Older CoPS news

This page contains past news items. More recent news is here.

May 2015

• Ken Pearson, creator of GEMPACK, died May 12, 2015. More details here.

May 2014

• Climate change modelling by CoPS (with CSIRO) supports Australia's contribution to the 2050 Deep Decarbonisation Pathways Project (DDPP), coordinated by the United Nations. The project will map out possible strategies for dramatic emissions cuts, while maintaining economic prosperity. More details here.

February 2014

• February 1st: CoPS moves to Victoria University.

December 2013

• CoPS Christmas party, just prior to the move to Victoria University (right-click to view larger).

• At right above, four directors of CoPS/Impact: Professors Dixon, Powell, Giesecke and Adams.

May 2013

• CoPS congratulates Drs. Ju-Ai Ng and Peter Mavromatis, recent PhD graduands. Ju-Ai used a dynamic CGE model to investigate Wage Inequality and Employment in Malaysia, while Peter undertook forecast performance validation for the very large and detailed US-ITC model.

April 2013

• Dr George Verikios on a new study examining the impact of chronic disease on the national economy estimates that Australia could add billions to its real GDP by improving the health of its oldest workers. Article appears on Australian Aging Agenda.
• Professor James Giesecke and Professor John Madden said disparate economic growth rates had been apparent for decades and that long-running structural changes were as important as the effect of the mining boom in the fortunes of states like South Australia. Article appears on Crikey.com.au.

December 2012

• Centre of Policy Studies to host National Computable General Equilibrium Modelling Workshop.
  
  Centre of Policy Studies will host the fifth National CGE modelling workshop in 2013. CoPS staff and students last month attended the fourth National CGE modelling workshop hosted by the Productivity Commission in Canberra.
  
  CGE modelling is now in high demand by many federal and state government departments. CoPS plays a major role, not only in providing analysis along with many private consultancies, but as world leaders in the development of CGE theory, databases and software. Since its inception in Australia as a tool to study tariff reform in the 1970s, CGE analysis at CoPS has been turned to a broad range of topics in many countries. Examples are the impact of the Obama export initiative on the US economy, the impact of immigration reform in the US, the impact of Australia's carbon tax, and the impact of major infrastructure projects including new dams for urban water supply.
  
  More than half of the presenters at the Canberra workshop were staff or students from CoPS. They presented on a diverse range of topics including software and database development. Practical applications covered many important topics such as CO2 emissions in China, the Murray Darling Basin Plan, new research on the link between health and labour supply, policy reform in Vietnam and The Philippines, and deforestation in the Amazon.
  
  Previous workshops have been hosted by ABARES, the Federal Treasury and the Attorney General's Department. .
  
  

August 2012

• Registration for the 2012 USAGE course is now open Registration form.
• Monash News reports on the Global demand for CoPS expertise.
• John Madden was interviewed by The Conversation and SBS on the economic legacy of hosting the Olympic Games Video link
• CoPS congratulates Dr. Louise Roos, recent PhD graduand. Her thesis described her dynamic model of South Africa.

July 2012

• Just released: a new roundup of recent CoPS projects, spanning 5 continents and covering a wide range of topics: from unauthorized immigration in the USA, through Murray-Darling water buybacks, to effects of the H1N1 influenza epidemic:
  Exciting research at CoPS since 2007: thirty vignettes.
• Working Paper No. G-226 Construction and updating of a Ugandan CGE database, by Louise Roos, Philip Adams and Jan van Heerden (abstract and download) is now available.
• Working Paper No. G-227 PHILGEM: A SAM-based computable general equilibrium model of the Philippines, by Erwin Corong and Mark Horridge (abstract and download) is now available.
• A CoPS study concludes that 8 million U.S. jobs are supported by trade and investment with Canada.
• Book published by Springer: "Economic Modeling of Water: The Australian CGE Experience", Edited by Glyn Wittwer.
  The book focuses on the application on a specially-adapted dynamic version of the TERM model to Australian drought problems and water-management policies.
• Professor Paresh Narayan, formerly a CoPS Phd student, has been honoured by Deakin University.
• Research by Drs James Giesecke and Tran Hoang Nhi on the value-added tax system of Vietnam has been reported in Monash News (Monash News Link).
• Working Paper No. G-221 Labour Market Reform, Rural Migration and Income Inequality in China - A Dynamic General Equilibrium Analysis, by Yinhua Mai and Xiujian Peng (abstract and download) is now available.
  
• Working Paper No. G-230 Microeconomic Reform and Income Distribution: The case of Australian Ports and Rail Freight Industries, by George Verikios and Xiao-guang Zhang (abstract and download) is now available.
• Professor Philip Adams, Dr Janine Dixon and Professor Peter Dixon, Centre of Policy Studies and IMPACT Project, on the carbon tax. Corporate Risk & Insurance link
• Professor John Madden and Dr James Giesecke, comment on the economic benefits to London, if any, in hosting the Olympic Games. Business Spectator link
• Dr James Giesecke and Professor John Madden, estimated the Sydney Olympics generated a loss to private and public consumption of $2.1 billion in present value terms. Canberra Times, The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, WA Today, National Times, Brisbane Times link
• A study to see if the economic costs outweighs the benefits of hosting an Olympic Games by John Madden and James Giesecke appears in The Conversation link
• An article by Philip Adams, Janine Dixon and Peter Dixon has been published on The Conversation link

June 2012

• An article on irrigation infrastructure upgrades in the Murray Darling Basin by Drs Wittwer and Dixon has appeared in the Weekly Times link
• A new study by Centre of Policy Studies found water buybacks were a far more cost effective method of restoring environmental flows than infrastructure upgrades. Adelaide Advertiser, Adelaide Now link

July 2011 - February 2012

• Working Paper No. G-223 MMRF: Monash Multi-Regional Forecasting Model: A Dynamic Multi-Regional Model of the Australian Economy, by Philip Adams, Janine Dixon, James Giesecke and Mark Horridge (abstract and download) is now available.
  
• Working Paper No. G-224 The Global Economic Effects of Pandemic Influenza, by George Verikios, Maura Sullivan, Pane Stojanovski, James Giesecke and Gordon Woo (abstract and download) is now available.
  
• Professor Peter Dixon comments on the Carbon Tax. Indaily's Blog link
• Working Paper No. G-222 Water trading, buybacks and drought in the Murray-Darling basin: lessons from economic modelling, by Glyn Wittwer and Peter Dixon (abstract and download) is now available.
  

June 2011

• The Centre of Policy Studies congratulates Marc Mariano who has been awarded the prestigious 2011 Donald Cochrane Postgraduate Research Scholarship. Marc was one of 3 students to receive this award. The scholarship certificate was presented by Prof Stephen King and Dr Fiona Cochrane and the address made by Dr Andrew Cochrane.
  

May 2011

• Professor Peter Dixon delivered the May 12, 2011 Graduation Address at Monash University (address) is now available.
  

March 2011

• Working Paper No. G-214 Solution Software for CGE Modeling, by Mark Horridge and Ken Pearson (abstract and download) is now available.
  

February 2011

• A study by Professor Peter Dixon, Professor Maureen Rimmer and Dr Glyn Wittwer on the Federal Government water buybacks has been cited in The Age link, Queensland Country Life link, as well as Stock & Land link 23 February 2011.
  
• Professor Peter Dixon comments on the strong Australian dollar and international tourism in the Sunday Herald Sun, 13 February 2011. link
  

January 2011

• Working Paper No. G-213 The Distributional Effects of the Hilmer Reforms on the Australian Gas Industry, by George Verikios and Xiao-guang Zhang (abstract and download) is now available.
  

December 2010

• Interview with Glyn Wittwer, on ABC Riverland SA (Renmark) Rural Report - 17/12/2010 6:35 AM with Natalie Oliveri. Dr Wittwer was commenting on water policy for the Murray-Darling Basin.
  

November 2010

• Working Paper No. G-212 H1N1 influenza in Australia and its macroeconomic effects, by George Verikios, James McCaw, Jodie McVernon and Anthony Harris (abstract and download) is now available.
  
• Working Paper No. G-211 The regional economic consequences of Less Favoured Area support: a spatial general equilibrium analysis of the Polish LFA program, by James Giesecke, Mark Horridge and Katarzyna Zawalinska (abstract and download) is now available.
  
• A report by Glyn Wittwer on The Regional Economic Impacts of Sustainable Diversion Limits, appears in the Financial Review, 30 November 2010 Jobs dried up in drought. The full report can be found at the following link
  

October 2010

• Working Paper No. G-210 NIAM: National Integrated Assessment Model - Proof-of-concept development and application, by Kevin Hanslow (abstract and download) is now available.
  

