Professor Sue Richardson

Director

Sue received her Ph D from La Trobe University. Prior to her appointment as Professor of Labour Economics and Director of NILS, she was Associate Professor in the School of Economics at the University of Adelaide. She is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, a member of its Executive and Chair of its Reseach Committee.

Sue's research interests have been chiefly in the fields of labour economics, income distribution and poverty. Together with Dr Peter Travers, she has written extensively on what is meant by the standard of living, how this is measured and what it looks like in Australia. This work culminated in their book, Living Decently, published by Oxford University Press in 1993. More recently, she has published a number of papers on the characteristics and living standards of low wage workers. She edited and contributed to a book on the regulation of the Australian labour market, Reshaping the Labour Market, published by Cambridge University Press in 1999. Her current research is on the resources devoted by our society to the well-being of children.

In addition to her normal academic duties, Sue has held a variety of positions outside and within the University. These include membership of policy committees which have advised Ministers in the Governments of South Australia and the Commonwealth, on technological change and on energy policy. She has also been on the Board of Directors of companies involved in high pressure natural gas transmission pipelines, intellectual property and venture capital. She has been Convener of the Academic Board and a member of the Council and of its Finance Committee at the University of Adelaide and on the Rhodes Scholarship selection committee.

Between 1995 and 1997, Sue was appointed on a half-time basis as Associate Commissioner with the Industry Commission (which was the principal advisor to the Commonwealth Treasurer on strategies for improving the efficiency of the Australian economy, now called the Productivity Commission). In 1997 she spent a year as a Research Fellow at the Research School of Social Sciences of the Australian National University. She has previously been a visiting scholar at Cambridge University, Columbia University and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Sue's current research interests are in:

• Time allocation between paid work and parenting

• The new migrant settlement experience

• Pathways to good jobs

• The employer contribution to the development of job skills

• The retail labour market.

For further information contact:

Professor Sue Richardson
Director
National Institute of Labour Studies
Flinders University
GPO Box 2100
Adelaide SA 5001
Ph: 61 8 8201 2636
Fax: 61 8 8276 9060
Email: Sue.Richardson@flinders.edu.au