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The ethical advantage

The economic and social benefits of ethics to Australia

The Ethics Centre commissioned Deloitte Access Economics to develop a framework to quantify the economic and social benefits of a more ethical Australia.

The ethical advantage: the economic and social benefits of ethics to Australia
10 MB PDF

This report explores the economic case for improving ethics and ethical infrastructure in Australia. The analysis identifies a range of benefits from improving ethics:

  • Individuals would experience higher wages with a 10% improvement in regional measures of ethical behaviour associated with an increase of 2.7% to 6.6% increase in individual wages.
  • Individuals would benefit from improved physical and mental health with a 10% improvement in perceptions of ethical behaviour associated with a 1% improvement in self-reported mental health.
  • Businesses would experience better returns with a one standard deviation improvement in ethical perceptions increasing a business’s return on assets by approximately 7 per cent.
  • At the economy-wide level, if Australia was to improve ethical behaviour to world-leading standards the resulting increase in trust would be expected to increase average annual income per person by approximately $1,800, resulting in a $45 billion increase in GDP.

The report concludes by identifying five key recommendations to improve ethics in Australia:

  • Developing an Ethical Infrastructure Index
  • Elevating public discussions about ethics
  • Strengthening ethics in education
  • Embedding ethics within institutions and
  • Supporting ethics in government and the regulatory framework.

More about the authors

Victoria Whitaker

Deloitte - Australia
Victoria is a Partner in Risk Advisory, and brings over 20 years of expertise in ethics, cultural integrity, and corporate responsibility. Throughout her career, Victoria has helped organisations in Australia and globally understand and address ethical challenges, minimize risks, maintain trust with stakeholders, and reduce social and environmental impacts. Victoria’s consulting and commercial experience has seen her lead cross disciplinary teams predominantly servicing energy & resources, consumer, government and financial services, amongst other sectors.
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John O’Mahony

Deloitte - Australia
John O’Mahony, Partner, BComm (Hons) (USyd) is a Partner at Deloitte Access Economics in Sydney specialising in digital trends, innovation and the public sector. John has previously served as senior economic adviser to two Australian Prime Ministers, where he had specific responsibility for communications, infrastructure and innovation policies. He has also worked for the Australian Financial Review, the NSW Government, and in the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Economics and Business. John is the co-author of Australia’s two best-selling high school economics textbooks, Australia in the Global Economy and The Market Economy.
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