ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods deputy director Dr Nicholas Biddle is presenting a lunchtime seminar on the new economics of wellbeing and the implications for Indigenous policy, the RBA office, 65 Martin Place, Sydney, from 12.15pm on Friday 19 February.

There are few more intractable policy problems in Australia than improving the relative socioeconomic position of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Numerous government and academic reports document the large and persistent gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in a range of outcomes, with those gaps often widening through time, rather than closing. One area of research that has the potential to contribute to improved Indigenous policy is a better understanding of the causes of subjective wellbeing, and the effect that variation in subjective wellbeing has on the decisions and behaviour of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. This presentation will begin with a summary of the economics of wellbeing. Published and new research on Indigenous wellbeing will then be presented, followed by a discussion of the implications for policy and the State/Territory, Commonwealth and community level.

More details and registration are available from the Economic Society of Australia (NSW) website.