What are the economic rationales for the public subsidy of private health insurance? Inducing more people to purchase private cover has the potential to create a positive fiscal externality, as it frees up the limited public beds and other public resources for people who cannot afford private...

The empirical analysis employs individual level data from the Australian Health Survey combined with retrospective data on tobacco price matched to the age at which the individual started and quit smoking. Split-population hazard models are estimated for both starting and quitting smoking. The...

This paper measures the concentration of ill-health among income groups in Australia using health survey data from 1989-90 (Australian Bureau of Statistics 1991) and 1995 (Australian Bureau of Statistics 1997), which contain responses on self-assessed health status and gross personal income. The...

The concept of competitiveness develops and amplifies the older concept of comparative advantage. It is based on factors which influence domestic prices of inputs and outputs as compared with foreign competitor's prices of the same inputs and outputs. Usually national statistics of the ratio of...

Over the period 1997 to 2000, the Australian government introduced two waves of price subsidies, then liberalised regulation to encourage private health insurance. Most of the increase in coverage occurred after the liberalization. Thus, it appears that this policy change rather than the earlier...