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Great Expectations: Microeconomic Reform and Australia

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Microeconomic Reform in Australia, as in most Western economies, has now been more often than not the main focus in the policy agenda of governments. In Australia, the process of microeconomic reform has progressed substantially since the 25 percent across-the-board reduction in tariffs by the Whitlam government in 1973. This process has intensified further in recent years since the adoption by governments of both political persuasions of the Hilmer Report into Competition Policy in 1992. Quiggin argues that there has been in Australia a distortion of economic priorities due to the overstated claims about the benefits of microeconomic reform. This, he argues, has encouraged an uncritical acceptance of "economically unsound policies proposed in the name of competition". Quiggin's analysis of microeconomic reform in Australia includes a much welcomed rigorous adoption of welfare economics principles as well as an indepth explanation of the public and private interest approaches to government policy. In particular, Quiggin critically analyses the deregulation of the financial sector, airlines and telecommunications, as well as tariff reform, privatisation and competitive tendering and contracting. John Quiggin's book is a timely reminder that policies aimed at improving economic efficiency and overall welfare must necessarily include an evaluation of economic fact rather than fiction. This book, while highly technical for undergraduates, is an essential read for all would-be economists or those with an interest in the economic debate in Australia. "Great Expecatations" cements John Quiggin's place as one of Australia's foremost economists. Simply put, this is a book of substance.