Last updated Error and Design: Economics in (and some Economics of) the Australian Competition Tribunal
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Opinion pieces
In an article for Agenda Magazine (Vol 16, Number 3) Henry comments on recent decisions of the the Australian Competition Tribunal.
The Australian Competition Tribunal plays a central role in the Australian regulatory system. Three of the Tribunal’s recent decisions are examined and found to have significant errors. It is argued on the basis of the economics of the institutional design that these errors are inevitable in a system where regulatory decisions are based on vague standards. It is concluded that the quality of regulation would be improved by a shift to a regulatory system that relied less on such vague standards and more on prescriptive, explicit rules.
Read the full text of Henry's article here.
In Defence of Cost Benefit Analysis
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In this paper for "Agenda" (Volume 16, Number 4) Henry compares cost-benefit analysis (CBA) to multi-criteria analysis (MCA).
Download attachment(s): [ In Defence of Cost-Benefit Analysis.pdf ]
Setting access prices:A critique of the ACCC’s approach in telecommunications
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Opinion pieces
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Download attachment(s): [ Setting access prices: A critique of the ACCC’s approach in telecommunications ]
Fearless watchdog or his master's voice
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Download attachment(s): [ Fearless watchdog or his masters voice ]
More on the ACCC Draft Merger Guidelines
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Joshua Gans has replied to my comments on the ACCC draft merger guidelines on his blog site. While my comments touched on several aspects of the draft guidelines, Gans only deals with one, which is the guidelines’ emphasis on vertical mergers. In my comments, I suggested that this emphasis was difficult to understand, as vertical mergers rarely raise competition issues (and more often promote efficiency).
The ACCC’s Draft Merger Guidelines: Still a Work In Progress (One Hopes)
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The ACCC’s draft new Merger Guidelines (“the Guidelines”) are long overdue and, even if for that reason alone, should be welcomed. The Commission’s previous Guidelines, issued in 1999, were the culmination of a lengthy process of elaboration, and represent a substantial and enduring intellectual achievement. But the theory and practice of merger analysis has moved on considerably since then. Updated Guidelines were badly needed if clear guidance was to be provided about the Commission’s approach to analysing mergers.
Should the States Be Paid to Do the Right Thing?
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Competition policy payments are back in favour, with the Rudd Government, the States and even the Business Council all embracing the idea that States should be paid for undertaking reforms. But even if competition payments were a good idea in the 1990s, do they make sense now? The answer is that they do not.
Time to reform the Trade Practices Act
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Reports that the Government is considering revising the Trade Practices Act so as to strengthen the “Birdsville amendments” (which seek to prohibit “predatory” pricing by large businesses) are deeply concerning.