The Economic Public Interest in a World of Oligopoly

The Australian economy has performed well compared with comparable countries over the last three decades only if we average the excellent performance in the 1990s and the poor performance over the past decade. Real wages over the past decade have stagnated—to an extent without historical parallel. W...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Economic papers (Economic Society of Australia) 2024-03, Vol.43 (1), p.1-9
Main Author: Garnaut, Ross
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Comparative studies
competition
Competition policy
Coordination
Corporate taxes
economic rent
National income
Oligopoly
Public interest
Real wages
Rents
Taxation
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Summary:The Australian economy has performed well compared with comparable countries over the last three decades only if we average the excellent performance in the 1990s and the poor performance over the past decade. Real wages over the past decade have stagnated—to an extent without historical parallel. We cannot understand the economy's underperformance without recognising the increasing claims of economic rents on national income. Correction of weaknesses requires coordination of many policy instruments including measures to reduce the prevalence of rents (competition policy and regulation of oligopoly where competition is not feasible or inefficient) and changes in taxation arrangements to shift the burden of business taxation from firms in competitive activities to firms relying heavily on economic rents.
ISSN:0812-0439
1759-3441
DOI:10.1111/1759-3441.12403