September 2010

• A 2007 study by the Centre of Policy Studies on the economic effects of the 2000 Sydney Olympic games features in an online article on New Delhi Television (link), as well as on the ABC's The Drum website (link)
  
• Working Paper No. G-207 Structural Change in the Australian Electricity Industry During the 1990s and the Effect on Household Income Distribution, by George Verikios and Xiao-guang Zhang (abstract and download) is now available.
  
• Working Paper No. G-206 A General Framework for Measuring VAT Compliance Rates, by J.A Giesecke and Tran Hoang Nhi (abstract and download) is now available.
  
• Working Paper No. G-204 The Economic Costs of US Stock Mispricing, by G. Menzies, R. Bird, P. Dixon and M. Rimmer (abstract and download) is now available.
  

August 2010

• The Centre has recently appointed Kevin Hanslow as a full-time member of its research staff. Kevin has previously worked at the Centre of International Economics (CIE), the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) and the Productivity Commission (PC).
  
  Kevin has wide ranging experience in the development and application of computable general equilibrium models to evaluate the economic impacts of trade and investment agreements and of policies deigned to induce greenhouse gas abatement in Australia and globally. At ABARE Kevin was the chief developer of their CGE modeling capacity. At the PC he undertook analysis of the global and partial liberalization of services trade, building a special purpose model - FTAP - for that project. At the CIE, Kevin has been responsible for the adaptation and application of the GTAP model (with associated updating and adjustment of the model's database) to the analysis of various free trade agreements, and for the implementation of CIE-GCubed, the CIE's own adaptation of the GCubed model.
  

July 2010

• 50 year celebration of CGE modelling
  Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) modelling, the field in which the Centre of Policy Studies (CoPS) specializes, is 50 years old. It started with the publication in 1960 of Leif Johansen's model of Norway. To celebrate this milestone the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters held a symposium in Oslo with presentations by leading CGE modellers from around the world. Peter Dixon, Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor at CoPS, presented his paper (co-authored with Professor Maureen Rimmer) entitled: Johansen's contribution to CGE modelling: originator and guiding light for 50 years
  
  The paper describes how Johansen's ideas took root in Australia, starting in the 1970s, through the work of Dixon and his colleagues at the IMPACT Project and later at CoPS. From Australia Johansen-style CGE modelling has spread to the rest of the world. Today, thousands of economists from nearly every country are undertaking this type of modelling to elucidate policy questions in trade, taxation, environment, labour markets, immigration, income distribution, technology, resources, micro-economic reform and macro stabilization. This paper is now available as Working Paper No. G-203 (abstract and download) is now available.
  
  

June 2010

• Mark Horridge and Philip Adams attended the 2010 International Conference of the International Association for Energy Economics, June 6-10, Rio de Janeiro. Philip presented a paper examining the economic impacts of the Treasury's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), based on modelling undertaken for the Treasury. The paper concluded that the scheme was justified on economic grounds, arguing that the scheme should not be seen as a pure tax but more like an insurance policy.
  On 14 June, Mark and Philip participated in an International Workshop on CGE Modeling and Climate Change, coordinated by Eduardo Haddad and Jacques Marcovitch at the University of Sao Paulo.
  

May 2010

• Working Paper No. G-202 Effects on the U.S. of an H1N1 epidemic: analysis with a quarterly CGE model, by Peter B. Dixon , Bumsoo Lee , Todd Muehlenbeck , Maureen T. Rimmer, Adam Z. Rose and George Verikios (abstract and download) is now available.
  

April 2010

• In late April, Professor John Madden visited the University of Strathclyde as an international advisor on the Overall Impact of Higher Education Institutes on Regional Economies, part of a £3 million research initiative of the Economic and Social Research Council and UK Higher Education Funding Bodies.
  
• Registrations for the Practical GE Modelling Course June 28 to July 2 2010 in Brisbane are now closed.
  
• Working Paper No. G-200 Culling dairy cows as a response to drought in northern Victoria, by Marnie Griffith (abstract and download) is now available.
  

March 2010

• Working Paper No. G-198 Theoretical Structure of the FAGE Model, by Jingliang Xiao (abstract and download) is now available.
  
• Working Paper No. G-197 Forecasting with a CGE model: does it work?, by Peter B. Dixon and Maureen T. Rimmer (abstract and download) is now available.
  

February 2010

• In early February, CoPS/EBS played the Melbourne Institute in a cricket match for the first time in 5 years. Read all about this instant classic in our special match report.
  

• Working Paper No. G-196 China's Growing Demand for Energy and Primary Inputs - Terms of trade Effects on Neighbouring Countries, by Yinhua Mai, Philip Adams, Peter B. Dixon (abstract and download) is now available.
  
• Working Paper No. G-189 Estimating the size of rural labour surplus in China - A dynamic general equilibrium analysis, by Yinhua Mai and Xiujian Peng (abstract and download) is now available.
  

January 2010

• Working Paper No. G-195 Minimum Cost Feeding of Dairy Cows in Northern Victoria, by Marnie Griffith (abstract and download) is now available.
  
• Working Paper No. G-194 Assessment of the Regional Economic Impacts of Catastrophic Events: CGE analysis of resource loss and behavioral effects of a RDD attack scenario, by J.A. Giesecke, W.J. Burns, A. Barrett, E. Bayrak, A. Rose, and M. Suher (abstract and download) is now available.
  
• A revised version of working Paper No. G-186 Modelling the Australian government's buyback scheme with a dynamic multi-regional CGE model, by Peter B. Dixon, Maureen T. Rimmer and Glyn Wittwer (abstract and download) is now available.
  
• Working Paper No. G-193 Simulating the U.S. Recession with and without the Obama package: the role of excess capacity, by Peter B. Dixon and Maureen T. Rimmer (abstract and download) is now available.
  
• Professor Philip Adams from the Centre of Policy Studies comments on patterns in retail spending in the Preston Leader.
  

November 2009

• George Verikios from the Centre of Policy Studies discusses the economic impact of Swine Flu in Australia in the Republican American newspaper.
  
• The Centre of Policy Studies congratulates Professor Peter Dixon, Dr Maureen Rimmer and Dr Ashley Winston, winners of the 2009 Dean's Award for Excellence in Research. Pictured accepting the award on their behalf is Professor Philip Adams.
  
• Working Paper No. G-192 Will an Appreciation of the Renminbi Rebalance the Global Economy? A Dynamic Financial CGE Analysis, by Jingliang Xiao and Glyn Wittwer (abstract and download) is now available.
  

October 2009

• Dr Katarzyna Zawalinska, Deputy Director of the Institute of Rural and Agricultural Development, Polish Academy of Sciences, is visitng CoPS for three months under a G8 European Fellowship. While at CoPS, Katarzyna will develop a TERM model of Poland, and use the model to analyse the effects on Poland of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy.
  
• The Centre of Policy Studies congratulates Professor Mark Horridge on his appointment to the GTAP Advisory Board GTAP page.
  

September 2009

• Working Paper No. G-191 Future Population Trends in China: 2005-2050, by Chen Wei and Liu Jinju (abstract and download) is now available.
  

August 2009

• Working Paper No. G-190 The costs of keeping cool for Australians with Multiple Sclerosis, by George Verikios, Michael Summers, Rex Simmons and Zanfina Ademi (abstract and download) is now available.
  
• Working Paper No. G-187 Development of a large-scale single U.S. region CGE model using IMPLAN data: A Los Angeles County example with a productivity shock application, by James Giesecke (abstract and download) is now available.
  
• August 2009. Peter Dixon and Maureen Rimmer went to Capitol Hill in Washington DC to present their research on illegal immigration in the U.S. The presentation was attended by more than 100 Congressional advisors and the media. It was televised by C-SPAN and covered in dozens of media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and Forbes Magazine. link to larger item
  

July 2009

• Professor Peter Dixon, Centre of Policy Studies, discusses wage increases in The Australian, Thursday 2 July 2009 article.
• Registration for the dynamic CGE course to be held in Washington D.C. during December 2009 are now being taken. Details and registration for this course are here: 2009 USAGE Course

June 2009

• Dr Glyn Wittwer, Centre of Policy Studies, discusses water trading saying that the Federal Government is one of the biggest buyers of water. He says if a rural community can make money from selling water that is a new economic activity. Radio National interview
• Glyn Wittwer gave an interview on the Victorian Country Hour on ABC radio concerning the Commonwealth's buyback of irrigation water. This was a follow-up to an article that appeared in the rural newspaper, Stock and Land. The full paper on buyback modelling (and a separate executive summary) undertaken by Peter Dixon, Maureen Rimmer and Glyn is downloadable from: (abstract and download)

May 2009

• 30th April saw the graduation of former CoPS PhD students Jeremy Rothfield and Shusaku Yamamoto. Shusaku (now a researcher at the University of Queensland) is pictured at right with Mark Horridge and John Madden.
  
