Achieving Better Regulation of Services

Achieving Better Regulation of Services contains the proceedings of a joint Productivity Commission and Australian National University (ANU) conference directed at improving the regulation of services industries in Australia and overseas. It outlines principles of good regulatory design and identifies regulatory options to deliver better economic and social outcomes.

The volume brings together the conference papers by leading Australian and international experts in the fields of regulation, services and international trade. It also includes assessments of each paper by prominent discussants and summaries of the issues raised in general discussion.

Achieving Better Regulation of Services canvasses:

• why regulate services;
• the range of regulatory responses open to government;
• frameworks for assessing potential regulatory action;
• ways of promoting competition in network industries with natural monopoly characteristics, especially in the areas of telecommunications, rail transport and international aviation;
• the scope for regulation to promote consumer confidence in banking, pharmacies and the professions;
• the potential for regulation to achieve social objectives by drawing on issues relevant to gambling, community services and culture;
• issues associated with measuring the effects of regulation;
• the potential gains from international regulatory reform; and
• whether domestic or international institutions (such as the WTO) can facilitate better regulation.

Contributors to the conference volume include:

Prof Patrick Messerlin (Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris), Dr Pierre Sauvé (Harvard University), Dr Will Martin (World Bank), Mr Aaditya Mattoo (World Bank), Mr Gary Banks (Productivity Commission), Prof Christopher Findlay (ANU), Prof Richard Snape (Productivity Commission), Prof Stephen King (University of Melbourne), Dr Robert Albon (ANU), Dr Jeff Carmichael (Australian Prudential Regulation Authority) and Mr Robert Fitzgerald AM (NSW Community Services Commission).