Research reports

A Waste of Energy: Why The Clean Energy Finance Corporation is redundant

The federal government’s plans to establish a Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) should be scrapped. As a commercially oriented company, it competes with private investors. As a company with a public mandate, it nevertheless aims to serve a public policy goal. These dual purposes are hard to reconcile. [...]

Price Drivers: Five Case Studies in How Government is Making Australia Unaffordable

Government influences price levels in more ways than is immediately apparent. Through its direct and indirect interventions in the market, government is one of the most important price drivers in Australia and responsible for the rising cost of living. To make life more affordable, government needs to remove regulatory obstacles. [...]

Trans-Atlantic Fiscal Follies: The Sequel

In 2009, CIS Research Fellows Robert Carling and Dr Oliver Marc Hartwich predicted sovereign debt troubles on both sides of the Atlantic at a CIS event called ‘Trans-Atlantic Fiscal Follies.’ In August 2011, they were joined by CIS Research Fellow Adam Creighton to discuss the future for those countries buckling under their sovereign debt obligations. How much worse is it going to get? And does it have to get worse before it gets better? Will the dollar survive as the lead currency? Will the euro survive at all? Will gold continue to rise? And what’s the endgame of government debt? [...]

Why a Growing Australia is Nothing to Fear

A growing population presents us with challenges and opportunities. Population growth, and the skilled migration that fuels it, helps our economy grow - giving us the resources to support our ageing population, build better infrastructure, and protect our environment. A growing, pluralistic society makes us socially richer too. [...]

Selection, Migration and Integration: Why Multiculturalism Works in Australia (And Fails in Europe)

Australia is one of the most multicultural countries in the world. Almost a quarter of the population was born abroad; almost half have at least one parent born overseas. It is remarkable that this high degree of diversity has not led to social segregation. On the contrary, Australia’s migrants are extremely well-integrated by international standards. [...]

Australia’s Angry Mayors

To understand the effects of a growing population on Australia’s councils, CIS surveyed local authorities from all over the country. The results are alarming. The level of frustration with inadequate finance for required infrastructure upgrades is high, and population growth is the reason behind rate hikes. Local government finance reform is overdue. [...]

Europe’s Painful Farewell: An Essay on the Decline of the Old World

Europe is a continent in crisis. The financial problems of many European economies became visible to the rest of world when Greece only narrowly escaped bankruptcy in May 2010. Ever since, more unpleasant data about the state of public finances in Europe have emerged, putting pressure on Europe’s common currency, the euro. With the focus on finances, it is easy to overlook that many of Europe’s current problems are not purely economic. They are the result of some basic construction errors of the European project. [...]

The Multi-layered Hayek

Friedrich August von Hayek was one of the intellectual giants of the 20th century. His contributions ranged from economics to philosophy, from law to psychology. In 1972, he won the Nobel Prize in Economics, and his ideas had great influence on politicians like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. At an event hosted by The Centre for Independent Studies in 2008, four academics delivered an assessment of Hayek’s contributions to different fields of research and analysed their relevance to contemporary debates. This collection of essays demonstrates how much a source of inspiration Hayek’s works still are. [...]

Populate and Perish? Modelling Australia’s Demographic Future

should stop pretending that they can control what Australia’s future population will look like. Instead, they should turn their attention to the real policy issues that will be affected by population growth and ageing: housing, roads, pensions and our natural environment. [...]

After the Wall – Reflections on the Legacy of 1989

The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 brought the Cold War to an end. It also ended a decades-long division of Europe. At an event hosted by The Centre for Independent Studies, four academics shared their recollections of the historic events and analysed their long term impacts. They show how the change originated in Poland; how fast the revolution spread to East Germany; how Germany mishandled the process of national reunification; and the lessons for the Chinese leadership from the collapse of the communist East German government. [...]