It’s the question still hanging over Brisbane’s 2032 Olympics, which made Victoria cancel its Commonwealth Games: do such mega events pay their own way? The evidence suggests they’re unlikely to.
Once guests trickled back into hotels, they were urged to socially distance.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Jakub Hlávka, University of Southern California and Adam Rose, University of Southern California
Workplace absences, along with sales lost due to the cessation of brick-and-mortar retail shopping, airline travel and public gatherings, contributed the most.
A South African street vendor awaits customers. The country has some of the highest inequality in the world.
Mujahid Safodien/AFP via Getty Images
Reducing greenhouse gases is expensive, but it’s a great investment compared to the damage we can expect to the Canadian economy if the climate warms 5 C by 2100.
Renewable energy prices have fallen faster than predicted.
ImageBROKER/Lilly
Matthew E. Kahn, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Human behaviors shift. Policies change. New technology arrives and evolves. All those changes and more are hard to predict, and they affect tomorrow’s costs.
Forestry is a surprising winner in detailed projections prepared by Victoria University. Queensland has the most to lose from a move to net-zero.
Economists are using models to try to determine what short- and long-term impacts the coronavirus pandemic will have on the global economy.
(AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
As countries get ready to re-open their economies, will there be a post-pandemic recovery? History and current economic models suggest those looking for a quick rebound will be disappointed.
Billions of taxpayer dollars are committed before all the evidence for, and against, infrastructure projects is in. As well as missing business cases, basic rules of economic modelling are broken.
The job market is still tough for many Americans.
AP Photo/Lynne Sladky
A recent study was reported as saying a sugar tax would have us drinking more alcohol. But the study didn’t establish this fact. The results were mixed with no evidence one thing caused another.
People don’t evaluate government policies through mathematical models or with long-term goals in mind.
AAP/ Glenn Hunt
Treasury modelling suggests that limiting negative gearing will lead to small change in prices. But behavioural economics shows it all depends on how the policy is framed.
Still no clear skies for the federal government’s energy plans.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
As federal and state energy ministers gather to discuss the Turnbull government’s proposed National Energy Guarantee, many of the finer details of the modelling are not yet available.
Modelling shows the NBN needs subsidies to have the most impact.
AAP
Almost half of eligible households haven’t connected to the NBN. New modelling shows the NBN needs subsidies if we want more people to connect and the economy to benefit from it.
Affiliated Researcher, Bennett Institute of Public Policy, University of Cambridge and Associate Professor in Banking and Finance, University of East Anglia