The retreat from public ownership of service firms and industries has left behind numerous private monopolies and oligopolies supervised by regulatory agencies. Services industries in government and private ownership generate two-thirds of Australia's value added and employ three quarters of its...

China’s industrial reforms have left many key industries dominated by single or small numbers of firms, most of which remain state owned. Until recently, these firms have not been required to pay dividends to the state and the recent surge in China’s growth has made them very profitable,...

Are global temperatures on a warming trend? It is difficult to be certain about trends when there is so much variation in the data and very high correlation from year to year. We investigate the question using statistical time series methods. Our analysis shows that the upward movement over the...

This paper initiates discussion about the contribution of Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth to Indonesia’s long-term economic growth. It presents new time series estimates of GDP, capital stock and education-adjusted employment, and offers a growth accounting approach that estimates the...

With exports almost half of its GDP and most of these directed to Europe and North America, negative financial shocks in those regions might be expected to retard China's growth. Yet mitigating factors include the temporary flight of North American and European savings into Chinese investment...

Poor developing countries, faced with high levels of covariant risk ideally should spread this risk into the international risk market. How might this best be done - given that through diversification this market will tend to gain from absorbing this risk? Conglomerates of intermediate financial...

We study optimal capital taxation under limited commitment. We prove that the optimal tax rate on capital income should be positive in steady state provided that full risk-sharing is not feasible. In a limited commitment environment, a one unit increase of capital investment by an agent...

Australia’s relationship with Indonesia became strained after Indonesia’s declaration in 1963 of confrontation’ (konfrontasi) with Malaysia. During 1964-65, Australia was engaged in a covert war against Indonesia, but it continued to give aid to the country. This ambiguity in Australian...

This paper considers the private and public incentives for firms to merge in the face of foreign entry. We set up a standard linear Cournot model of competition within a country and consider the gains to two merging firms and to national welfare in a series of scenarios: homogeneous and...

International pressure to revalue China’s currency stems in part from the expectation that rapid economic growth should be associated with a real exchange rate appreciation. This hinges on the Balassa-Samuelson hypothesis under which economic growth, stemming from improvements in traded sector...