The Australian financial sector has grown rapidly in recent decades and now looks big by global standards. The paper suggests that most of the growth has been driven by outward shifts in the demand for financial services driven by household preferences, by the availability of a wider range of...

There has been considerable interest in access rates in Australia since the development of National Competition Policy. This paper provides a framework for analysing the different situations in which access is an appropriate policy tool. It argues that access does not necessarily raise welfare...