Labour Economics and Social Policy:
SPRS Information Sheets

Research themes

These information sheets focus on the following research themes:

1. Dynamics of income support and employment
2. Transitions
3. Stepping stones and pathways
4. Education and training
5. Health and disability
6. Youth
7. Older Australians, and
8. Outcomes for women.

Contents

Each information sheet provides:

• An overview of the key findings from that sheet’s research theme
• A discussion of the research findings
• A summary of knowledge derived from the research, and
• A list of potential policy implications.

A reference list and appendix outlining the data sources used, methodologies applied and findings from each report are also included.

Note: Numbers in square brackets refer to the themes listed above.

Projects completed in 2011

• Activation and welfare dependency [1, 2]
• Employment retention in an economic downturn [1, 2]
• Second chance education: Re-engagement in education of early school leavers (Working Paper 14/2012) [4, 6]
• The effects of childcare on child development [6, 8]

Projects completed in 2010

• Successful and unsuccessful pathways to employment [1, 2]
• Impact of education and training on income support recipients [4]
• Dynamics of future mature age workforce participation [7]

Projects completed in 2009

• Location economics of income support recipients – Extension project [1]
• Dynamics of household joblessness in Australia, 2001–2007 [1]
• The factors that influence wage progression [1, 3, 5]
• Combining income support and earnings [2]
• Transitions of income support recipients with incapacity exemptions [2, 5]
• The education and employment outcomes of youth in school-to-work transition [2, 6]
• Wage transitions of apprentices [3, 4, 6]
• The re-engagement in education of early school leavers [4, 6]
• Mental health of the Australian working population [5]
• Experiences of income support recipients with a mental illness [5]

Projects completed in 2008

• Human capital and the patterns of employment and welfare receipt [1, 2, 4, 5]
• Location economics of income support recipients [1]
• Teenage mothers’ income support, education and paid work [1, 6, 8]
• Working credits – A low cost alternative to universal income tax credits? [1]
• Link between changes in employment and changes in income support [1, 2]
• The dynamics of income support receipt among ‘new’ income support recipients [1]
• Inter-generational correlation of labour market outcomes [1, 4]
• Pathways to higher pay [3]
• Full-time work and single mothers [3,8]
• Incidence of work-related injury and illness and outcomes for specific groups of workers [5]

Projects completed in 2007

• Low pay dynamics: Do low paid jobs lead to increased earnings and lower welfare dependency over time? [3]
• Skill shortages and the absence of wage pressures [4]
• Disability and employment in the Australian labour market [5]
• Mature age employment and workplace strategy [7]
• Use of informal childcare and decisions on work by income support recipients [8]
• What determines how long women spend out of the labour force after the birth of a child? [8]

Projects completed in 2006

• Income support reliance in Australia [1]
• Income support spells initiated by unemployment: Commonalities and heterogeneities across population groups in duration and determination of duration [1]
• Jobless households: longitudinal analysis of the persistence and determinants of joblessness using HILDA data for 2001–2003 [1]
• Previous income support experience of people granted DSP [1]
• An examination of welfare transitions using the first three waves of the HILDA Survey [1, 2]
• Transitions from casual employment in Australia [2, 3]
• Labour force outcomes for the mature age population [7]