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Monthly Archives: October 2016

A CETA for Australia? – Hein Roelfsema

This week in Bratislava the EU Council will decide the on the the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada. In contrast to TTIP between the EU and US, CETA is a done deal pending approval of regional parliament in Wallonia. The negotiation process so far has been unusually swift for EU standards. Given […]

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View the 2016 Harcourt Lecture presented by Professor David Vines

There was a great turnout for the 2016 Harcourt Lecture hosted by the School of Economics, with many braving the weather to hear from Professor David Vines from the University of Oxford. Professor Vines gave a special lecture on ‘Individuals, Institutions and Ideas: Australia’s Macroeconomic Policy-making System from Federation to 2020. Watch the full video […]

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Nobel Prize in Economic Science awarded to Oliver Hart of Harvard University and Bengt Holmström of MIT

This year’s Nobel Prize in Economic Science was awarded to Oliver Hart of Harvard University and Bengt Holmström of MIT for their contributions to contract theory. Contracts play an important role in many economic relationships between employers and employees, firms and consumers, and etc. Contract theory studies the optimal way to design contracts to ensure that both parties take mutually beneficial decisions when they have different interests. Holmström’s theories in the […]

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Benefits of free trade and better FTA governance – Paul Kerin on Alan Jones

Paul Kerin appeared on Alan Jones’ radio program yesterday making the case for free trade and the need to improve governance arrangements that would help ensure that future Free Trade Agreements deliver more of the considerable benefits that are potentially available. This follows on from the article that 7 leading economists (including former Industries Assistance […]

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The looming downside of household leverage – Mike Fitzsimmons & Paul Kerin

Today’s Australian contains a piece by Mike Fitzsimmons and Paul Kerin. The authors note the substantial increase is household leverage over the last quarter of a century, particularly the rise  (more than tripling) of household debt relative to cash disposable income. While this may in part be a good thing (reflecting better credit access in […]

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Showing the benefits of Europe – Hein Roelfsema

There is an atmosphere of cautious waiting in the Brussels air. Major elections to come in France, Germany, as well as here in the Netherlands. But already some very worrying first drops start to come down. A very undecided ‘State of the Union’ speech by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker succeeded in the goal of […]

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