| Measuring Well-Being "
What is the aim of government? One answer is that it might be to maximise citizens' life satisfaction. Researchers have used a range of different approaches in order to know what makes people happy and how to judge whether a society is making progress to this goal. Mike Salvaris provides a very useful summary of the international development of social indicators which measure more than economic growth in "Community and social indicators: How citizens can measure progress". This is published by the Swinburne Institute for Social Research alongside "Tasmania Together arators - see "Structural Monitoring: International Benchmarking of Denmark" for more details. Finally, Partha Dasgupta and Karl-Göran Mäler argue that the usual measures of economic success are useful but shouldn't be used to measure well-being in a number of reports from the Beijer International Institute of Environmental Economics. | By Beijer International Institute of Environmental Economics , Australia, US, Denmark, Sweden. | Macro Economic Policy Resource. |
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| Automatic Uprating of the Minimum Wage "
Without uprating the minimum wage loses its value as a floor on wages. However, automatic uprating has been resisted, partly on the grounds that it will be inflationary. Sanjiv Sachdev argues for an automatic uprating mechanism - stating it will be better at maintaining standards of living for the low paid and that it will be easier for businesses to prepare for small regular increases. He points to the experience of the US where the level of the minimum wage is the subject of intense political bargaining. In contrast France's salarie minimum interprofessionnel de croissance has been very effective in maintaining the value of the minimum wage in relation to average earnings. Published by Catalyst. | By Catalyst. , UK . | Macro Economic Policy Resource. |
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| Teenage Pregnancy. The increase numbers of children being born to teenage mothers is one of the more worrying trends in the UK and US. This is because far more children of teenagers are born into poverty and welfare dependence than babies born to older parents. Teen childbearing is very costly. A 1997 study by Rebecca Maynard of Mathematica Policy Research in Princeton, New Jersey, found that, after controlling for differences between teen mothers and mothers aged 20 or 21 when they had their first child, teen childbearing costs taxpayers more than $7 billion a year or $3,200 a year for each teenage birth, conservatively estimated. "What Can Be Done to Reduce Teen Pregnancy and Out-of-Wedlock Births?" by Isabel Sawhill discusses American attempts to reduce teenage pregnancy rates through a variety of programmes. | By Brookings Institution, US. | Family and Children Policy Resource. |
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Youth Employment and Training. Australia is now in its ninth year of economic growth (though Australia's export-led growth is now at risk) . How have young people fared in this economic climate? This report, prepared by Richard Curtain, uses recent official data to assess the labour market and education standing of 15 to 24 year olds. Despite the favourable economic climate there remains a considerable number of young adults who face difficulties finding work and staying in education or training. International comparisons show that Australia?s labour market is not as "youth friendly" as other countries that have better coordinated school-to-work arrangements. "How Young People are Faring, Key Indicators 2001", is published by the Dusseldorp Skills Forum.
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By Dusseldorp Skills Forum, Australia.
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Family and Children Policy Resource.
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