Australia's National Preventative Health Taskforce baulks at the economic approach to public policy that weighs up costs and benefits, and instead adopts a ‘healthist' perspective, with an open-ended and unconditional commitment to maximising health and a jumbling of private and external...

We analyze an oligopoly model where firms choose both quantities and access fees. Per unit prices are determined endogenously to equate quantity demanded with quantity supplied at each firm. In a Nash equilibrium of the game played by firms, the per unit prices equal marginal cost and access...

What is the best way to organize education and achieve the greatest social benefits? Specific matters as to how schools are run — such as class size, teacher certification, teacher salaries, student testing, homework levels, and the curriculum — are important, but the primary issue is...

The Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics estimates of the costs of road congestion in Australian capital cities ($9.4 billion in 2005 and projected to more than double by 2020) are widely cited. But these projections appear to overstate the problem and provide little, if...

In its 2011 NDIS report, the Productivity Commission rationalises its policy recommendation by means of a cost-benefit analysis, claiming that ‘the benefits of the [National Disability Insurance] scheme would significantly outweigh the costs’. But methodology the PC adopts departs from...

The Productivity Commission report ‘Disability Care and Support’ recommends tort liability be replaced by a compulsory, government-run, no-fault scheme. But theory and evidence indicate moving to a no-fault scheme will increase the accident rate. Even a move from non-risk-rated third-party...

The idea of an Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) is to make regulation more efficient and effective by having its designers justify the reasons for implementing a new regulation, consider the costs and benefits of different options at an early stage and take a community-wide perspective of...