Nicolas Hérault, Melbourne Institute - Employment in Australia over two decades: Understanding the drivers of change for women

Title: Employment in Australia over two decades: Understanding the drivers of change for women

Abstract: This paper aims to explain the large increases in labour force participation observed for Australian women since the mid-1990s. A new decomposition approach is developed to disentangle the role of tax and transfer policy reforms, of changes in labour supply preferences and of changes in real wages. Although increased female labour force participation is one of the stated goals of the Australian government, we find that the changes in tax and transfer policies have contributed relatively little to achieve these large increases. Instead, we identify changed preferences, which are part of a global and continuing trend across many countries, and increases in real wages as the main drivers of increased female labour force participation.

Presenter: Nicolas Hérault, Melbourne Institute

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