Mandala

📄 This week’s #ChartoftheWeek features the findings of a recent IMF paper by Lorenzo Rotunno and Michele Ruta, looking at the Trade Implications of China’s Subsidies, complemented by data sourced from the Global Trade Alert Database.    💡 The research sheds novel light on the impacts of industrial subsidies on a country’s exports. 📦   🇨🇳 Since 2009, China has introduced over 210,000 subsidies on domestic products. This is over 3 times more than the U.S. 🇺🇸, which ranks 2nd with 66,000.   🔍 Comparing Chinese subsidies by product group, the most common product groups to receive these interventions were computing equipment 💻, automobiles 🚗, and chemicals and pharmaceuticals 🧪💊.   📃 The paper also highlights how industrial subsidies can have different effects in different markets. In some instances, subsidies can stimulate aggregate supply, increasing the quantity of exports while reducing prices. In others, subsidies may facilitate ‘quality upgrading’ of goods, resulting in higher prices and higher quantities.    ⚖️ Equally, subsidisation can also promote inefficiencies, particularly in concentrated markets, resulting in higher prices and lower quantities, or retaliatory policies from other countries, resulting in lower prices and lower quantities.    #trade #industrypolicy #subsidies

Mandala welcomes Amy Rieck as an Associate! Amy is passionate about applying mathematical and statistical techniques to support data-driven decision making and to evaluate outcomes of public policy. Prior to joining Mandala, Amy worked at Quantium Health where she helped public sector clients use their data more effectively through her analytical support and expertise. Notably, she worked in the analytics team for the Disability Royal Commission, where her work included the statistical modelling of outcomes of NDIS participants, which was published by the Royal Commission. Amy holds a Masters of Science (with Distinction) in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Melbourne, where her studies focused on the application of game theory to probabilistic games. "I'm stoked to be joining such an incredibly talented team here at Mandala. I'm looking forward to using economic modelling to answer our clients' toughest problems."

🎉 We're excited to share some significant news — Tom McMahon has been promoted to Partner at Mandala. This announcement was first made to our team at the offsite last week, and now we're thrilled to share it with the broader community.   Tom's promotion marks a key milestone for us — not only is it our first partner promotion, but it’s also our tenth promotion since the firm’s inception. It is a testament to his exceptional contributions and leadership across the firm.   In his new role, Tom will further enhance our expertise in critical areas such as economic analysis, superannuation, digital platforms, AI, and quantum computing. His leadership also supports our expansion into Canberra and strengthens our data analytics capabilities.    Beyond these technical areas, Tom brings invaluable expertise in human capital and workforce analysis, which will continue to drive our growth and innovation.   A heartfelt congratulations to Tom on this well-deserved achievement! We look forward to working with him on further elevating Mandala's position as a rapidly growing leader in the field.   Thank you to Consultancy Australia for sharing this exciting news. Read the full article in the link below ⤵

Last week, Mandala hosted our annual offsite, bringing the entire team together for two amazing days in Sydney.   We had the privilege of kicking things off at Customs House with Danny Gilbert sharing his insights from building market-leading law firm Gilbert + Tobin. His journey and approach to building a strong firm culture left us all feeling inspired.   It was also a pleasure to welcome some of our new grads into the fold, and a chance to discuss Mandala's culture, values, and strategy.   From fun team-building activities around Manly to hearing from our firm-building teams – such as recruitment, quality, and brand – it was an enriching experience for all.   We celebrated our inaugural Mandalorian of the Year award, to Jesse Gray for his outstanding work and contribution to the firm.   This offsite was a valuable opportunity for us to connect face-to-face, especially as we continue to grow and collaborate across multiple cities and offices. 

Mandala's Amit Singh was at TAFECreates alongside advisor and social researcher Ashley Fell from McCrindle, and MC and higher education expert Claire Field for a keynote panel on the social, economic and political trends shaping the VET sector.   The panel delved into industry policy, the government's high priority scientific and technological focus areas for economic development and how this influences labour market demand.    Amit shared insights into how AI is changing jobs and tasks, and our findings that within the VET sector, higher-level qualifications are likely to face the most disruption.    TAFECreates is the annual state conference for Victoria’s vocational education and training sector, and the hallmark event in the Victorian TAFE Association (VTA) calendar.   This annual event brings together leadership teams from across Victoria’s TAFE institutes and dual sector universities, government, technology providers, thought leaders, consultants and innovators.

