Structural Adjustment - Key Policy Issues
Commission Research Paper
Structural Adjustment - Key Policy Issues was released on 5 October 2001. It sets out the Commission's views, drawing on its own research and experience over the course of many public inquiries, as well as input from leading policy analysts who participated in a Commission workshop, on matters related to the structural reforms that have been undertaken in Australia and other countries over the past decade.
From the Commission's perspective, two distinct sets of issues are central to this debate. The first is the adequacy of the processes and analytical framework used to evaluate reform proposals, particularly in relation to identifying the likely costs and distributional impacts. The second is the importance of effective design and implementation of policy reforms in securing sound outcomes. A continuing challenge for policy makers in this respect is to identify the circumstances in which the social safety net and other generally available measures may be insufficient or inappropriate, and the basis for choosing among additional measures. Also see:
Related publications include:
- Structural Adjustment - Exploring the Policy Issues
- Aspects of Structural Change in Australia
- Reforms in Government Service Provision 1997
- International Benchmarking - Overview 1995, Bureau of Industy Economics report
CONTENTS
Preliminaries
Cover, Copyright, Contents, Foreword, Acknowledgements, Abbreviations, Overview
1 About this paper
2 The benefits and costs of policy changes
2.1 The benefits of making policy changes
2.2 The costs of making policy changes
3 The distributional impacts of policy changes
3.1 Why distributional impacts matter
3.2 Assessing distributional impacts in practice
3.3 Incorporating distributional considerations in an evaluation
3.4 Handling policy trade-offs
4 Should governments assist when policy changes?
4.1 Policy-induced changes versus market-based changes
4.2 Equity and fairness
4.3 Buying-off opposition to reform
4.4 Efficiency considerations
4.5 Few hard and fast rules
5 Adjustment policy - making the right choices
5.1 Overview of additional measures
5.2 The relative performance of additional measures
5.3 Some general comments
A The social safety net and other generally available measures
A.1 A broad profile of generally available measures
A.2 Advantages of relying on generally available measures
A.3 Some weaknesses of generally available measures
A.4 The need for ongoing review and modification
References
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