Economy-wide Consequences of Regulation and Privatisation Policy Regimes

The retreat from public ownership in the services sector has left numerous private monopolies and oligopolies supervised by regulatory agencies. Service industries still in government ownership or subject to regulation now generate two-thirds of Australia s GDP and employ three-quarters of its workforce. Because sectoral regulatory regimes have common elements, regulatory policy changes have important implications for all regulated industries and hence for the whole economy. This study would offer an economy-wide analysis of regulatory policies that represents monopoly and oligopoly behaviour explicitly, focussing on levels of investment and technical innovation in regulated sectors and implications for overall economic performance.