As in all the other major economies, China’s macroeconomic policy framework was put to the test during the global financial crisis. China applied one of the world’s largest stimulus packages. The package provided a very rapid boost to activity in the Chinese economy, with empirical evidence...

Against the backdrop of the global economic crisis, this paper reviews the recent application of monetary and exchange rate policies for a group of Pacific island countries that have their own currencies. These countries are Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu.

Labour supply elasticities measure the responsiveness of individuals' labour supply to changes in variables such as the net wage rate (after consideration of tax and transfers) or net non labour income. Elasticities have been estimated in Australia and internationally using a range of modelling...

This document estimates a demand equation for petrol in Australia. It explores a methodological improvement to the standard dynamic demand model – a more general model which allows for slowly evolving, unobservable habits. If this habit formation model with unobserved stocks is correct, then...

While previous terms of trade booms have tended to be short lived, there are reasons to believe that the current boom could be more enduring. This paper considers the implications for the Australian economy in the event that recent rises in the terms of trade are sustained, with a focus on...

The public vocational education and training (VET) system is now one of the few areas in Australia's tertiary education system where students are required to pay up-front fees without access to loan assistance. These arrangements may lead to sub-optimal educational outcomes to the extent that...

The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund and the President of the World Bank are appointed under a 60 year old unwritten convention that the Managing Director is nominated by the countries of Western Europe while the President is nominated by the United States. All ten Bank...

Productivity trends greatly influence the future size of an economy, its ability to meet the challenges of an ageing population, and the setting of both fiscal and monetary policies. This paper estimates trend growth in productivity (GDP per hour worked) in Australia since the late 1970s....

A little-remarked aspect of the widening of United States trade and current account deficits since the late 1990s has been their limited effect on United States net foreign liabilities and, especially, net income. This has been possible because the United States has enjoyed both higher yields...