Hosted by the Centre of Policy Studies (CoPS), this one-day conference was aimed at communicating to policy-makers, researchers and practitioners, the results of recent economic research on rural and regional Australia.
In recent years there have been significant advances in research on Australia's regional economies. Regional economic models have become increasingly sophisticated. This has allowed for much better analysis of the factors which drive regional economies and how events and new policies impact diversely across geographical regions. Governments are now frequently demanding analysis from such models prior to policy decisions.
However, for many regional practitioners and policy-makers, regional economic models are black boxes. It is important that the new knowledge from such models is widely available and that practitioners and policy makers know the basics of how the models work if the models are to aid in regional development. This conference will involve many of Australia's leading regional economists presenting the findings from their regional modelling in a clear and non-technical way.
The conference is designed to facilitate feedback from practitioners and policy-makers to influence the future research work of regional economic modellers, both in terms of research direction and the assumptions underlying their models. Those working day-to-day in regional development have much vital information to pass back to the presenters on the plausibility of their assumptions and the workability of the policy options modelled.
Topics to be covered are:
Dr Philip Adams, Centre of Policy Studies, Monash University (Philip is author of the MMRF-Green dynamic model of Australian regions)
Dr Vince FitzGerald, Chairman, Allen Consulting (formerly Secretary of the Commonwealth Departments of Employment, Education and Training, and Trade; and a member of the recent Review of Commonwealth-State Funding)
Mr Anthony King, Director, Regional Modelling, National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling at the University of Canberra (NATSEM is a world leader in developing microsimulation models and in undertaking a wide range of social and economic research)
Professor Mike Young, Director, Policy and Economic Research Unit, CSIRO Land and Water (Mike is a specialist in trans-disciplinary analysis of policy alternatives, the design of property-right systems and resource accounting)
Associate Professor John Madden, Centre of Policy Studies (John is author of the FEDERAL model and a former Director of the Centre for Regional Economic Analysis. He is currently a member of the international council of the Regional Science Association)
Dr Jacqueline Dwyer, Senior Economist, Reserve Bank of Australia (Jacqueline is currently coordinating the Bank's Regional Office program)
Dr James Giesecke, Senior Research Fellow, Centre of Policy Studies, Monash University (James is the author of the FEDERAL-F model.)
Dr Tony Meagher, Senior Research Fellow, Centre of Policy Studies, Monash University (Tony produces CoPS' regional Labour Markert forecasts)
Dr Glyn Wittwer, Senior Research Fellow, Centre of Policy Studies, Monash University
The conference will be opened by the Victorian Treasurer and Minister for State and Regional Development, John Brumby.
This conference is of key importance to those:
The conference has been designed to deliver high quality content and expert speakers who:
Each individual session will allow for discussion, comments and questions from delegates. General discussion sessions will also end both the morning and afternoon parts of the program.
A downloadable copy of the Program is available.