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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
CPRS handouts will cost the country dearly
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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
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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
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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
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Telecommunications,
Reports / Papers
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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]
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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
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Presented at an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission forum on asset valuation. June 11, 2000
Access and interconnection in network industries
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'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
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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.
The Rental Cost of Sunk and Regulated Capital
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Standard approaches to estimating the cost of capital are vulnerable to two errors when applied to sunk assets subject to economic regulation. First, investors in sunk assets usually have a valuable ability to delay commitment which is therefore an opportunity cost of investment. Second, economic regulation alters the distribution of returns to capital, and may do so in a way that eliminates potential but leaves some risk of losses.
What is regulatory best practice?
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Reports / Papers
A Paper for the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission
Incentive Regulation and Overseas Developments Conference
Holiday Inn, Coogee Beach, Sydney, 18-19 November 1999
The views expressed here are those of the author writing in a strictly personal capacity.
Incentive Regulation and Overseas Developments Conference
Holiday Inn, Coogee Beach, Sydney, 18-19 November 1999
The views expressed here are those of the author writing in a strictly personal capacity.