Andrew Hauser: What has Australian macroeconomic thought achieved in the past century – and where can it contribute in the next?

Speech by Mr Andrew Hauser, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, to mark the centenary of the Economic Society of Australia at the Australian Conference of Economists, Sydney, 9 July 2025.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Introduction

It is a great honour to address you on the 100th anniversary of the Economics Society of Australia.

It's an honour because, over that past century, Australian thinkers have helped develop some of the most important building blocks in open economy macroeconomics – the branch of economics that seeks to understand how the global trading economy works.

Those were significant – sometimes world-leading – intellectual achievements.

But they were more than just that. Because they also shaped the policies and institutions that helped Australia navigate the global economy of that period so successfully, delivering wealth and stability for its citizens.

Indeed Australian macroeconomic research has pulled that trick off twice. First, powering the ideas that lifted the country out of the Great Depression to flourish after the Second World War. And, second, helping to design a reform program that rescued the country from the slump of the 1970s, and led to more than a quarter century of recession-free growth.

Two Golden Ages, marshalling thought into action.

But to thrive in the next 100 years, Australia's researchers will need to go for the hat-trick.