Last week we hosted a breakfast with Amazon Australia launching our latest research on "The Economic Impact of Faster Deliveries" featuring a keynote from Graeme Samuel AC, former ACCC Chair, on innovation and consumer welfare 📦🚚   Mandala's Dr Adam Triggs presented the key findings from the research on how faster deliveries are reshaping Australian retail and boosting the economy.   We then enjoyed an expert panel featuring Jenny Gordon from The Australian National University's POLIS on how faster deliveries intersect with social policy, Hermione Parsons of the Australian Logistics Council on how this changes the outlook for industry, and Madeleine Houghton from the Tech Council of Australia on the critical role of technology in enabling these innovations. The report highlights: 🛒 The $350 million in value delivered to consumers from faster deliveries 💼 $1.8 billion in benefits to businesses  ♿ How faster deliveries particularly help Australians with disabilities  🏙️ The importance of "last mile" infrastructure for sustainable cities Read the report on our website, linked in the comments below ⤵ #amazon #delivers #economic #benefits

A lawyer, a researcher and an economist walked into a bar (well, a university)… what happened next? Tim Gordon from Gilbert + Tobin, Catherine Douglas from CT Group and Mandala's Amit Singh took on the political and economic trends shaping the lead up to the Australian election on Tuesday evening. In a wide-ranging conversation that covered everything from why interest rates are the only game that matters to cost of living to how the election outcomes may inform regulatory activity affecting corporations, we were delighted to collaborate with two leading firms in their respective fields. Amit shared perspectives on what the world might look like after the cost of living crisis, following the recent moves by central banks in Europe, Canada and the UK and the noises from the US Fed Chair following the Jackson Hole symposium that US rate cuts are on the way. The group concurred that while election forecasts this far out can be challenging, the period ahead will be unlike what we've seen before, and that will make for a dynamic economic and policy discussion in Australia. #AustralianElection2025 #EconomicOutlook #PolicyTrends #JacksonHole #CostOfLivingCrisis

In this week's #ChartOfTheWeek, we’ve looked at skills shortages and longer-term labour market trends. ❗Australia has widespread #skills shortages amongst both employers and occupations, which could impact productivity if workers aren’t matched to the appropriate roles or allocated to productive firms. 💼 Alongside persistently low unemployment, Australia has historically low job mobility and high job vacancies, indicating difficulties for businesses in finding new workers. 🛠️ There are particularly shortages amongst Professionals and Trades Workers, with high excess demand and vacancies which aren’t filled. #productivity #employment #skillsshortages #Australianeconomy

Mandala Managing Partner Amit Singh caught up with Dunn Street Founder Stephen Donnelly for the most recent episode of Socially Democratic to discuss the opportunities and challenges facing Australia’s economy.   🎙 Amit spoke about the different narratives attempting to explain the current complexity and uncertainty in the Australian economy: GDP growth is at its weakest since December 2020; at the same time, inflation is going down, wages have slowed since a peak in December last year and unemployment is rising. 🚦 These mixed signals are spurring different views of the economy, with the Treasury’s Budget papers painting a picture of a slightly weaker economy which the Treasurer is trying to stimulate through fiscal policy; while the RBA’s statements focus on inflation, advocating that monetary policy is needed to cool an overheating economy. 🧠 The podcast discussion ranges across the need for a deeper understanding of the components of inflation and for Australia to leverage novel, more frequent data sources to understand how consumers, businesses and prices are changing in the economy.   🎧 Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/gSH83Z2u #podcast #economics

Mandala’s research on the economic opportunity of enhanced digital government services was cited by the Hon Bill Shorten MP, Minister for the NDIS and Minister for Government Services, in his recent address at the National Press Club. At the address, Minister Shorten unveiled a new project in the proof of concept stage: Trust Exchange – or TEx. TEx will be an opt-in system that increases convenience and control, including: 🗃 the ability to issue a verified credential ⌛ the ability to selectively share information 📲 and the ability to prove your identity without sharing any information. Over the next few months Medicare, DVA, and Organ Donor and Concession cards will be added into the proof of concept. “We know that when the tech works, Aussies are fast adopters and love the convenience of online. We do our banking and shopping online, order our food and ride shares, pay for parking, book appointments and do our tax online. And we’d prefer to organise our government services online. Research by tech think tank, Mandala, shows that 90% of Australians surveyed prefer to interact with government on a digital platform. In aggregate, this means millions of hours of time saved to the end of the decade.” #productivity #digitalgovtservices #trustexchange https://lnkd.in/gv559Jnd