Research Discussion Paper – RDP 2007-02 Current Account Deficits: The Australian Debate

Contents

• Introduction
• The History of Australia's Current Account
• The Australian Policy Debate
• Optimality and Sustainability: An Empirical Assessment
• Current Account Deficits and External Vulnerability
• Conclusion
• Appendix A: Testing the Intertemporal Model
• Appendix B: Data
• References

This paper was presented at the Tenth Annual Conference of the Central Bank of Chile, ‘Current Account and External Financing’, in Santiago, Chile, 9–10 November 2006. The authors are grateful for helpful comments and suggestions from conference participants as well as Chris Becker, Guy Debelle, Ric Deverell, Malcolm Edey, Chay Fisher, Jonathan Kearns, Marion Kohler, Kristoffer Nimark, Carl Schwartz, David Vines and Luke Willard. Any remaining errors are our own. The views expressed are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Reserve Bank of Australia.