Steven Hamilton
Steven Hamilton is assistant professor of economics at George Washington University and visiting fellow at the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute at the ANU.
Opinion
Interest rates
While the RBA nudges the brake, a reckless government pumps the accelerator
And we shouldn’t be so naive as to think the two simply cancel out. Indeed, pushed to the limit, either the brakes burn out or the engine explodes.
- by Steven Hamilton
Latest
Opinion
Nuclear energy
Nuclear is OK if it makes economic sense. But Mr Dutton, in Australia, it doesn’t
Australians would pay the highest carbon price in the world if the opposition’s plan to transform our energy system around nuclear is adopted.
- by Steven Hamilton and Luke Heeney
Opinion
Tax cuts
Why millions of Australians should forgive Albanese’s broken promise
If you can enact a tax reform that improves both equality and efficiency, you must be doing something right.
- by Steven Hamilton
Opinion
Income tax
Stage 3 tax cuts are no big deal, with one exception
There’s no doubt stage 3 tax cuts are skewed towards higher income earners. But some context is needed.
- by Steven Hamilton
Opinion
Immigration
Look at the evidence: Cutting immigration would be a mistake for Australia
Fearmongering about migration is, variously, misguided, premised on faulty logic or straight-up wrong.
- by Steven Hamilton and Ryan Edwards
Opinion
Australian economy
Treasurer’s essay is an incoherent assortment of kumbaya capitalist thought bubbles
I don’t recall ever having read so many words – almost 6000 – that contained so little. No clear proposition, no coherent framework, no tangible plan of action.
- by Steven Hamilton
Opinion
Interest rates
The last thing Philip Lowe is owed is your sympathy. Or my kid gloves
Normally meticulous in avoiding the limelight, RBA Governor Philip Lowe has found himself a deer in the headlights. And, despite suggestions to the contrary, much of it is of his own making.
- by Steven Hamilton
Opinion
Income tax
Redesign stage three tax cuts to better balance equity and efficiency
The cuts, as they stand, are unfair and difficult to defend. But with tweaks, the government can make them more equitable, and politically palatable.
- by Steven Hamilton
Unions in time warp with a jobs plan that ignores hard economic lessons
Far from helping, the proposed measures in fact hurt the interests of working people.
- by Steven Hamilton
Opinion
Tax reform
To achieve valid reform, we must know what works
Evaluating data is the new frontier of economic reform. But politicians may have to be open to hearing, and acting on, uncomfortable truths.
- by Steven Hamilton
Opinion
First-home buyers
Super scheme won’t wreck the housing market, but won’t fix it either
There’s no meaningful difference in retirement between holding $50,000 of equity in a home or in super. Given the home is exempt from the pension assets test and is untaxed, it could be the better choice.
- by Steven Hamilton