Benefitting from globalisation and technological change in Australia

Urban Sila and Philip Hemmings

No 1537, OECD Economics Department Working Papers from OECD Publishing

Abstract: Australia has seen large rises in living standards over the last decades across the whole of the income distribution. Technological change and international trade have contributed to this success, but have also brought structural change. Some industries have declined, while others flourished. Furthermore, new technologies and structural change create new skills and new tasks, boosting demand for some jobs, while making others disappear.Although technology and globalisation have not decreased overall employment, certain people, groups, and communities have undergone disruptive change and experienced falling living standards. Some groups face a higher risk of poverty and laid-off workers can have difficulty finding a new job. Well-informed and well-targeted policy is therefore needed to ensure that the benefits of technology and globalisation are widely shared.This paper focuses on policies to ensure that everyone in Australia has the opportunity to benefit from technological change and globalisation. The paper assesses policies relating to three issues: i) labour markets and active labour market policies; ii) education and skills; to ensure adequate skills for accessing good quality jobs; and iii) urban environments, ensuring that Australia's highly urbanised population can adapt to change.

Keywords: activation policies; Australia; education; globalisation; income distribution; inequality; job polarisation; labour market; metropolitan areas; skills; technological change; urbanisation; welfare policies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 E24 F6 H5 H7 I2 I3 J2 J3 O18 O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-02-21
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1537-en

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