Great Expectations: Microeconomic Reform and Australia

In this timely work, John Quiggin critically examines the assumptions, the practice and the future of microeconomic reform and its place in the Australian economy. Is it unambiguously true that competition within the infrastructure benefits business and consumers as well as the infrastructure industry concerned? What are the assumptions upon which such great expectations have been placed, and have they held true in the experience of reform? Great Expectations places the prospect of microeconomic reform in its theoretical and historical context. It examines and evaluates transport deregulation, financial deregulation, tariffs and industry policy, communications deregulation, government business enterprises, contracting out, privatisation, and private infrastructure. At a time when Australia's economic basic and future continues to be hotly debated, Great Expectations is essential reading for policy setters and followers in both government and industry, and for students for economic policy at all levels.