• Working Paper No. G-186 Modelling the Australian government's buyback scheme with a dynamic multi-regional CGE model, by Peter B. Dixon, Maureen T. Rimmer and Glyn Wittwer (abstract and download) is now available.
  
• Working Paper No. G-185 Modelling major projects: What are the factors that determine net social benefits?, by James A Giesecke and John R Madden (abstract and download) is now available.
  
• Working Paper No. G-184 The Economic Consequences of the U.S. Border Closure in Response to a Security Threat: A Dynamic CGE Assessment, by P.B. Dixon, J.A. Giesecke, M.T. Rimmer and A. Rose (abstract and download) is now available.
  
• Working Paper No. G-183 Reducing Illegal Migrants in the U.S.: A Dynamic CGE Analysis, by Peter B. Dixon, Martin Johnson and Maureen T. Rimmer (abstract and download) is now available.
  

March 2009

• Peter Dixon was one of four Australian economists who accepted an invitation from the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee to provide comments on the Government's Nation Building and Jobs Plan (the $42 billion stimulus package). Peter's remarks can be found at here.

February 2009

• Professor Philip Adams explains how the Emissions Trading system is likely to redistribute jobs but not have any lasting effects on economy wide aggregate employment . Article.
• Professor Peter Dixon comments on the Rudd Government's $42 billion stimulus package. Article in The Australian. Article.
• Our annual cricket match against LaTrobe saw plenty of runs, thrills and spills. Read all about it in our match report here.
• Professor John Madden, Centre of Policy Studies and IMPACT Project, Faculty of Business and Economics discusses the possibility that Australia will be given the right to host one of the biggest events on the world soccer calendar, the Asian Cup. ABC 702 (Sydney) transcript.
• Working Paper No. G-180 Enhancing Agriculture and Energy Sector Analysis in CGE Modelling: An Overview of Modifications to the USAGE Model, by R. Ashley P. Winston (abstract and download) is now available.
  
• Working Paper No. G-182 Modelling Value-Added Tax in the Presence of Multiproduction and Differentiated Exemptions, by James Giesecke and Nhi Hoang Tran (abstract and download) is now available.
  

January 2009

• Working Paper No. G-181 Population Ageing and Structural Adjustment, by James Giesecke and G.A. Meagher (abstract and download) is now available.
  
• Working Paper No. G-179 The Long-Run Effects of Structural Change and the Treatment of International Capital Accumulation, Mobility and Ownership, by George Verikios and Kevin Hanslow (abstract and download) is now available.
  

December 2008

• Professor Philip Adams comments in The Age 7th December 2008 on spending the Government bonus Article.
  
• Working Paper No. G-178 Does it Matter Whether Market Distortions are Evaluated Using Comparative-statics or Dynamics?, by Peter G. Mavromatis and George Verikios (abstract and download) is now available.
  
• Working Paper No. G-177 Welfare effects of unilateral changes in tariffs: the case of Motor vehicles and parts in Australia, by Peter B. Dixon and Maureen T. Rimmer (abstract and download) is now available.
  
• Philip Adams to deliver 50th Anniversary Public Lecture. As part of Monash's 50th Anniversary Public Lecture Series, Professor Philip Adams from the Centre of Policy Studies will be delivering the following lecture at BMW Edge at Federation Square on Thursday 27 November from 6-7.30pm.
  Lecture: Insurance against catastrophic climate change: How much will an Emissions Trading Scheme cost Australia?
  Speaker: Professor Philip Adams An Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is the basis for the Rudd government's commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Economic modelling by the Centre of Policy Studies has been a key input to the ETS policy debate. Philip Adams has been directing this modelling, and his presentation will explore the likely costs and benefits of an ETS for Australian industries and regions.
  Registrations.

October 2008

• 30 October 2008: James Giesecke has prepared a Powerpoint presentation summarizing recent CoPS activities.
• 17 October 2008: ARC Discovery Project worth $180,000 awarded to Professor Peter Dixon and Dr Glyn Wittwer of the Centre of Policy Studies for project: Water derivatives -- conceptualisation, price modelling and economic impacts.

September 2008

• Director Philip Adams is in Pretoria, South Africa from 8-12 Sep 2008.
• Canberra, 30 September 2008: the Garnaut Climate Change Review released its Final Report, which mentions CoPS' MMRF model 48 times. A team of CGE modellers, including CoPS Director Philip Adams, has worked overtime for months to prepare simulations for the Garnaut Review.
  
• For two years CoPS has made working papers available through the RePEC archive of economics papers. During that time 5000 papers have been downloaded and 18000 abstracts viewed. The most downloaded papers are listed here.
  
• Working Paper No. G-174 Population Ageing, Labour Market Reform and Economic Growth in China - A Dynamic General Equilibrium Analysis, by Xiujian Peng and Yinhua Mai (abstract and download) is now available.
  

August 2008

• Emeritus Professor Alan Powell AM was one of fifteen Monash academics who received 50th Anniversary Research Awards acknowledging the exceptional contribution they have made to their field of research and the community over the 50 years of Monash University's existence. Story in Monash Memo, 20 August 2008. Professor Peter Dixon accepted the award on Alan's behalf Pictures
• Professor Peter Dixon comments on the Productivity Commission's report on tariff cuts to the motor vehicle industry (The Age, August 19, 2008), (The Age, August 20, 2008) and (The Age, August 26, 2008).
  

July 2008

• The Centre of Policy Studies features in a China Daily Online article on the economic effects of the 2000 Sydney Olympic games (link).
  
• The Centre of Policy Studies features in a Times Online article on the economic effects of the 2000 Sydney Olympic games (link).
  
• Monash Memo featured the USAGE model developed at the Centre of Policy Studies in the 'Did you know?' section (link).
  

June 2008

• Working Paper No. G-176 How would global trade liberalization affect rural and regional incomes in Australia?, by Kym Anderson,James Giesecke and Ernesto Valenzuela (abstract and download) is now available.
  

• Working Paper No. G-175 Creating and managing an impossibly large CGE database that is up-to-date, by Mark Horridge and Glyn Wittwer (abstract and download) is now available. This paper will be presented at the 11th annual GTAP conference, Helsinki, Finland, June 12-14, 2008
  

April 2008

• CoPS in the press: Economic modelling of the nine years to 2006 by James Giesecke and John Madden indicates that the Sydney Olympics did not bring the expected stimulus to foreign tourism. [link here].
  
• CoPS in the press: Peter Dixon criticizes the proposal to allocate C02-emission permits to existing polluters. [link here].
  

March 2008

• CoPS in China: In late March 2008, Peter Dixon, Yinhua Mai, Xiujian Peng and Maureen Rimmer presented another course on dynamic CGE modelling for forecasting and policy analysis at Hunan University. This was followed by a 2-day course on techniques for producing CGE databases, presented by Glyn Wittwer and Mark Horridge. Background to the Hunan activities may be found here. Mai, Wittwer and Horridge then travelled to Beijing, where they worked for 3 days with the State Information Centre (SIC), and presented a seminar at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Several SIC staff will visit CoPS for 2 weeks during May.

February 2008

• Working Paper No. G-172 Modelling the Economic Effects of Population Ageing, by James Giesecke and G.A. Meagher (abstract and download) is now available
  
• CoPS/BusEco retained the prestigious Cricket Shield in another closely fought battle with LaTrobe this summer. Read all about the thrills and spills in this match report. Match details
  
• Working Paper No. G-171 Growth and structural change in the Vietnamese economy 1996-2003: A CGE analysis, by Tran Hoang Nhi and James A. Giesecke (abstract and download) is now available
  

January 2008

• Working Paper No. G-170 The Macroeconomic, Industrial and Distributional Effects of Removing Tariffs in Bangladesh, by Serajul Hoque (abstract and download) is now available
  

December 2007

• The Centre of Policy Studies welcomes new staff member Dr Xiujian Peng.
• The Kyoto talks in Bali, and the advent of the new Rudd Australian government, highlight the question: what would be the economic cost of reducing Australia's CO2 emissions? CoPS has taken a leading role in this debate, documented in a series of newspaper articles which are listed here.

