively, from the Australian experience. 2. Fiscal Policy and the Characteristics of Economic Reform An important theme of economic reform in the last two decades has been ensuring that decisions are made by the appropriate actors in the economy. Where official trade barriers once influenced the way in which the private sector allocated its resources, today such decisions are made within a much more competitive market framework with firms deciding where they can make the highest return from the deployment of their resources.
Right back to ancient times, people have tried to understand what human wellbeing is, and how it ... more Right back to ancient times, people have tried to understand what human wellbeing is, and how it might be measured. There is no one answer to these questions. But nature - and human conversation - abhors a vacuum. In the 1930s and 40s national accounting was developed to help economic managers iron out economic booms and busts. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) measures the magnitude of trade taking place in the market economy. And rather like a new standard emerging (such as mp3 or mpeg format media) as GDP received more and more usage, somehow it came to be taken as a yardstick of economic progress.
Dr Nicholas Gruen and Kenney Lin of Lateral Economics offer four good reasons for guarded optimis... more Dr Nicholas Gruen and Kenney Lin of Lateral Economics offer four good reasons for guarded optimism about the impact of rising oil prices, and argue that government policy can help manage the risks. This article is adapted from CEDA's 2006 Economic and Political Overview (EPO), an annual review of key issues for the year ahead.
This report presents an overview of findings (section 1), reviews the international and local Aus... more This report presents an overview of findings (section 1), reviews the international and local Australian policy context for open government and open science data (section 2), explores the economic value of open data (section 3), outlines a way forward (section 4), and provides case studies on the impacts of open data (annexes).
This is a novel about George Orwell and 1984, an unsentimental tribute to the political writer wh... more This is a novel about George Orwell and 1984, an unsentimental tribute to the political writer who grasped with greatest penetration the meaning of the European catastrophes of the first half of the twentieth century.
Nicholas Gruen reviews a book review by Clive James and ponders the decline of serious debate. He... more Nicholas Gruen reviews a book review by Clive James and ponders the decline of serious debate. He says James joined the culture wars and attacked weaker, dumbed-down versions of opposing views, as expressed by ideological fringe-dwellers.
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