The purpose of this paper is to use a large data set comprising individual’s responses to survey questions about future economic conditions, unemployment and prices to explore lay people’s models of the economy and specifically their understanding of the relationship between unemployment and...

In this paper we look at the way in which the ABS derives gross flows data from successive Labour Force Surveys. The procedure used by the ABS is described and a measure of the 'matching rate' obtained. We develop a simple theoretical model designed to explore the relationship between the Labour...

A time-varying Phillips curve was estimated as a means to examine the changing nature of the relationship between wage inflation and the unemployment rate in Australia. The implied time-varying equilibrium unemployment rate was generated and the analysis showed the important role played by...

The Lorenz curve relates the cumulative proportion of income to the cumulative proportion of population. When a particular functional form of the Lorenz curve is specified it is typically estimated by linear or nonlinear least squares, estimation techniques that have good properties when the...

The conventional formula for estimating the extended Gini coefficient is a covariance formula provided by Lerman and Yitzhaki (1989). We suggest an alternative estimator obtained by approximating the Lorenz curve by a series of linear segments. In a Monte Carlo experiment designed to assess the...

A social accounting matrix is a framework for organising information about income, expenditure and financial flows in the economy. This paper describes a methodology for compiling such a matrix for the Australian economy as it existed in 1996-97. It distinguishes between five institutions,...

A general parametric framework is developed for pricing S&P500 options. Skewness and leptokurtosis in stock returns as well as time-varying volatility are priced. The parametric pricing model nests the Black-Scholes model and can explain volatility smiles and skews in stock options. The data...

This paper examines the role of interest rate policy in a small open economy subject to terms of trade shocks and time-varying currency risk responding to domestic exchange rate volatility. The private sector makes optimal decisions in an intertemporal non-linear setting with...

This paper is concerned with the relationship between the interest rate smoothing behavior of a central bank and the variability of inflation and output. The issue is analyzed through the lens of a small open economy dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with nontraded goods price...