November 2007

• Professor Philip Adams gave an economic perspective on climate change at a recent Monash University Forum on Sustainability held at Caulfield Campus. News Link
  
• Working Paper No.G-167 Why, how and when did GTAP happen? What has it achieved? Where is it heading?, by Alan Powell (abstract and download) is now available.
  
  
• Working Paper No. G-168 The Sydney Olympics, seven years on: an ex-post dynamic CGE assessment, by James A Giesecke, John R Madden (abstract and download) is now available

October 2007

• The Centre of Policy Studies welcomes new staff member Marnie Griffith.
• During the last week of October 2007, Philip Adams and Mark Horridge presented a course in Trade Modelling at the University of Pretoria (UP). The course was hosted by the AFRINEM (African Institute for Economic Modelling) project at UP.
  
• CoPS PhD student Felicity Pang was invited to give a presentation at the 2007 KNSO International Conference on "Growth, Distribution, and Social Accounting Matrices", on 25-26, October in Daejeon, Korea. The conference was organised by the Korea National Statistical Office.
  
  The aims of the conference were 1) to exchange ideas about developing a social accounting matrix for Korea, which will be used for analysing the economic and social effects of policy changes and 2) to establish a global network for future studies.
  
  Felicity's presentation was "An Aggregate Social Accounting Matrix for the Australian Economy: Data Sources and Methods" (co-authored with G.A. Meagher and G.C.Lim). At that conference, presenters from different countries discussed various aspects of social accounting matrices, including conceptual issues, data issues and issues concerning the relationship between social accounting matrices and CGE modelling.

September 2007

• ACCOMPLISHMENT AWARDS FROM THE U.S. INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION Dr Ashley Winston, Senior Research Fellow at CoPS, has been given two awards by the U.S. International Trade Commission. Ashley has been outposted to the Commission since December 2004. He is a vital part of CoPS' co-operative modelling work with the U.S. government. Ashley's awards are for "Superior Accomplishment". They were presented at the USITC annual awards ceremony in Washington DC on October 25. The citations read (1) "For collaborative effort and innovative technical assistance to the US Senate Finance Committee regarding the effects of NAFTA on the US sweetener sector", and (2) "For collaborative effort and innovations to the CGE analysis of the agricultural and textile and apparel sectors on the Imports Restraints study".
  
  ITC officials joked about how much they like giving Ashley awards - there is a cash prize associated with these awards for employees but they can't pay the cash prize to Ashley as he is not an employee!!!
• STRATEGIC EXCELLENCE AWARD 2007 - LOOK OUT Dr Glyn Wittwer, Senior Research Fellow at CoPS, has been awarded the CSIRO's Strategic Excellence Award for producing a groundbreaking report showing the economic implications of providing water to five million more Australians by 2032. The report informs and challenges a range of people and industries on the future costs they may face for water and ways in which these costs can be significantly reduced. The Without Water study was jointly authored by Mike Young (formerly CSIRO, now at Uni of Adelaide), Wendy Proctor and Ejaz Qureshi (CSIRO).

August 2007

• The Centre of Policy Studies welcomes new staff member Nhi Hoang Tran.
• Working Papers G-165 and G-166 are now available for. Download.
• Registrations for the September 2007 Practical GE Modelling course being held at Macquarie University are now closed. See our training courses site for details on all our courses.

July 2007

• The July 2007 Practical CGE Modelling Course and the July 2007 Regional training courses have been run. Photos of particpants can be found here.
• Glyn Wittwer travelled to China in July. He presented a paper at the Consortium for Western China Development Studies conference in Guiyang and at the Chinese Economists Society conference in Changsha. He also presented seminars at the Henan Agricultural University in Zhengzhou and Hunan University in Changsha. The subject of each presentation was SinoTERM, a 137 sector, 31 region CGE multi-regional model of China developed by Mark Horridge and Glyn.

June 2007

• June 18 2007: Mark Horridge and Ken Pearson named as two of the inaugural five members of the GTAP Hall of Fame. Hall of Fame.
• June 16 2007: Emissions trading article appeared in a Newcastle Herald.
• June 4-5 2007: Professor Philip Adams talks about the economic effects of emissions trading. Sydney Morning Herald. The Age. The World Today ABC Radio. The Wire. The 7.30 Report. Newcastle Herald.

May 2007

• May 28-29 2007: Professor Peter Dixon's press clippings on emission trading The Canberra Times and
  The Age. Professor Peter Dixon's interview on The Wire. A daily current affairs program broadcast on Community radio stations around Australia. The economics of action on Climate Change Listen. Professor Peter Dixon talked to Radio National's Fran Kelly on the Breakfast show about emissions trading listen
• May 23 2007: CGE analysis by CoPS Director, Professor Philip Adams (right), informed a report released by Victoria's Auditor-General. The report called for better evidence to justify public funding of major events. Case studies of Melbourne's Formula 1 Grand Prix concluded that the net social benefit of the event was small or even negative. Recommendations included "investing in the use of computable general equilibrium modelling for larger events at the post-event stage to assess their impact on the economy."

April 2007

• On 20 April 2007, CoPS hosted a Chinese delegation from Development Research Centre (DRC) of the State Council, National Development and Reform Commission, State Information Centre (SIC), and China Australia Governance Program of AUSAID. The delegation was headed by Mr ZHANG Xiaochong, Director General of the International Cooperation Centre of the National Development and Reform Commission. The purpose of the delegation's visit to Australia was to investigate the process of public policy enquiries and debate.
  
  During a half-day workshop, Dr Yinhua MAI introduced modelling, policy consulting and training activities of CoPS. Professor Philip ADAMS presented "The Contribution of CGE Modelling in Public Policy Debate in Australia". more
• The economic impacts of an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) for Australia was the topic of Philip Adams' presentations at two public forums arranged by the Melbourne Institute. The first, held in Melbourne, was also addressed by Professor John Freebairn and Dr. Beth Webster and attracted around 100 attendees. The second, held in Canberra, also featured Professor Warwick McKibbin and had around 160 attendees. The main conclusion of Adams' presentation is that an ETS, with a C02-permit price of around $30 per tonne has the potential to significantly reduce emissions from electricity generation with only a small reduction in real GDP. According to Adams' modelling, in 2030 the ETS would cut electricity emissions by around 50 per cent relative to basecase levels, and reduce real GDP by around 0.6 per cent relative to base. The loss of GDP is equivalent to reducing average annual growth in GDP between now and 2030 from, say, 3.00 per cent to 2.97 per cent.
• After 24 years developing GEMPACK, Ken Pearson has reduced his commitment, moving towards a part-time, research-oriented involvement. He has passed on the position of Director, GEMPACK Software, to Mark Horridge, who will assume overall and day-to-day responsibilities, assisted by Dr. Michael Jerie (software and support) and Louise Pinchen (Business Manager). Ken will remain in the background to solve more difficult problems.
• CoPS in the news again: The Age newspaper has a story on exporting modelling techniques to the USA here (local copy here). Another Age report from 2 years ago is here.
• Peter Dixon and Maureen Rimmer will visit Finland and Washington D.C.from March 16 to April 20
  Peter and Maureen will spend 2 weeks in Finland at the Government Institute for Economic Research (VATT) . There they will assist Juha Honkatukia and Pekka Sulamaa in the construction of a dynamic CGE model of Finland. Peter will present a seminar at VATT.
  
  In Washington Peter and Maureen will interact with colleagues at the USITC on: the USAGE model validation project; the implementation of a NAICS-based version of USAGE; and a review of the USAGE model. They will meet with colleagues at the U.S. Department of Agriculture to discuss: progress on creation of new detail for the agricultural sector; and the implications of USDA forecasts for Agricultural prices on the benefits to the U.S. of replacement of petroleum-based fuels with biomass-based fuels. They will also meet with colleagues at the Department of Commerce to discuss a possible contract associated with the President's recent announcements on Health policy.

March 2007

• Dr. Chunto Tso and his team (Ms. Chihwei Wang and Mr. Hau Ju) of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research visited the Centre during the week starting 5 March. In collaboration with Philip Adams and Mark Horridge, they are developing an energy-oriented CGE model of Taiwan. The model, called Triple E, is based on the TAIGEM model and is currently being used to examine the potential impacts of fuel cell motors for motor scooters.
• Congratulations to Mark Horridge on his appointment as Professor.
• Monash MEMO has a story on Peter Dixon receiving the Sir John Monash Distinguished Professorship link, local copy here.

