Prosperity and Distress in Australia’s Cities and Regions
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Author(s)
Baum, Scott
Mitchell, Bill
Flanagan, Michael
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2019
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As Australia moves through its second decade of the 21st century, there is an eerie sameness about the uneven distributional outcomes of the country’s economic and social advances. This sameness relates to the fact that across all levels of analysis, there is a continued realisation that the rising tide of economic and social progress does not lift all boats and that there are certain segments of society that continue to be left behind in social and economic terms. Researchers talk in terms of a society divided with divisions driven by endogenous and exogenous economic, social and policy changes that result in broadly defined ...
View more >As Australia moves through its second decade of the 21st century, there is an eerie sameness about the uneven distributional outcomes of the country’s economic and social advances. This sameness relates to the fact that across all levels of analysis, there is a continued realisation that the rising tide of economic and social progress does not lift all boats and that there are certain segments of society that continue to be left behind in social and economic terms. Researchers talk in terms of a society divided with divisions driven by endogenous and exogenous economic, social and policy changes that result in broadly defined winners and losers. The divisions can be seen at the scale of individuals, but also at broader spatial or geographical scales. The geographies of inequality are clear to see in the mosaic of outcomes that are laid out in any large or medium sized city or urban area. While some locations or communities and the people residing in them remain prosperous and resilient in the face of negative shocks, others are pushed further into disadvantage and distress. Referring to these patterns O’Connor, Stimson and Daly (2001, p. 1) argue that “a nation’s economic geography is volatile, and the impacts of that volatility can be both profound and uneven as it differentially affects both people and places.” Presenting an Australian wide evidence base pertaining to this spatial volatility is the main focus of this paper. Using a methodology proposed by the Economic Innovation Group (EIG, 2017) in the United States, spatially aggregated data is used to develop an Index of Prosperity and Distress in Australian localities (PDI). The main methodology for the PDI is presented in this paper and can also be reviewed on our web site.
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View more >As Australia moves through its second decade of the 21st century, there is an eerie sameness about the uneven distributional outcomes of the country’s economic and social advances. This sameness relates to the fact that across all levels of analysis, there is a continued realisation that the rising tide of economic and social progress does not lift all boats and that there are certain segments of society that continue to be left behind in social and economic terms. Researchers talk in terms of a society divided with divisions driven by endogenous and exogenous economic, social and policy changes that result in broadly defined winners and losers. The divisions can be seen at the scale of individuals, but also at broader spatial or geographical scales. The geographies of inequality are clear to see in the mosaic of outcomes that are laid out in any large or medium sized city or urban area. While some locations or communities and the people residing in them remain prosperous and resilient in the face of negative shocks, others are pushed further into disadvantage and distress. Referring to these patterns O’Connor, Stimson and Daly (2001, p. 1) argue that “a nation’s economic geography is volatile, and the impacts of that volatility can be both profound and uneven as it differentially affects both people and places.” Presenting an Australian wide evidence base pertaining to this spatial volatility is the main focus of this paper. Using a methodology proposed by the Economic Innovation Group (EIG, 2017) in the United States, spatially aggregated data is used to develop an Index of Prosperity and Distress in Australian localities (PDI). The main methodology for the PDI is presented in this paper and can also be reviewed on our web site.
View less >
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© 2019 Scott Baum, William Mitchell and Michael Flanagan. Policy Innovation Hub, Griffith University and the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), University of Newcastle. The attached file is reproduced here in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the publisher’s website for further information.
Subject
Applied economics