Is foreign exchange intervention by central banks bad news for debt markets?: A case of Reserve Bank of Australia's interventions 1986–2003

We investigate the effects of the Reserve Bank of Australia's foreign exchange interventions on the USD/AUD market and 90-day and 10-year interest rate futures markets for the period July 1986–December 2003. Using recently released revised and updated intervention data, we investigate contemporaneous and disaggregated intervention influences and find significant evidence for (i) intervention effectiveness in moderating the contemporaneous exchange rate movements especially if interventions were cumulative and large, (ii) exchange rate volatility reducing effect with a day's lag, (iii) undesirable interest rate movements following interventions in some periods compromising monetary policy effectiveness, and (iv) a volatility reducing effect of cumulative interventions in the 90-day rate, and a volatility increasing effect of large interventions in both the 90-day and 10-year rate futures. These findings are a unique and significant contribution to the prevailing literature as they demonstrate that the RBA's interventions matter not only for the foreign exchange market but also for the debt markets.     

Does poverty lead to non-fatal unintentional injuries in rural Vietnam?

The aim of this study was to identify associations between poverty at the household level and unintentional injury morbidity. A cohort consisting of 24,874 person-time episodes, representing 24,776 people living in 5,801 households (classified into rich, middle income and poor by local authorities in 1999) was followed during 2000, in order to identify and assess non-fatal unintentional injuries. Incidence rate ratios were calculated using a Poisson regression model. The results showed that poverty was a risk factor for unintentional injuries generally. When looking at different types of injury, poverty was a risk for home, work and "other" injuries, protective for school injuries, while the risk of traffic injuries was not affected. The results also showed that communes in mountainous areas were at higher risk for home, work and other injuries. Overall, poverty was associated with unintentional injury morbidity. However, the relationship varied by sex, age and type of injury. Specifically, poverty increased the risk for children and elderly people being injured at home, and for adults (15-59 years) being affected by work injuries.