February 2007

• Glyn Wittwer attended the 51st annual conference of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society in Queenstown, New Zealand, in February. He presented a paper entitled "CGE modelling of the resources boom in Indonesia and Australia using TERM".
• CoPs has announced details for its 2007 training courses. As in the past there will be Practical GE Modelling and Data Base courses at Monash in July. Unusually however, this year that will be followed by a course in single country multi-regional modelling, at Monash in July, and again in a palace in Tuscany during September. A Dynamic course in Washington is planned for late 2007. In past years our courses have been overbooked, so inquire early.
• Match report from the game between CoPS/EBS V La Trobe is now available at cricket.
• CoPS is undergoing an external review -- a self-evaluation is available from here.
• Peter Dixon has been awarded a Sir John Monash Distinguished Professorship. The accolade is reserved for "eminent Professors of exceptional distinction who have made an outstanding contribution to their field or discipline and/or to Monash University".

October 2006

• Two CoPS students were awarded PhDs at the Monash Graduation Ceremony held on the evening of 26 October. Dr Serajul Hoque's thesis describes the CGE model of Bangladesh which he constructed. Serajul reports the results of illustrative policy reforms he simulated with the model and analyses them in terms of major underlying model mechanisms. Dr Daniel Pambudi constructed a multiregional CGE model, EMERALD, which explicitly treats the behaviour of economic agents in 26 regions of Indonesia. Daniel uses the model to analyse regional policy initiatives to attract investment. Congratulations to both Serajul and Daniel.
• Philip Adams gave a presentation on quantitative analysis of trade policies to a training program organised by the Australian APEC studies center. The course , Policy Reform and Structural Adjustment in Agriculture - Economic change in the Sugar Industry, was held between 24 October and 3 November and was attended by around 25 senior public servants from the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia.

• CoPS goes to China In September, Peter Dixon, Yinhua Mai, Xiujian Peng, Maureen Rimmer and Charles Xiao presented a 7 day course on dynamic CGE modelling for forecasting and policy analysis at Hunan University. This followed a course presented earlier in the year by CoPS on static CGE modelling. The dynamic course was attended by about 30 people including staff and graduate students from Hunan and other universities and several public servants from Beijing. (For more details on this item please visit our Research Highlights page)
• CoPS analyses President Bush's energy policy An important objective of the President's energy policy is to cut U.S. reliance on imported crude oil. The President is supporting research aimed at reducing the cost of biomass fuels (e.g. ethanol) so that these fuels are competitive with petroleum.
  
  In June this year, CoPS was commissioned by the U.S. Department of Commerce to estimate the benefits to the U.S. economy that would follow from technological breakthroughs that make ethanol competitive with petroleum when the price of crude oil is at its 2004 level. (For a summary of this report please visit our Research Highlights page)
• Five new working papers are available for download. G-157, G-158, G-159, G-160, and G-162.
• Congratulations to Professor Ken Pearson who has just been made a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences of Australia. Story in Monash Memo

September 2006

• Jill Harrison is retiring at the end of September. Jill has made huge contributions to GEMPACK software, support and teaching. Her legacy will continue well into the future. We wish her well as she begins the next phase of her life.
• From September 3rd-16th, Glyn Wittwer and Mark Horridge visited CEDS, the Center for Economics and Development Studies at Universitas Padjadjaran, Bandung, Java. They worked with CEDS staff to refine the INDOTERM CGE model of the Indonesian and West Java economies, built to study the national and regional (West Java) impacts of national and regional economic policies. The model was unveiled at a day-long seminar on 14th September, attended by more than 100 academics and government officials (see picture). Simulations were presented showing the effects of: allowing rice imports; growing bio-diesel fuel; and changes in commodity prices. Funding for this project came from AusAid under the Public Sector Linkages Program (PSLP).
• The Centre of Policy Studies will conduct a training course in September 2006 on dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) modelling at the Hunan University in China. The 7-day training course will be lectured by Professor Peter Dixon. The course also contains intensive computing sessions that give trainees hands-on experience with CGE modelling. Other instructors of the course are Dr Yinhua Mai, Dr Maureen Rimmer, Dr Xiujian Peng and Charles Xiao. This course and an earlier course held in February 2006 are part of a joint research project between CoPS and the Hunan University. The aim of the joint project is to help the Hunan University to build its CGE modelling capacities. The training course will have about 30 trainees from the School of Economics and Trade, the School of Statistics, and the School of Mathematics and Econometrics of the Hunan University. Other course participants are from the Ministry of Commerce, State Information Centre, Peking University, Najing Agricultural University, and Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
• Mark Picton conducted research for Allen Consulting on the economy-wide effects of government programs for the Australian pharmaceuticals sector. The research involved examining the effects of changes in government policy taking into account the benefits to the rest of the economy of having significant research and development in pharmaceuticals within a balanced pharmaceuticals sector.
• James Giesecke attended the two European regional economics conferences (the British and Irish Section and European meetings of the Regional Science Association International) where he presented papers on explaining economic outcomes for Australia's regions through historical simulations with CGE models.
• Philip Adams was interviewed by Korean TV in early September for a program examining the possible effects of a Free-Trade Agreement between Korea and the United States. Philip was asked to draw on CoPS' study of the Australia-US FTA to yield insights into the possible impacts on Korea of eliminating barriers to US imports.
• A leading group of academics from Taiwan visited the Centre in the last week of August. The group, headed by Professor Chung-Huang Huang (National Tsing-Hua University), included Professor Shih-Mo Lin (Chung-Yuan Christian University), Assistant Prof. Han-Pang Su (Chung-Yuan Christian University), Assistant Prof. Hsing-Hua Lin (Ching-Yun University) and Miss Chin-Wen Yang (Doctoral candidate, National Central University). The program of work centred around further developments of the Taigem model to incorporate renewable forms of electricity generation and to allow better modelling of energy and greenhouse issues in Taiwan.

August 2006

• Two pictures from the recent GTAP conference attended by Mark Horridge, Alan Powell, Ken Pearson and Philip Adams. The first shows Horridge and Adams teaching aspects of CES production theory to some interested onlookers. The second shows what happens when you are overloaded and your tyres are stripped back to the metal radial.

July 2006

• Registration is now open for the 2006 USA Dynamic CGE modelling course. Information

June 2006

• June 5 - The Centre of Policy Studies welcomes new staff member Dr Michael Jerie. Michael joins CoPS from the Department of Mathematics at La Trobe University. He takes up the position of Research Fellow (Software Support/Developer).
• Registrations for the Practical GE Modelling Course and Constructing a Data Base Course have now closed. For details and dates of the next Practical GE course, keep checking this site for updates.
• A new PhD student, Louise Roos, started at CoPS in May. Louise's supervisor is John Madden and her topic is a dynamic CGE model of South Africa. Two other new doctoral students commenced their studies at CoPS earlier this year. Mahesh Roa, supervised by Tony Meagher, is examining structural change and the Australian labour market. Charles Xiao transferred from the Department of Economics. His research topic is a financial CGE model of China and his supervisors are Glyn Wittwer and Peter Dixon.
• Several CoPS staff will attend the 9th Annual Conference on Global Economic Analysis, held in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) this June.
  Ken Pearson and Mark Horridge will present a paper on parallel processing using modern PCs.

May 2006

• Six new working papers added. G-150, G-153, G-154, G-155, G-156 and C15-01.

April 2006

• The 2005 Mollie Holman medal for the best Ph.D. thesis in the Faculty of Business and Economics (BusEco) has been awarded to Xiujian Peng. For more details of this award download thesis details.
  

March 2006

• Philip Adams attended the Pacific Economic Co-operation Council's meeting of forecasters in Osaka, Japan on 15-17 March. At the meeting Philip gave an invited presentation on the impacts of rapid growth in China on Pacific rim economies, highlighting the possibility that a booming Chinese economy might not be good for all countries in the region.

