IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ausecr/v42y2009i2p121-130.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reflection on Microeconomic Policy Frameworks in Australia, and a Suggestion about Fairness

Author

Listed:
  • Jonathan Pincus

Abstract

For economists, the main test of a microeconomic policy change is its effect on efficiency: gains minus losses, equally weighted. However, it is standard economics that individuals value losses more than gains. Moreover, imposing large, uncompensated and uninsurable policy‐induced losses would be widely regarded as unfair, when they are merely collateral damage from policy action. The article argues the case for adjusting the calculation of efficiency to take account of this ‘unfairness’ and discusses how it could be done. The context is the relatively recent acceptance in Australia of competition, if planned and regulated, as being generally socially beneficial.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan Pincus, 2009. "Reflection on Microeconomic Policy Frameworks in Australia, and a Suggestion about Fairness," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 42(2), pages 121-130, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ausecr:v:42:y:2009:i:2:p:121-130
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8462.2009.00547.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8462.2009.00547.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-8462.2009.00547.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Productivity Commission, 2008. "Modelling Economy-wide Effects of Future TCF Assistance," Research Reports, Productivity Commission, Government of Australia, number 31.
    2. Productivity Commission, 2008. "Modelling Economy-wide Effects of Future Automotive Assistance," Research Reports, Productivity Commission, Government of Australia, number 30.
    3. George Verikios & Xiao-guang Zhang, 2008. "Distributional Effects of Changes in Australian Infrastructure Industries during the 1990s," Staff Working Papers 0802, Productivity Commission, Government of Australia.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jonathan Pincus, 2014. "Public Choice Theory had Negligible Effect on Australian Microeconomic Policy, 1970s to 2000s," History of Economics Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 59(1), pages 82-93, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Peter B. Dixon, 2009. "Comments on the Productivity Commission’s Modelling of the Economy‐Wide Effects of Future Automotive Assistance," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 28(1), pages 11-18, March.
    2. Verikios, George & Zhang, Xiao-guang, 2015. "Reform of Australian urban transport: A CGE-microsimulation analysis of the effects on income distribution," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 7-17.
    3. George Verikios & Xiao-guang Zhang, 2010. "Structural Change in the Australian Electricity Industry During the 1990s and the Effect on Household Income Distribution," Centre of Policy Studies/IMPACT Centre Working Papers g-207, Victoria University, Centre of Policy Studies/IMPACT Centre.
    4. George Verikios & Xiao-guang Zhang, 2013. "The distributional effects of the Hilmer reforms on the Australian gas industry," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 57(2), pages 159-177, April.
    5. Verikios, George & Zhang, Xiao-guang, 2013. "Structural change in the Australian electricity industry during the 1990s and the effect on household income distribution: A macro–micro approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 564-575.
    6. Zhang, Xiao-Guang, 2015. "Incorporating household survey data into a CGE model," Conference papers 332628, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    7. Dixon, Peter B. & Rimmer, Maureen T., 2013. "Validation in Computable General Equilibrium Modeling," Handbook of Computable General Equilibrium Modeling, in: Peter B. Dixon & Dale Jorgenson (ed.), Handbook of Computable General Equilibrium Modeling, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 1271-1330, Elsevier.
    8. Lionel Bopage & Kishor Sharma, 2014. "Liberalization and Structural Change in Australian Automotive Industry: An Analysis of Trade and Productivity Performance: 1962–2008," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 15(3), pages 447-460, September.
    9. Anita King, 2012. "Economy-Wide Impacts of Industry Policy," Treasury Working Paper Series 12/05, New Zealand Treasury.
    10. Jonathan Karnon & Brita Pekarsky, 2020. "Should Health Economic Evaluations Undertaken from a Societal Perspective Include Net Government Spending Multiplier Effects?," Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 467-475, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ausecr:v:42:y:2009:i:2:p:121-130. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/mimelau.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.