Australia's PSWPS: Development impacts in the first two years

Abstract

This research note presents an analysis of the development impacts of Australia's Pacific Seasonal Worker Pilot Scheme. We estimate the gain per participating household to be approximately A$2600, which is a 39% increase in per-capita annual income in participating households. The aggregate impact to date is small, but the experience of New Zealand's larger programme shows that seasonal worker programmes can potentially have large aggregate effects.