February 2006

• CoPS has conducted a training course in São Paulo, Brazil in conjunction with the Departamento de Economia, USP [Universidade de São Paulo]. CoPS staff Mark Horridge and James Giesecke worked with USP professors to deliver the course in English and Portuguese, using a CGE model calibrated with Brazilian data. Most of the 20-odd attendees were academics from various universities around Brazil. See Photos.
• The 2006 GTAP South Asian Short Course was held at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research in Mumbai, India from February 18-24, 2006. There were 24 participants, including 9 from India, 2 from Pakistan, 1 from Bangladesh, 2 from Nepal, 2 from Sri Lanka, 2 from Australia, 3 from Egypt, 1 from Brazil, 1 from Madagascar and 1 from Canada.
  Ken Pearson was one of the instructors at this course.
• CoPS ran a Practical GE modelling course in Changsha, China, at Hunan University. Participants included representatives from the university's colleges of Economics and Trade, Mathematics and Econometrics and Statistics. There were also representatives from the Bureau of Industry Injury Investigation at the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing, and from industry. One participant came from Nanjing University and another from Beijing's Institute of Agricultural Economics.
  The course participants were of a very high calibre. This is the first part of an expected long-term partnership with Hunan University and the Ministry of Commerce, to develop in-house general equilibrium modelling expertise to apply to policy issues in China. The course was viewed by all as an outstanding success.
  CoPS representatives included YinHua Mai, Mark Picton and Glyn Wittwer, plus a Ph.D. candidate Charles Xiao. A Ph.D. graduate from CoPS, Xiujian Peng, now at the University of Adelaide, also contributed. See Photos.
• The Centre of Policy Studies defeats La Trobe University by 50 runs. See match report and videos.
• Ken Pearson departs for Mumbai on February 8 to help teach the South East Asian Short Course in Global Trade Analysis.
• An APA(I) PhD scholarship in economics offered in the Centre of Policy Studies (CoPS) of Monash University as part of an ARC Linkage project with the Victorian Department of Primary Industries and the Department of Sustainability and Environment.
• Yin Hua Mai, Glyn Wittwer, Mark Picton and others depart for China early February 2006 to present the Practical GE Modelling course in Hunan University, Changsha.

January 2006

• Mark Horridge and James Giesecke depart for Brazil late January 2006 to present the Practical GE Modelling course in São Paulo, Brazil.
• Yin Hua Mai presented two papers at the 2005 Australia-China Agricultural Trade Policy Dialogue held in China in November. One presentation focused on aspects of the MMC model. The other examined the effects of reducing tariffs on wheat and rice in China. While in China Yin Hua also gave a presentation at the Beijing Jinmao University about CoPS' modelling capabilities.
• CoPS has been successful in a funding application under the Public Sector Linkages Program (PSLP) administered by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID). The funding is for work in 2006 on "Economic Modelling Capacity Building to Increase an Indonesian Regional Public University's Participation in National and Regional Policy Making". The project's principal researcher is Mark Horridge, with support from Alan A. Powell and Glyn Wittwer. Working in collaboration with staff from Indonesia's UNPAD-CEDS the project aims to build, use, analyse and continually update an applied general equilibrium (AGE) model of the Indonesian and West Java economies, and to analyse the national and regional (West Java) impacts of national and regional economic policies.

December 2005

• Peter Dixon and Maureen Rimmer will be in Washington DC through most of November and into early December working at the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) on the development and application of the USAGE model. Their work will conclude with a course in dynamic general equilibrium modelling. While in the US, Peter and Maureen will be working with Ashley Winston, a CoPS researcher currently stationed at the USITC.
• Peter Dixon and Glyn Wittwer along with colleagues from the Victorian Department of Primary Industries and Department of Sustainability and Environment have been awarded an ARC linkage grant for funding in 2006-2008. The project involves embedding hydrological detail into the TERM model, to obtain better estimates than previously available on the regional and industrial impacts of different water scenarios. It is envisaged that the new model will become a key tool for examining issues arising from COAG water reforms.
• Louise Pinchen has taken on a new position as GEMPACK Business Manager. All enquiries regarding purchasing GEMPACK Software, renewal of licences and payments should now be made directly with her. Contact Louise Pinchen

November 2005

• Mark Horridge has spent 2 weeks in Taipei at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research working with the TAIGEM-D dynamic general equilibrium model. The model was expanded to allow for various renewable energy sources, such as ethanol, biodiesel, or wind and solar power.
• On October 27 James Giesecke delivered a paper to the University of South Australia School of Commerce seminar series. The paper examined the impacts on the Australian economy of structural, policy and external shocks over the period 1996/97 - 2001/02.
  Tony Meagher and James Giesecke are undertaking a project for the Productivity Commission, investigating the impact of increasing Australia's intake of skilled migrants. The project is due to report in mid December.
• CoPS is establishing a link with Hunan University, Changsha, China, and a division within China's Ministry of Commerce. Glyn Wittwer visited Hunan University in October. There, he met with Professor Lai Mingyong, Dean of the School of Economics and Trade and the Deputy President (Research) of the university, Professor Zhao, who has signed an agreement with CoPS. This will entail a CGE training program in Changsha in February 2006. Later modules of the project will include developing a dynamic CGE model of the Chinese economy and assisting in the supervision of a number of a Ph.D. candidates at Hunan University. Glyn gave a powerpoint presentation on CGE modelling to a keen group of Ph.D. candidates, post-graduates and professors.

October 2005

• SPECIAL COURSE ANNOUNCEMENT
  From December 5 to 9, 2005 The Centre of Policy Studies will conduct a course in dynamic general equilibrium modelling in Washington D.C. Hosted by the U.S.International Trade Commission, the course will present dynamic general equilibrum modelling as a practical tool for forecasting and policy analysis using an aggregated version of the USAGE model of the U.S. economy.

September 2005

• On September 13, 2005, Professor Peter B. Dixon gave a talk to University of Melbourne Engineering students on Convergence of the Chinese economy. This paper is available to download

August 2005

• The United States International Trade Commission (USITC) has agreed to an extension of the development funding for CoPS' US modeling program. The value of funding for 2005 is in excess of $US 250,000. CoPS' US program is headed by Peter Dixon and Maureen Rimmer, with assistance from Ashley Winston.
• Most of CoPS' short-courses in CGE modeling have now been scheduled. Details can be found on the course page.
• John Madden is away most of August, visiting the economics department of the University of Reading, and then attending the 45th European Regional Science Association Conference in Amsterdam.
• Preliminary agreement has been reached on a major new program of joint research and PhD supervision between the Centre and Hunan University in China. More details soon.
• A new milestone in solving very large CGE models: COPS solved an unaggregated version of the GTAP world model (87 regions, 57 sectors) using an experimental Windows 64-bit version of its GEMPACK software.

July 2005

• GEMPACK software and MONASH-style models have been listed among the ten most remarkable discoveries from research at Monash University, as published in the Age on June 20, 2005 (Education supplement).

June 2005

• Philip Adams, Mark Horridge and Professor Jan van Heerden (University of Pretoria) conducted a week-long course in CGE modeling in early June at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. The course, which focused on the UpGem model of South Africa, was part of a MCom degree in International Trade and Investment sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation. Twelve students from a wide range of African countries attended.
• The Centre of Policy Studies conducted a Practical GE Course - The CoPS Way in Lubeck, Germany from June 12 to 16. We intend to make the European course an annual event. The participants included our usual mix of academic and government employees. These included two Ph.D. students (one from Ukraine, the other Albania) being supervised by Professor Johannes Brocker, a recent visitor to CoPS from the Christian-Albrechts University of Kiel. Other participants came from Denmark, Ethiopia, France, Finland, Japan and the Netherlands. Some photos.
• Eight members of staff from the Centre attended the 8th Annual Conference on Global Economic Analysis held in Lübeck, Germany on June 9 - 11. The conference was organized by the Institute of Market Analysis and Agricultural Trade Policy (FAL), Braunschweig, Germany in conjunction with the Center for Global Trade Analysis, Purdue University. Papers presented by CoPS staff covered a wide range of topics, including applications of the USAGE model, details of recent software developments, and analyses of recent economic history. Some photos.

