Staff profile

Dr Robert Waschik

Senior Lecturer

Faculty of Business, Economics and Law

School of Economics

Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

PhD University of Western Ontario, Canada

Area of study

Economics

Brief Profile

Robert Waschik completed his PhD in Economics at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada, in June 1990. He began working at Wilfrid Laurier University in 1989 as an assistant professor and then as associate professor in 1998. He was appointed to the School of Business at La Trobe University as a lecturer in July 2000. He has taught many courses, primarily in the areas of international trade theory and policy, mathematics for economics, and theoretic and applied microeconomics. His primary research interests are in international trade theory and policy, most recently in computable general equilibrium models of preferential trade agreements.

Teaching Units

  • ECO2MEC Managerial Economics
  • ECO3ITR International Trade
  • ECO4PPO Public Policy (Honours)

 

Recent Publications

``Australia's Carbon Pricing Strategies in a Global Context'' (with Harry Clarke), Economic Record 88(S1) (2012), 22-37.

``Is the Australian Climate Plan Fair to Australia's Energy-Intensive Trade Exposed Industries?'' (with Harry Clarke), Australian Economic Review 45(1) (2012), 105-13.  

``The Effects of Free Trade Areas on Non-Members: Modelling Kemp-Vanek Admissibility'', Journal of Policy Modeling 31(5) (Sept./Oct. 2009), 648-63. 

``A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis of Export Taxes in the Australian Wool Industry'' (with I. Fraser, University of Kent, UK), Economic Modelling 24(4) (July 2007), 712-36. 

``A Numerical General Equilibrium Model with Endogenous Formation of Trading Blocs'' (with T. Fisher, University of Sydney), Journal of Economic Integration 21(4) (December 2006), 881-914. 

``Agricultural Land Retirement and Slippage:  Lessons from an  Australian Case Study'' (with I. Fraser), Land Economics 81(2) (May 2005), pp.206-26. 

``Moving up the Processing Ladder in Primary Product Exports: Sri Lanka's "Value Added" Tea Industry''  (with G. Ganewatta, G. Edwards, S. Jayasuriya), Agricultural Economics 33 (2005), 341-50. 

Older Publications

``The Neoclassical Ambiguity in the Specific Factor Model' (with J.Melvin), Journal of International Trade and Economic Development 10(3) (September 2001), pp. 321-37. 

``Union Bargaining Power, Relative Wages, and Efficiency in Canada' (with T. Fisher), Canadian Journal of Economics, 33(3) (August 2000), pp. 742-65.

``The Non-Equivalence of Tariffs and Quotas in a Dynamic Trade Model' (with J. Konieczny), Review of International Economics 7(4) (November 1999), pp.590-6.

``Tax Policy and Endogenous Factor Supply in a Small Open  Economy', Southern Economic Journal 61(3) (January 1995), pp.755-66. 

``Some Theorems of International Trade with Endogenous Factor Supply', Economics Letters 39 (1992), pp.59-64.

Research projects

``Australia's carbon pricing strategies in a global context'' (with H. Clarke)

The impact of international carbon control measures – and the absence of such measures – on Australian carbon pricing policies are analyzed both at a theoretical and empirical level.  While theory and interest group advocacy suggest a potential case for destination accounting of carbon emissions and border tax adjustments and/or export exemptions, this case is sometimes exaggerated. For example, in the ferrous metals sector, empirical analysis suggests that gains from such refinements are low since carbon leakages and adverse competitiveness effects are small. In other sectors – such as non-ferrous metals – the effects are more pronounced. Exaggerating the competitiveness costs of carbon pricing runs the risk of policy overreaction and unintended protectionism, dramatically increasing the costs of Australian carbon pricing policies. Providing free and tradable emission quotas to exporters and import competing sectors is a ‘second best’ policy but one with practicality in sectors where adverse competitiveness effects do need to be addressed. 

``The Double Dividend Hypothesis in a CGE Model:  Specific Factors and the Carbon Base'  (with I. Fraser). 

We use a Computable General Equilibrium model to examine the Double Dividend (DD) hypothesis.  Using the GTAP model data for Australia and the UK, we examine three environmental taxes on the production of energy goods.  Following Bento and Jacobsen (2007), we examine the role played by specific factors in the production of energy goods.  For Australia the  DD is larger with a higher share of specific factors and when revenue is recycled through reductions in consumption taxes. For the UK we find virtually no evidence of a DD for either recycling instrument.    

``Parametric Versus Nonparametric Hedonic Analysis of Tax Changes on House Prices'' (with J. Bugden, I. Fraser, J. Racine).  

The Melbourne property market has experienced rapid price increases. It is argued that the First Home Owner Grant (FHOG) introduced on 1 July 2000 has contributed significantly to these price increases. The  FHOG provides a natural experiment to evaluate the effects of an external shock (i.e., government subsidy) on housing prices in Australia. We explain the behaviour of housing prices in Melbourne between 1996-2001 by employing hedonic pricing functions.  To estimate the model we employ recent developments in nonparametric estimation techniques that have been shown to significantly improve the econometric estimates derived. Thus, this project provides a better understanding of the forces driving housing prices and the impact of external shocks.