With Greece's public debt crisis reverberating around the world it is timely that a nation's debt levels are a key topic for the more than 400 of Australia's leading and up-and-coming economists at QUT for the Australian Conference of Economists (7-10 July).
Professor Uwe Dulleck, from QUT's School of Economics and Finance and chairman of the program committee, said the Greek crisis is an example of how nations' economies are intricately linked and how important it is to consider how much public debt is acceptable.
"Five of the world's best economists are coming to Brisbane to discuss with their Australian colleagues current economic challenges as well as advances in the methods and concepts economists rely upon," Professor Dulleck said.
"The conference participants are tackling the key economic issues that are affecting us all in our day to day lives using real world data and case studies, informed by theory.
"We have a public policy panel that will discuss whether Australia has a public debt problem and the lessons we can take from the US and Europe. The panel includes former RBA board members Bob Gregory and Warwick McKibbin.
"Other topics include papers on monetary policy in Australia and internationally, and a keynote address from Australian statistician David Kalisch on the state of economic statistics in Australia will give an insight into the figures on which economic forecasting is based.
"Of extreme relevance to Australia at the moment is the housing affordability and we will have a session with economists, including James Wang from the Reserve Bank of Australia, on housing, monetary policy and financial markets.
"Energy and climate change are also topical and this will include a paper on Economic efficiency versus energy efficiency: never the twain shall meet.
"The Competition Policy review will be discussed by the review chairman , Ian Harper, as well as ESA member and Shadow Minister for Competition, Andrew Leigh, and former ACCC commissioner Stephen King, in another policy panel."
Professor Dulleck said QUT speakers from the Queensland Behavioural Economics Group would present their research for ASIC on increasing reporting compliance in bankruptcy and investor risk taking.
"This will be Australia's largest conference of economists for 2015. The audience ranges from the best economic researchers to those making decisions in government and business," Professor Dulleck said.
The program for the Australian Conference of Economists is here.
Media contact: Niki Widdowson, QUT media, 07 3138 2999 or n.widdowson@qut.edu.au.
