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
War on empathy; war on confidence; war on context Tuesday April 16, 2019 By Nicholas Gruen Culture Evidence-based policy may be the flavour of the moment, but how does it account for the intrinsic human needs for empathy, confidence, and context?… Read more
Paul Krugman’s incredible invisibility trick Monday April 1, 2019 By Nicholas Gruen Features Paul Krugman keeps reporting that economists ignored things that were kind of obvious. Well, that’s in hindsight. But everyone’s wise in hindsight. Read more
We know WHAT we need to do. Will someone tell us HOW? Thursday March 21, 2019 By Nicholas Gruen Features When policy problems are complex, we need to understand and learn from the front line. Nicholas Gruen explains ways to improve the early, middle and… Read more
Was Adam Smith a feminist economist? Care—the essay Tuesday March 19, 2019 By Nicholas Gruen Community & Social Our culture is awash with abstraction, universalism and instrumentalism, and as such is desperately in need of balancing with precisely the kind of thing that… Read more
What economic reform thinking might have looked like – if we’d bothered to do it Friday March 8, 2019 By Martin Wolf & Nicholas Gruen Economy & Industry This is a transcript, albeit a bit rough, of a discussion between famed UK economist and Financial Times journalist Martin Wolf and Australian economist and… Read more
When a conversation is not a conversation: party political discourse in the early 21st century Tuesday February 19, 2019 By Nicholas Gruen Editors' Picks Democracy is not a product. It is, as Aristotle reminds us, a system in which everyone takes turn in governing and being governed. Read more
We’re awarding the Order of Australia to the wrong people Friday January 25, 2019 By Nicholas Gruen Editors' Picks Many will get awarded on Australia Day for little more than doing their job. And the higher the job’s status, the higher the award. Read more
What is a ‘policy hack’? Wednesday January 23, 2019 By Nicholas Gruen Editors' Picks New ways of looking at our complex world can lead to policy hacks with clear and easily identifiable benefits. But do they stand apart from… Read more
Citizens’ chambers: towards an activism of selection by lot Wednesday December 5, 2018 By Nicholas Gruen Editors' Picks Sortition would address the yawning deliberative deficit and weaken many of the pathways by which polarisation, cronyism and party influence occurs, says Nicholas Gruen. In… Read more
Towards a new professionalism Monday November 26, 2018 By Nicholas Gruen Editors' Picks An evaluator-general should lead a renewed focus on understanding the impact of government programs, independent of their delivery and insulated from the demand for appropriate… Read more
The case for an evaluator-general: why we need it and how we should configure it Wednesday November 21, 2018 By Nicholas Gruen Economy & Industry The APS Review has been considering what role evaluation of public programs will have in its findings. Australia’s leading evaluator-general proponent, Dr Nicholas Gruen, on… Read more
Making better economic forecasts Thursday November 1, 2018 By Nicholas Gruen Editors' Picks Dr Nicholas Gruen examines how we can attempt to forecast the likelihood of important changes in our economic trajectory. Read more
Monetary policy settings: hawks, doves and the seat of the pants Thursday September 20, 2018 By Nicholas Gruen Economy & Industry If higher interest rates now will lower the risk of financial instability later, how much will they lower it, what are the benefits of so… Read more
Competitive neutrality: Camels, pinballs, tilted playing fields and five minute arguments … Wednesday August 15, 2018 By Nicholas Gruen Economy & Industry Former Productivity Commission member Nicholas Gruen says the debate over giving citizens access to government super is getting the five-minute argument, and it's still too… Read more
What’s the beef with Krugman? Gruen on the disciplinary incentives of economics Thursday July 5, 2018 By Nicholas Gruen Editors' Picks Nicholas Gruen gets to the nub of his beef with Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman. Read more
