Some of the hypotheses regarding the role of institutions in long-run growth which have recently been advanced in the growth and history literatures imply that, given its initial conditions, Australia in the nineteenth century should have acquired quite different economic (and political)...

This paper presents estimates of the financial returns to the graduate, to the Treasury and to the Australian economy from undergraduate education. In addition, the paper indulges in some speculations about the efficiency of the policy changes.

This paper re-examines criticisms made of vertical fiscal imbalance in Australian and other federations. We argue that one of the central criticisms made of vertical fiscal imbalance is unproven. Vertical fiscal imbalance occurs when the central government collects more taxes than it spends on...

The current economic crisis has taught another generation of Australians that their economy remains vulnerable to negative external shocks, as it has been since the depression of the early 1840s. So it is unsurprising that shocks and crises figure prominently in the economic history literature,...

This paper compares an Australia-New Zealand currency union to a purely fl oating exchange rate regime in the context of a structural, two-country open economy model. Micro-foundations support policy assessment by facilitating direct calculation of household welfare. Analysis focuses on changing...