The Australian age pension is somewhat unusual among developed countries in that it is means tested against both the claimant's income and assets. While means testing of age pensions facilitates the aims of directing public pensions to those senior individuals most in need and of containing...

Tax concessions are a common feature of private pension pillars around the world. Most countries exempt pension fund earnings from any taxation but tax either benefits (EET regime) or contributions (TEE regime) progressively as regular private income. By contrast, Australia's superannuation...

In this paper we investigate the macroeconomic and welfare effects of the major changes of the mandatory superannuation reform proposed in the 2010-11 Australian federal budget. These changes include gradual increases in the mandatory employer contributions from 9 to 12 percent of gross earnings...

Trade Theory, Analytical Models and Development, comprises 11 essays offering new contributions on the following topics: trade and wages; factor endowments, factor mobility and political economy of trade; optimality of tariffs; measurement of welfare; customs union theory; endogenous mergers and...

Inclusion of means testing into age pension programs allows governments to better direct benefits to those most in need and to control funding costs by providing flexibility to control the participation rate (extensive margin) and the benefit level (intensive margin). The former is aimed at...

This paper analyzes a game of trade policy (called Bilateralism) between three countries in which each country chooses whether to liberalize trade preferentially in the form of a Customs Union (CU), multilaterally, or not at all. We also analyze a restricted version of this game (called...

It is generally accepted that the Australian economy is continually subject to unanticipated shocks, particularly, unexpected swings in the prices of Australia's internationally- traded goods. This article empirically investigates the nature and extent of volatility in import and export prices...

This paper provides a selective review of the interaction between international trade, international trade policies, environmental policies and climate change. The focus is on the role that international trade and the existence of countries have on the generation of emissions leading to...