Glenn A. Withers AO BEc (Hons 1st class, Monash), AM, PhD (Harvard), FASSA Former Deputy Director, Crawford School of Economics and Government, Professor of Public Policy, ANU; Adjunct Professor, Australia and New Zealand School of Government. Other Positions: State President, Committee for Economic Development of Australia; Adjunct Professor, Macquarie Graduate School of Management

Summary Bio

Glenn Withers is Professor of Public Policy in the Crawford School. He is a Monash and Harvard graduate and has held academic posts in Australia and overseas including at Harvard and Cambridge. He teaches policy economics subjects and has published a significant number of books and academic papers. He has worked in and for government, including as chair of various Australian government bodies such as the National Population Council and the Economic Planning Advisory Commission, and he has chaired public inquiries regarding population issues, immigration, and infrastructure financing and was a member of the Faulkner inquiry into child care. He has also been an adviser to private sector and community sector organisations in Australia and overseas, ranging from the North West Shelf Consortium and the Business Council of Australia to the OECD and UNDP. Professor Withers was awarded an Order of Australia for services to applied economics, including for design of the Australian immigration points system.

Research interests/expertise

Policy Economics: microeconomic policy including competition policy, infrastructure provision and public expenditure analysis; privatisation, government business enterprises, planning and regulation of business activity;

Social, Labour and Cultural Policy: population and immigration, labour market policy, social and welfare state institutions, cultural policy, including arts and the media

Current Projects

• Economic benefits of federalism: implications of federal political structures for economic , social and political performance
• Human resource development: education, immigration, health and innovation as  sources of economic growth
• The Partnership State: patterns of convergence across countries toward an economical welfare state based on principles of mutual responsibility (ARC Learned Academies Grant)
• Economic history of the Anglosphere: long-run determinants of growth, equity and ecological sustainability in the Anglo-American countries (ARC Discovery project)

Recent Publications (from 2003)

• Australia’s Federal Future, Federalist Paper 1, A Report for the Council for the Australian Federation, 2007 [with Anne Twomey] download publication >>
  
  
• “Can Distance Be Defeated?” in Competing From A Distance, Melbourne: CEDA, 2007 download publication >>
  
  
• National Summit on Housing Affordability: Background Paper, Canberra: Affordable Housing Consortium, 2006 (with Marion Powall)
  
  
• “ Immigration Policy: Australia’s Experience And Implications For Germany” in Russell West-Pavlov (ed.), Who’s Australia-Whose Australia? Contemporary Politics, Society and Culture in Australia, Trier: WVT, 2005
  
  
• “Populating the North: Forget the Doomsayers” in T.Lea and B. Wilson (eds), The State of the North, Darwin: Charles Darwin University press, 2005.
  
  
• “Financing Public Infrastructure for Urban Development” in Y.C.Sekhar (ed), Urban Infrastructure: An Introduction, Pangjagutta, Hyderabad: ACFAI University Press, 2005, 41-72 (with Peter Abelson and Marion Powall).
  
  
• “Malaysian Education” in DFAT, Malaysia: An Economy Transformed, Canberra: DFAT, 2005 (with Ruth Neumann)
  
  
• Australia’s Population Future: a Position Paper, Melbourne: Business Council of Australia, 2004
  
  
• “Managing People Flows: A New Multilateralism?” Taiwanese Journal of Australian Studies, 5, 2004
  
  
• “Australia’s Population Future” in Ageing: the Implications for Government, Occasional Paper, Melbourne: Institute of Public Administration Australia, 2004, 32-44.
  
  
• National Summit on Housing Affordability: Resource Paper, Canberra: Affordable Housing Consortium, 2004 (with Marion Powall)
  
  
• “Australia’s Population Future” in Ageing –The Implications for Government, Melbourne: Institute of Public Administration of Australia, 2004. 32-44
  
  
• “The Contours of the Debate: Agreements, Disagreements, and the Barriers to a Meaningful Population Policy” in S. Vizard, H.J. Martin, and T. Watts (eds), Australia’s Population Challenge, Camberwell, Vic., Penguin Books, 2003, 257-267.
  
  
• Immigration and the Regions: Taking Regional Australia Seriously, Chifley Research Centre: Sydney, October 2003 (with Marion Powall)
  
  
• Funding Urban Infrastructure, Urban Development Institute of Australia, Sydney, September 2003 (with Peter Abelson and Marion Powall)
  
  
• "Immigration", in I McAllister et al (eds), Australian Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Cambridge University Press, 2003:74-93
  
  
• "The Economics and Regulation of Broadcasting" in R.Towse (ed), The Handbook of Cultural Economics, Edward Elgar, 2003:102-113
  
  
• "Population Issues for Australia" in P. Dawkins and P.Kelly (eds), Hard Heads: Soft Hearts: A New Reform Agenda for Australia, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 2003: 10-12
  
  
• "The Core Issues in Immigration Economics and Policy", Economic Papers, March 2003:13-23
  
  
• Privatisation: The Australian Experience, Melbourne: CEDA, 2003, Margaret Mead and Glenn Withers (editors)

Teaching

Co-ordination, lectures, supervision in the following subjects or programs:

• Economics for Government
• Government, Markets and Global Change
• Growth and Structural Change
• Contemporary Economic Theories for Policy
• Selected Themes in Public Policy
• Managing Government Finances
• People, and Performance in Public Organisations
• Principles of Social Policy
• Decision-Making Under Uncertainty (ANZSOG)
• Government in the Market Economy (ANZSOG)
• Case Studies in Econometrics
• Research Methods/Research Project
•  PHD Program

Contact Details:

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