About the author Nicholas Gruen is CEO of Lateral Economics. He's an economist, a consultant, a commentator and a former adviser to the federal government. Follow Nicholas Gruen
Opinion: How culture war is destroying public reason Monday November 16, 2020 By Nicholas Gruen Editors' Picks Here we go again. One is at liberty to do things that don’t harm others, and during a pandemic one’s social distancing is precisely and…
Premium Insights and analysis From Trump to eternity: The fate of the political arts in the modern world Wednesday October 28, 2020 By Nicholas Gruen Editors' Picks The business person’s focus on profit, the sportsperson’s competitive intensity, and the politician’s capacity to perform are internal goods that are most closely associated with…
Premium Columnists Non-linearities, risk, policy and administration of our COVID management Tuesday July 21, 2020 By Nicholas Gruen Editors' Picks The PM is again dichotomising the economy and health. The trade-offs are probably illusory, particularly considering the cherry-picking of risks and the fat-tailed non-linear likelihood…
Evaluation is not a ‘thing’ – it’s an ongoing state of mind Friday July 10, 2020 By Nicholas Gruen Editors' Picks Expanding on in his Evaluator General theory, lateral thinking economist Nicholas Gruen suggests we look at evaluation in a completely new light. Because the idea I…
Premium Insights and analysis What works: getting to the land of ‘how’ – part 3 Friday July 3, 2020 By Nicholas Gruen Editors' Picks For as long as we continue to characterise what we’re trying to achieve with a name as amorphous as an ‘innovation agenda’, it’s hard to…
Premium Insights and analysis What works: getting to the land of ‘how’ – part 2 Wednesday July 1, 2020 By Nicholas Gruen Thought Leadership In this second installment of his three-part series, economist and forward thinker Nicholas Gruen explains more of why it is so important to understand the…
Premium Expert briefings What works: getting to the land of ‘how’ – part 1 Wednesday July 1, 2020 By Nicholas Gruen Features Government leaders understanding what they need to do when faced with impending issues is one thing. But here, in the first of a three-part series,…
Opinion: What things shouldn’t we be wasting this crisis on? Monday March 30, 2020 By Nicholas Gruen Economy & Industry Nicholas Gruen brainstorms a series of governance opportunities presented by the COVID-19 virus, and encourages a national 'knowledge commons' for ideas we should be leaping…
Opinion: PANIC IS OUR FRIEND! Tuesday March 24, 2020 By Nicholas Gruen Features The government could show the public their health and economic interests are being taken into account by committing to releasing an independent report on the…
Whitlam didn’t really end our old honours system. We’re still handing Orders of Australia to the wrong people Monday February 10, 2020 By Nicholas Gruen Features We think of Gough Whitlam’s Government as the most radical in our post-war history, dedicated to its leader’s ‘crash through or crash’ style. (In the…
Academia: from inefficient effectiveness to efficient ineffectiveness Friday January 31, 2020 By Nicholas Gruen Features If, as I think, academia has gone from being inefficient but effective to being efficient but ineffective (a proposition I won’t defend here), the mechanism…
Pedantry is not its own reward: it’s certainly not ours! Friday December 6, 2019 By Nicholas Gruen Editors' Picks Pedantry is alluring. Especially if one gets some aesthetic satisfaction from the way words are used.
Market prices, opportunity costs, and all the other realities a society has to deal with. Notes on 'Economics in Two Lessons' Friday July 26, 2019 By Nicholas Gruen Economy & Industry John Quiggin's new book, 'Economics in Two Lessons', is a general introduction to economics for the interested public. Here is the speech Nicholas Gruen delivered…
Market – what market? The catch 22 at the heart of innovation in government Tuesday July 23, 2019 By Nicholas Gruen Career Advice There is a huge catch 22 driving impact measurement in human services. A lot of the evaluation is done because governments seek it, but then…
Accountability: from above and below Wednesday June 26, 2019 By Nicholas Gruen Editors' Picks The buck stops with you and the problems start with you: Are you after accountability or accountability theatre?…