May 2005

• Release 9 (April 2005) of GEMPACK is now available and has been shipped to customers with continuing support and free upgrades.
• Philip Adams presented a paper titled "Linking models: Experience from the IMPACT Project and CoPS" to a workshop held at the Melbourne Institute on Monday 9 May. The workshop's theme was "The next generation: Building a bridge between microsimulation, life-cycle, and macroeconomic models". Other speakers included members of the MITTS team (Melbourne Institute), Nicolas Herault (University of Bordeaux), Phil Gallagher (Australian Treasury) and Gavin Wood (RMIT). Contact Philip Adams. Link to Workshop

April 2005

• On 18 April, Prime Minister John Howard and Premier Wen Jiabao of China agreed that Australia and China will commence negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) following consideration of the joint FTA Feasibility Study. The FTA Feasibility Study was completed in March 2005, and concluded that there would be significant economic benefits for both Australia and China through the negotiation of an FTA. Much of the analytical content of the Study came from an especially commissioned report from CoPS. CoPS' report can be downloaded from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's website at http://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/china/fta/index.html. Contact Philip Adams for further details.
• A listing of contract research undertaken by CoPS in 2004, along with copies of selected reports, has been added to our web site. Click here to see a list of our 2004 work as well as work completed in previous years.
• The Mollie Holman Medal for Excellence is awarded annually in each faculty at Monash University to the PhD candidate judged to have presented the best thesis of the year. For 2004, the Faculty of Business and Economics' Medal has been awarded to Paresh Narayan for his PhD thesis 'An Econometric Model of Tourism Demand and a Computable General Equilibrium Analysis of the Impact of Tourism: The Case of the Fiji Islands'. Paresh was supervised jointly int the Centre of Policy Studies by Professors Dixon and Adams and in the Department of Econometrics by Professor Farshid Vahid. Paresh is the second CoPS student to be awarded a Mollie Holman Medal. The 2001 recipient was Gordon Schmidt, supervised by Professor Dixon.

March 2005

• Despite fielding strongest team in years, CoPS lose to old foes in Thirty30 match. Match report.
• A new postgraduate student, Unchana Beadnok, started with CoPS at the end of March, having transferred from the Department of Economics. Unchana has completed one year of a Masters degree and intends to upgrade shortly to PhD candidature. Her supervisors are Dr Yin-Hua Mai and Associate Professor John Madden.

February 2005

• CoPS has been commissioned by the South African Department of Agriculture to undertake a study of the economic impacts of a proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the SACU nations and India. This work continues our involvement with the South African government which started in 2003 with a study of the proposed FTA between SACU and the USA.
• Peter Dixon has been invited to give a keynote address at the IMCP Workshop on 23-24 February to be held at the German Institute for Economic Research, Berlin. The topic of Peter's address is the "Theory and Empirics of Technological Change".
• A new PhD student, Sothea Oum from Cambodia started at the Centre in February. Sothea, who is supervised by Philip Adams, will be constructing a CGE model of the Cambodian economy and using it to examine trade issues affecting that nation and the surrounding region.
• The latest round of forecasts from the Labour market forecasting service are being prepared and will be released to clients at the end of the month.
• Another Practical GE training course was successfully completed in February. As for the past few years, the course was fully subscribed with a number of overseas attendees.
• CoPS holds on for thrilling 1 run win of La Trobe University in Thirty30 match. Match report.

January 2005

• The major new features in Release 9 of GEMPACK (expected around April 2005) were announced recently by the GEMPACK developers.
• Serajul Hoque, a PhD student supervised by Peter Dixon and John Madden, presented a paper to the Asia Pacific Week held at the ANU, Canberra, 31 January - 4 February 2005. Serajul's paper was entitled "Trade Liberalization and Poverty in Bangladesh: A CGE Analysis".
• Ashley Winston left just before Christmas to spend 12 months at the United States International Trade Commission (USITC). During his visit, sponsored by the USITC, Ashley will be working with USITC researchers on further development of the USAGE model.

December 2004

• The Centre for Health Economics, together with the Centre of Policy Studies (Monash University), and NATSEM (University of Canberra), have recently been awarded a $3.5 million NHMRC Health Services Research grant for 'Modelling the economics of the Australian health care system for policy analysis'. The five year program will build a suite of economic models capable of providing timely relevant analysis of almost any major health policy option or issue, providing expertise in government and academia to use the kind of sophisticated quantitative tools of analysis common in sectors of the economy of an equivalent size to health. Through a PhD and postdoctoral program, it will increase capacity in quantitative health economics in Australia to answer key questions in health services, health promotion and illness prevention, developed with partners in government, clinicians and industry.
• Philip Adams and Mark Horridge each presented invited papers to overseas conferences in December. Philip attended the Pacific Economic Co-Operation Forecasters group in Vancouver, presenting a paper examining the short-term macroeconomic prospects of the Australian economy. From December 2-4, Mark attended a conference in the Hague on the Implications of the Doha Agenda for World Trade and Poverty, presenting (with former CoPS vistitor Joaquim Bento) a paper about the effect of trade reform on income distribution in Brazil.
• Gouranga Gopal DAS (PhD Monash 2000), who is an Assistant Professor at Hanyang University in South Korea, has just received an award for 2005 under the Visiting Scholars Program of the IMF and the GDN (Global Development Network). The award will allow him to spend five weeks in Washington working at the IMF on his research project entitled: "Configurations of Trade policy, Technology Transmission and Poverty Reduction: South-South Cooperation with Special Focus on India as Southern Hemispheric Hub". Receipt of this award represents significant achievement - a maximum of five awards is made each year from applicants in a world-wide competition.

November 2004

• Glyn Wittwer gave an invited presentation to the Productivity Commission's conference on "Quantitative tools for microeconomic policy analysis" held at the Hyatt hotel, Canberra, 17-18 November. Glyn's paper focussed on his work of integrating physical water accounts into a CGE model.
• CoPS' annual Monash model course started on 22 November and finished on 30 November. Of the 16 participants, 4 are from overseas, while the remainder come from a mix of federal and state government departments and from private sector consulting groups.
• Philip Adams gave an invited paper to the 2004 Australian Agri-Food Forum held at the Grand Hyatt, Melbourne on Friday 29 October. The paper, entitled "The Year Ahead", generated considerable discussion and was reported in an Age newspaper article. Philip also gave an invited lecture to the APEC Study Centre's training course "Managing structural adjustment from trade reform" held on 11-19 November at the Saville on Russell. The title of that presentation was "The role of quantitative analysis in assessing the economy-wide effects of industry adjustment to policy reform".
• The Centre for Health Economics, together with the Centre of Policy Studies (Monash University), and NATSEM (University of Canberra), have recently been awarded a $3.5 million NHMRC Health Services Research grant for 'Modelling the economics of the Australian health care system for policy analysis'. The five year program will build a suite of economic models capable of providing timely relevant analysis of almost any major health policy option or issue, providing expertise in government and academia to use the kind of sophisticated quantitative tools of analysis common in sectors of the economy of an equivalent size to health. Through a PhD and postdoctoral program, it will increase capacity in quantitative health economics in Australia to answer key questions in health services, health promotion and illness prevention, developed with partners in government, clinicians and industry.
• Professor Jan van Heerden, Head of the Department of Economics, University of Pretoria is visiting the Centre for one month starting in the middle of November. Jan is collaborating with Mark Horridge on several projects involving modelling of the South African economy.
• An article entitled "Prospects for the Australian economy and the impact of meeting the Kyoto commitment, authored by Philip Adams has been accepted for publication in The Farm Policy Journal. Release date is set for December.
• Ashley Winston has submitted his PhD thesis for examination. Since submitting Ashley has been promoted to a level-B research position at the Centre. He leaves in December on a 12-month secondment to the USITC in Washington.
• Daniel Pambudi, a PhD student supervised by Mark Horridge, presented a paper to the 2004 PhD conference in Economics and business held at the ANU, 10-12 November. Daniel's paper was entitled "Subsidy Variations to attract investors using EMERALD, a multi-regional CGE model of Indonesia". At the same conference, Peter Dixon was an invited discussant and a student associated with the Centre, Xiujian Peng, gave a paper examining the effects of population change in China.

October 2004

• Dates for the 2005 series of Practical GE modelling training courses have been announced. We are offering these courses from February 7 to 15, 2005. Registrations are now open. We will also be offering The Practical GE Modelling course in Lübeck (Germany) in June. The Lübeck course is planned to take place just after, and in the same hotel as, the GTAP conference (8th Annual Conference on Global Economic Analysis) to be held from June 9th to 11th, 2005.
• The Centre hosted three Chinese visitors in the second half of October. Mingtai Fan, Ronglin Li and Zhaoyang Zheng visited as part of the DFAT-funded project examining the economic costs and benefits of a FTA between China and Australia.
• Peter Dixon and James Gieseke presented papers at the "The State-of-the-Art in Regional and Urban Modelling", conference co-organised by the EcoMod Network and Centro de Estudios Andaluces. The conference was held in Sevilla Spain on 21, 22 and 23 October. Peter's paper, co-authored with Maureen Rimmer, was entitled "Disaggregation of results from a detailed general equilibrium model of the US to the state level". James' paper, co-authored with John Madden, was entiled "Advances in large-scale multiregional CGE modelling: historical, forecasting and scenario analysis".

