Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-8zxtt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T18:20:52.909Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Looking Back on Microeconomic Reform: A Sceptical Viewpoint

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

John Quiggin*
Affiliation:
Schools of Economics and Polical Science, University of Queensland

Abstract

Microeconomic reform dominated Australian economic policy from the early 1980s until the end of the 20th century. Despite strong claims of success, focusing on the economic expansion since 1992, and rapid productivity growth between 1993–94 and 1998–99, evidence of improvements in the performance of the economy as a whole is weak and inconclusive. For an adequate evaluation of the microeconomic reform period, it is necessary to distinguish several different phases of reform and to evaluate reforms on a case-by-case basis.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The author wishes to thank Nancy Wallace for helpful comments and criticism. This research was supported by an Australian Research Council Federation Fellowship.

References

Australian Bureau of Statistic (2003), Australian System of National Accounts, Cat. No. 5204.0, Table 22, Australian Government Publishing Service (AGPS), Canberra.Google Scholar
Australian Centre for Industrial Relations Research and Training (1999), Australia at Work: Just Managing?, Prentice Hall, Sydney.Google Scholar
Bailey, D. (2003), Is the Australian airline market contestable? Unpublished Honours thesis, University of Queensland.Google Scholar
Bishop, S., Dodd, P., Officer, R.R. (1987), Australian Takeovers: the Evidence, 1972–85, Centre for Independent Studies, St Leonards, Sydney.Google Scholar
Bittman, M., Rice, J. (2002), ‘The spectre of overwork: an analysis of trends between 1974 and 1997 using Australian time-use diaries’, Labour and Industry, 12 (3), 525.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blandy, R., et al (1985) Structured Chaos: the Process of Productivity Advance, Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Bollard, A. and Buckle, R. (Eds) (1987) Economic Liberalisation in New Zealand, Allen & Unwin, Port Nicholson Press, Wellington.Google Scholar
Constantinides, G., Donaldson, J., Mehra, R. (1998), Junior can’t borrow: a new perspective on the equity premium puzzle, NBER Working Paper Series No. 6617, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dawkins, P., Kelly, P. (2003) Hard Heads, Soft Hearts: a New Reform Agenda for Australia, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards.Google Scholar
Dawson, D., McCulloch, K., Baker, A. (2002), Extended Working Hours in Australia: Counting the Costs, The Centre for Sleep Research, The University of South Australia, Adelaide.Google Scholar
Forsyth, P. (1998), ‘The gains from the liberalisation of air transport’, Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, 32 (1), 7392.Google Scholar
Edwards, G. (2003), ‘The story of deregulation in the dairy industry’, Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 47 (1), 7598.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fukuyama, F. (1992) The End of History and the Last Man, The Free Press, New York.Google Scholar
Grant, S., Quiggin, J. (2003), ‘Public investment and the risk premium for equity’, Economica, 70 (277), 118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, F., McIntosh, S. (2001), ‘The intensification of work in Europe’, Labour Economics, 8 (2), 291308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hathaway, N. (1997), ‘Privatisation and the cost of capital’, Agenda, 4 (1), 110.Google Scholar
Higgins, C. (1991), ‘Opening address to the Australian Economic Policy Conference’, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Australian National University, Canberra.Google Scholar
Hilmer, F., Rayner, M., Taperell, G. (1993), National Competition Policy, Report by the Independent Committee of Inquiry, AGPS, Canberra.Google Scholar
Industry Commission (1995), The Growth and Revenue Implications of Hilmer and Related Reforms, Australian Government Publishing Service (AGPS), Canberra.Google Scholar
Kasper, W., Blandy, R., Freebairn, J., Hocking, D., O’Neill, R. (1980), Australia at the Crossroads: Our Choices to the Year 2000, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Sydney.Google Scholar
Kocherlakota, N.R. (1996), ‘The equity premium: it’s still a puzzle’, Journal of Economic Literature, 34 (1), 4271.Google Scholar
Mankiw, N.G. (1986), ‘The equity premium and the concentration of aggregate shocks’, Journal of Financial Economics, 17, 211–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mehra, R., Prescott, E.C. (1985), ‘The equity premium: a puzzle’, Journal of Monetary Economics, 15 (2), 145–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milbourne, R., Cumberworth, M. (1991), ‘Australian banking performance in an era of deregulation’, Australian Economic Papers, 30 (57), 171–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morehead, A., et al (1997), Changes at Work: the 1995 Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey, Longman, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Officer, R. (1999), ‘Privatisation of public assets’, 1–22 in CEDA (Committee for Economic Development of Australia) (ed.), Privatisation: Efficiency or Fallacy? Two Perspectives Google Scholar
Parham, D. (2002a), ‘Productivity growth in Australia: Are we enjoying a miracle?’, Paper presented at Melbourne Institute and The Australian Conference, Towards Opportunity and Prosperity, Melbourne, April.Google Scholar
Parham, D. (2002b), ‘Australia’s 1990s productivity surge and its determinants’, Paper presented at NBER 13th Annual East-Asian Seminar on Economics, Melbourne, June.Google Scholar
Pusey, M. (1991), Economic Rationalism in Canberra: A Nation-Building State Changes Its Mind, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Quiggin, J. (1995), ‘Does privatisation pay?’, Australian Economic Review (2nd quarter), 2342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quiggin, J. (1996), Great Expectations: Microeconomic Reform and Australia, Allen & Unwin, St. Leonards, Sydney.Google Scholar
Quiggin, J. (1997a), ‘Economic rationalism’, Crossings: The Bulletin of the International Australian Studies Association, 2 (1), 312.Google Scholar
Quiggin, J. (1997b), ‘Evaluating airline deregulation in Australia’, Australian Economic Review, 30 (1), 4556.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quiggin, J. (2001), ‘The Australian productivity miracle: a sceptical view’, Agenda, 8 (4), 333348.Google Scholar
Schneider, M. (1998), ‘“Economic rationalism”, economic rationalists and economists’, Quadrant, October, 4853.Google Scholar
Sykes, T. (1994), The Bold Riders, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards.Google Scholar
Walker, B., Walker, B.C. (2000), Privatisation: Sell Off or Sell Out? The Australian Experience, ABC Books, Sydney.Google Scholar
Warhurst, J. (1982), Jobs or Dogma?: the Industries Assistance Commission and Australian Politics, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia.Google Scholar
Weil, P. (1989), ‘The equity premium puzzle and the risk-free rate puzzle’, Journal of Monetary Economics, 24, 401–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wooden, M., Loundes, J. (2002), ‘How unreasonable are long working hours?’, Working Paper 1/2002, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, Melbourne.Google Scholar