We estimate small open economy models with involuntary unemployment using Australian data from 1993 to 2007, focusing on hiring costs and real wage rigidity. We find a strong preference for models with hiring costs, which account for 0.97% of GDP. The data favour models with real over nominal...

We find evidence for asymmetric behaviour in Australian monetary policy. During 1984-1990, the Reserve Bank of Australia acted with considerable discretion yielding poor performance of an interest rate rule. However it behaved asymmetrically to inflation and the output gap in downturns and...

Using a model of intertemporally optimizing households, this paper establishes that fiscal policy needs to be endogenous to preempt instability if one wishes to permit any combination of money and debt finance. Conservative governments enforce a greater margin of preemption than liberal...

This paper examines the implications of terms of trade vulnerability for a perfectly competitive, small open economy with incomplete risk markets. Conditions are obtained for which an improvement in the mean terms of trade raises welfare and for which an increase in the variance of the terms of...

It is generally believed that, in the absence of retaliation, a country can enhance its welfare by dumping its product on another country. Antidumping policies, in the form of countervailing duties, are usually introduced by the dumped-upon countries. In this paper, the authors show that it may...