Over the past decade or so, aggregate data suggest a trend increase in housing equity withdrawal in Australia, potentially stimulating household spending. However, there has been little disaggregated information on how equity is being withdrawn and injected, the characteristics of households...

The increase in housing equity withdrawal and coincident decline in aggregate savings rates in a number of countries in recent years is consistent with the consumption-smoothing model of housing equity withdrawal. However, there are a variety of other theoretical models that purport to explain...

One of the lessons from the global financial crisis is that systemic risk to the financial system can arise from outside the regular banking system, in so-called ‘shadow banking’. This article reviews post-crisis international and domestic trends in shadow banking, and regulatory efforts to...

The Australian Government Guarantee Scheme for Large Deposits and Wholesale Funding (the Guarantee Scheme) was announced in October 2008 amid extraordinary developments in the global financial system. Given that funding conditions have subsequently improved significantly, and that a number of...

The global financial crisis prompted a comprehensive international regulatory response, directed through the Group of Twenty (G20). The Reserve Bank and other Council of Financial Regulators (CFR) agencies have been heavily involved in the reform process, including engaging with international...

This paper assesses the OECD’s projections for GDP growth and inflation during the global financial crisis and recovery, focusing on lessons that can be learned. Growth was repeatedly overestimated in the projections, which failed to anticipate the extent of the slowdown and later the weak...

Labour mobility plays a role in allocating workers to suitable jobs and is important in helping the economy adjust to shocks and structural change. But there are also benefits from longer job tenure, and costs associated with workers changing jobs. This article presents some stylised facts about...

This article reviews the empirical evidence on exchange rate pass-through to consumer prices in Australia over the inflation-targeting period. It finds that pass-through is relatively low at the aggregate level but is faster and larger for the prices of manufactured goods, which are often...