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Analysis and Comment

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The health and finance sectors have the largest gender wage gaps, of more than 30%. Jerry Bunkers

Time is running out to close the gender wage gap

Equal pay was, and still is, one of the key demands of feminists. Basic to any idea of gender equity should be that paid work is fairly rewarded, whether it’s undertaken by a male or female. In early…

Working out the face value of Facebook

What do you get when you buy 900 million user experiences, mostly from smart devices? Facebook’s float has been dogged with controversy: on Monday, its shares plummeted 11% and dropped another 8.9% to…

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Research and News

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Federal Budget 2012

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System 1 thinkers on the left, System 2 thinker on the right? AAP

Budget 2012: Why the experts will get it wrong

It’s an old joke, but hard to resist around Budget time. That is, that economic forecasting was invented to make astrology look respectable. Over the past few days we’ve heard a lot about how notoriously…

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Editors’ Picks

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Academic publishing firms have been all too keen to monopolise a crucial public good: academic knowledge. giulia.forsythe

publishing

The great publishing swindle

One of the great outrages of academia in the modern age is the privatisation of the profits accruing to publicly-financed knowledge. One form is that of academic journals, a primary method of disseminating…
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Toyota's approach to redundant workers caused "undeserved harm" and undermined productivity. AAP

management

Is the Toyota way the only way?

UPDATE: Workers for transport company 1st Fleet were handed redundancy notices when they arrived for work this morning, after the company ceased trading. Are we seeing something of this same attitude…
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Feeding the world is entirely feasible, but food distribution remains a significant challenge. edwin van buuringen

food security

Meat consumption offers food for thought on global poverty

The Economist has its critics, but it still delivers lots of interesting data. I just found this table (published by EconomistDailyChart) of annual meat consumption per person by country. The data set…
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Australia's not-for-profit sector is undergoing considerable reform. Howard.

philanthropy

Charitable giving and tax reform

“How much should the taxpayer contribute to the charitable whims of donors?” This comment was made in an article in the The Guardian on 16 April. It was referring to the fact that the UK Coalition government…
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Focussing on health and safety responsibilities is a key development in addressing workplace bullying. AAP

bullying

Shining a new light on bullying risk

Workplace bullying is one of the most contentious workplace issues. Against the backdrop of a forthcoming National Code of Practice on preventing workplace bullying, a recent investigation by Worksafe…