How have views on Australia's current account deficit evolved over the past two decades? What factors have shaped and altered policy and market perceptions of the current account? This paper examines these questions within the framework of the intellectual underpinnings of the debate on the...

The purpose of this paper is to quantify the efficiency with which Australian universities utilise their teaching resources. The study estimates the cost efficiency of 36 universities over the period 1995-2002 using stochastic frontier analysis. The present study differs from previous cost and...

This paper examines and dissects ten popular "suspect" conjectures about exchange rates. The conjectures are the following: (1) Economists know what determines the exchange rate (2) Flexible exchange rates are unstable due to destabilising speculation (3) Flexible exchange rates are excessively...

This paper examines and assesses the Report of the Senate Select Committee on Superannuation and Standards of Living in Retirement of an inquiry into “the adequacy of the tax arrangements for superannuation ad related policy to address the retirement income and aged and health care needs of...

This paper examines external adjustment in the United States, Japan and Germany from the perspective of net foreign asset positions. It asks two questions: What are, in the long run, the determinants of net foreign asset equilibrium? and: What are, in the short run, some of the adjustment...

This paper assesses the usefulness of summary measures of fiscal sustainability for the purpose of multilateral surveillance. An overview of the main conceptual issues is first presented. Next, an assessment is made of the strengths and weaknesses of the summary measures in the context of their...