Last updated 
"Reforms to shipping policies must aim for liberalisation, not covert protectionism" says Henry in The Australian today (10 Dec 2010)
Click here to read the op-ed at the paper's website, or on the link below to download it.
Ill-judged yuletide gift for shippers and unions
Posted in:
Reports / Papers,
Op eds
Download attachment(s): [ Ill-judged_yuletide_gift_for_shippers_and_unions.pdf ]
Hats off to market forces
Posted in:
Op eds,
Reports / Papers
|
Henry comments on the rise of the construction industry in The Australian (29 Jan 2010) Click here to read the full article.
CPRS handouts will cost the country dearly
Posted in:
Reports / Papers,
Environmental economics
|
In a recent article for The Australian (29 Dec 09) Henry comments on the Government's proposed CPRS (Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme) Read more here
Download attachment(s): [ CPRS handouts will cost the country dearly ]
An Excess of Access: An examination of Part IIIA of the Australian Trade Practices Act
Posted in:
Reports / Papers
An Excess of Access: An Examination of Part IIIA of the Australian Trade Practices Act
In a recent issue of 'Agenda' Magazine Henry comments on Part IIIA of the Australian Trade Practices Act.
Abstract:
Part IIIA of the Australian Trade Practices Act defines circumstances in which a facility owner may be required to provide a third party with use of its facility. This paper examines what Part IIIA might be doing from an economic perspective and criticises ‘monopoly leveraging’ arguments for third-party access. It argues that the transactions costs of access are potentially significant, and can exceed any efficiency gains third-party access permits. These contentions are corroborated by reference to the long-running dispute between the Fortescue Metals Group and BHP Billiton Iron Ore over access to rail track in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
Read Henry's article here
In a recent issue of 'Agenda' Magazine Henry comments on Part IIIA of the Australian Trade Practices Act.
Abstract:
Part IIIA of the Australian Trade Practices Act defines circumstances in which a facility owner may be required to provide a third party with use of its facility. This paper examines what Part IIIA might be doing from an economic perspective and criticises ‘monopoly leveraging’ arguments for third-party access. It argues that the transactions costs of access are potentially significant, and can exceed any efficiency gains third-party access permits. These contentions are corroborated by reference to the long-running dispute between the Fortescue Metals Group and BHP Billiton Iron Ore over access to rail track in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
Read Henry's article here
Download attachment(s): [ excess_of_access.pdf ]
The ACCC Merger Guidelines: A reader's manual
Posted in:
Reports / Papers,
Reports / Papers
|
The ACCC Merger Guidelines: A reader’s manual
Henry Ergas,* Eric Kodjo Ralph† and Alex Robson‡
The Merger Guidelines released in March 2008 by the ACCC provide a guide to the analytical approach the ACCC intends to adopt to assessing mergers for the purposes of s50 of the Trade Practices Act. The new guidelines do a relatively good job in listing the factors that the contemporary economic literature identifies as potentially characterising mergers that reduce competition and harm consumer welfare. However, unlike the earlier guidelines, they rarely explain the mechanism connecting the factors to the harm, and the conditions that need to be met for that harm to occur. This article provides a ‘user’s guide’ to the guidelines that explains the reasoning that underpins the guidelines’ assertions, and draws attention to the assumptions on which those assertions rest. We also provide an economic assessment of the guidelines and recommend a simpler criterion by which the ACCC should judge mergers.
Download attachment(s): [ The ACCC Merger Guidelines: A reader's manual ]
Time Consistency in Regulatory Price Setting: An Australian Case Study
Posted in:
Telecommunications,
Reports / Papers
|
In an article for the "Review of Network Economics" (Volume 8, Issue 2) Henry comments on time consistency, especially in relation to Australian telecommunications regulation.
Download attachment(s): [ Time Consistency in Regulatory Price Setting: An Australian Case Study ]
Regulatory Risk [Draft version]
Posted in:
Reports / Papers
Assets with a value of over $130 billion are regulated in Australia. We define regulatory risk as being regulation that increases the cost of servicing this capital and analyse the sources of this risk.
Some economic aspects of asset valuation
Posted in:
Reports / Papers
Presented at an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission forum on asset valuation. June 11, 2000
Access and interconnection in network industries
Posted in:
Reports / Papers
'The most important innovation (in recent regulatory policy)', notes Sir Christopher Foster, an eminent British expert in the field, 'has been the realisation that there is no compelling reason why a monopolist should have the exclusive right to use its distribution network'
L'economia delle autorità indipendenti: alcune riflessioni sui criteri di scelta degli assetti istituzionali
Posted in:
Reports / Papers
Gli economisti sono da lungo tempo interessati a quanto i governi dovrebbero o non dovrebbero fare - un problema descritto da Bentham come corrispondente alla definizione di "agenda" e "non agenda" per un governo. Essi hanno invece prestato minore attenzione al problema del modo in cui un governo dovrebbe agire quando è necessario farlo.