Australian competition policy 1900-1974 : the political economy of the public interest

Gentle, Dorothy Geraldine. (1979). Australian competition policy 1900-1974 : the political economy of the public interest PhD Thesis, School of Economics, The University of Queensland.

       
Attached Files (Some files may be inaccessible until you login with your UQ eSpace credentials)
Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads
THE1749.pdf Full text application/pdf 26.06MB 1
Author Gentle, Dorothy Geraldine.
Thesis Title Australian competition policy 1900-1974 : the political economy of the public interest
School, Centre or Institute School of Economics
Institution The University of Queensland
Publication date 1979
Thesis type PhD Thesis
Total pages 458
Language eng
Subjects 14 Economics
Formatted abstract This study applies the developing theory of the public interest to Australian competition policies from 1900 to 1974. Public policies may be considered to provide public goods to various groups. Determining the "public interest" therefore involves political weighing of the collective goods and bads provided by competition and monopoly to the nation as a whole and to groups within it. As the interests of consumer groups and efficiency in resource allocation are among the set of objectives of government policy they are given some weight in policy design and implementation, but the public interest is unlikely to be conceived solely in terms of these two objectives, as Paretian welfare economics assumes.

Examination of Australian competition policies reveals that governments and the courts have consistently rejected a consumer welfare standard of the public interest in favour of a standard giving more weight to producers (labour as well as capital) and government, and have given substantial weight to goals other than efficiency, particularly fairness, stability and employment, and macro-economic management.

The study concludes from this that policies which provide collective bads to significant groups of producers are unlikely to be implemented in Australia. Furthermore, the provision of collective goods to consumers is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for market intervention in Australia. Economists may have a greater chance of influencing public policy if they recognise that simple consumer welfare standards of the public interest are not sufficient, and expand their analyses of policy proposals to include the effects on a range of objectives and groups in the community.

Keyword Monopolies -- Australia.
Competition.
Australia -- Commerce.

 
Citation counts: Google Scholar Search Google Scholar
Access Statistics: 59 Abstract Views, 1 File Downloads  -  Detailed Statistics
Created: Wed, 27 Apr 2011, 15:11:05 EST by Ning Jing on behalf of The University of Queensland Library