September 2004

• Three articles written by Peter Dixon and CoPS' co-authors have been published in the September 2004 editions of The Economic Record (volume 80, number 250 and volume 80, Special issue). One article, co-authored with Mark Picton and Maureen Rimmer, examines the economic impacts of changes in payroll-tax thresholds. Another paper, co-authored with Maureen Rimmer, describes historical and decompostion simulations for 1992-1998 with the 500-sector USAGE model. The third article with Dixon as the sole author is a book review of "Selected Essays on Economic Policy" by Geoff Harcourt.
• James Giesecke presented a paper to the School of Economics and Finance seminar at the Victoria University of Wellington. The paper reported results from the latest MONASH historical/decomposition simulations, which cover the period 1996/97 - 2001/02. These simulations first evaluate the extent of recent structural changes in the Australian economy, and then explain the recent history of the Australian economy in terms of these structural changes.
• Glyn Wittwer is in China most of September on a mixture of holidays and work. During his stay Glyn will be discussing with Chinese authorities the potential for a collaborative program of model-based research.
• The Centre of Policy Studies and the Department of Treasury and Finance co-hosted the Fourth Biennial Regional Modelling Workshop on 16 and 17 of September. Held at the Victorian Treasury's conference room, the worksop was attended by 35 invitees from most Australian states and territories.

August 2004

• A paper titled "Medium term prospects for the Australian economy and the impact of Kyoto-compliance" authored by Philip Adams was released at the end of August. The paper is published in the Australian Bulletin of Labour, Vol. 30, No. 1 (March).
• Philip Adams is to be a keynote speaker at the First International Macroeconomic Forecasters Conference hosted by the Thailand Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board, Bangkok. The conference takes place on August 26 and 27.
• Hiroshi Hamasaki from the Economic Research Centre of the Fujitsu Research Institute, Tokyo, visited the Centre for one week in the middle of August. Hiroshi is collaborating with Mark Horridge on a project to build a dynamic multi-sector model of Japan.
• John Madden and James Giesecke are both presenting papers at the European Regional Science Association meeting which is being held in Porto Portugal at the end of August. John holds one of six elected positions on the International Council of the Regional Science Association International.
• Dates for the 2005 series of Practical GE modelling training courses have been announced. We are offering these courses from February 7 to 15, 2005. Registrations are now open. We will also be offering The Practical GE Modelling course in Lübeck (Germany) in June. The Lübeck course is planned to take place just after, and in the same hotel as, the GTAP conference (8th Annual Conference on Global Economic Analysis) to be held from June 9th to 11th, 2005.

July 2004

• Ken Pearson leaves at the end of the month for the USA. While there Ken will be providing modelling advice and software assistance at the 12th Annual Short Course in Global Trade Analysis held at Purdue University.
• Six new working papers have been released. Four are authored by Peter Dixon and Maureen Rimmer and detail developments of the USAGE model. The remaining two describe applications of a dynamic version of GTAP developed at the Centre by Mark Horridge and Philip Adams.
• Professor Chu Yugang from The Institute of Economics, Hubei Academy of Social Science in China is visiting CoPS from 1 July to 3 December 2004.
• Three second-semester faculty units taught by CoPS staff begin in the third week of July: ECC5730: Advanced applied general equilibrium analysis taught by Peter Dixon; ECC3810: Public finance taught by Mark Picton; and ETC4430 Quantitative Economic Policy taught by John Madden.
• An article quoting Peter Dixon appears in The Australian on 12 July. The article on page 2 deals with a FOI legal case against Treasurer Peter Costello's refusal to release documents relating to tax issues such as bracket creep. Dixon argues that the release of the information would allow economists to check the Government's claims about its economic management.
• Macro-economy forecasts from Philip Adams are reported on pages 1 and 3 of The Age's business section of 12 July.
• The United States International Trade Commission releases a major report, "The Economic Effects of Significant US Import Restraints". The quantified effects were generated using the USAGE-ITC model developed at the Centre of Policy Studies. Lead researchers in the development of USAGE are Peter Dixon and Maureen Rimmer.

• Major changes at the top: Peter Dixon has stepped down as Director to take up the new full-time position of Principal Researcher; Ken Pearson has stepped down as Deputy Director to spend more time on the development of GEMPACK. Philip Adams takes over as Director and John Madden as Deputy Director.
• The Centre has been successful in the tender bid for providing economic modelling analysis for the Australia-China FTA Feasibility Study conducted by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. CoPS' work will involve model development and application, training for Chinese co-modellers and software provision.
• Mid-year practical GE modelling training courses begin. The courses are fully subscribed with 30 people attending the GE course and 15 people attending the second-week's data base course.
• Starting in July Tony Meagher will be travelling to most major capital cities presenting his labour market forecasts to clients of the forecasting service.

June 2004

• James Giesecke completed teaching of the first semester course "Applied General Equilibrium Economics". This is a third-year course taught by the Centre of Policy Studies for the Department of Economics. Typically, around 30 students are enrolled.
• Dr Laurent Cretegny from the Department of Economics, Lausanne, Switzerland completed his 12-month stay at CoPS. During his time here Laurent prepared a number of papers based on his PhD thesis for publication. Laurent also found time to travel widely with his wife and two children.
• Glyn Wittwer has commenced a three-year project funded by the Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation. This will entail updating global statistics on grape and wine production, and consumption and international trade of wine. TERM will be used to analyse the impact of rapid wine industry growth over the past decade on regional Australia. And the database of global wine model developed in part by Glyn will be updated for analysis.
• Janine Jensen, a PhD Candidate from Trinity College in Dublin, started a 12-month stay. During her time here Janine will be constructing a dynamic CGE model of Ireland with special emphasis on environmental factors.
• Peter Dixon, Alan Powell, Maureen Rimmer, Yin Hua Mai and Ashley Winston head to Washington DC to present papers at the seventh Annual conference on Global Economic Analysis. Alan also attended the GTAP Board meeting which was held prior to the conference.

May 2004

• Ken Pearson and Mark Horridge were instructors at a GTAP training course in Buenos Aires hosted by the Inter-American Development Bank and the Center for Global Trade Analysis. 30 participants from 10 South American countries learnt how to use the GTAP CGE model to simulate the effects of trade deals and other policy changes.
• Mark Horridge and Philip Adams delivered a modelling training course at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, The course, which was funded through the Carnegie Foundation, provided training in the use of a single-country South African model to students from countries such as Nigeria, Cameroon and Rwanda.
• Professor Tom Rutherford from the University of Colorado returned to the US after spending 12 months at CoPS as a visiting scholar. During his stay Tom, in collaboration with Mark Horridge, Ken Pearson and Laurant Cretegny, developed new software that allows MPSGE models to be solved using GEMPACK.

April 2004

• Jill Harrison and Ken Pearson release an early version of GEMPACK version 9 to CoPS workers. The new version will go on sale after several months of in-house testing.
• Mark Horridge and Philip Adams delivered a two-week GTAP training course at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. AusAid funded the course. Fifteen people from several countries attended.
• John Madden attended the World Conference of the Regional Science Association International at Port Elizabeth in South Africa. He presented two papers entitled, "Regional Adjustment to Globalisation: Developing a CGE Analytical Framework" and "A Multiregional Computable General Equilibrium Framework for Analysing Adjustment Pressures in South Africa". John also attended a meeting of the Association's International Council of which he is an elected member.
• TERM (The Enormous Regional Model created by Mark Horridge) is now running in dynamic mode. It has a variable aggregation capability. Labour market adjustment within the model occurs at the regional level. Glyn Wittwer is currently using dynamic TERM for projects with Plant Health Australia and Geoscience Australia.
• Mark Horridge travelled to Piracicaba, Brazil to begin a two-month visit. During his stay he worked with Joaquim Bento of the Escola Superor de Agricultural Luiz de Queiroz, Universidade de Sao Paulo, to link a multi-regional CGE model of Brazil with a large dataset containing characteristics of 250,000 individuals.

March 2004

• James Giesecke continues data collection and model development as part of a large ARC-funded grant to explore the forces behind historical change in the Australia economy.
• Peter Dixon and Maureen Rimmer continue development of a large dynamic model of the US economy. The work is assisted by a grant from the US International Trade Commission.

February 2004

• The first practical GE training course to be held at the start of the year finishes. The course was fully subscribed, with a large group from mainland China in attendance.

Older

• CoPS Director Professor Peter Dixon receives Economic Society of Australia 2003 Distinguished Fellow Award (acceptance speeches).
• On Friday 1 August 2003 CoPS hosted a one-day regional conference entitled The City and The Bush.