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Category: Paul Kerin
Privatisation is beneficial, but deal design is important – Paul Kerin
In a recent article in The Australian, Paul Kerin assessed the proposed partial privatisation of electricity network business Western Power by the WA government. He argued that while the proposal is better than continued full government ownership, it won’t deliver the full potential benefits due to several key design choices. The full article is available […]
Chief executives and chairs never like short sellers – Paul Kerin
‘Chief executives and chairs never like short sellers’, points out Professor Paul Kerin in an article in The Australian this week. He argues however that short sellers provide very valuable public services. Read the full story here
Electricity and the perils of second-best thinking – Paul Kerin
In an article in Wednesday’s Australian, Paul Kerin argues that our governments should focus on “first-best” environmental and energy policies to best serve the overall public interest. He warns that the negative consequences of second-best policy choices (such as the large-scale renewable energy target (LRET) and the maximum price cap (MPC) on wholesale electricity) are […]
Benefits of free trade and better FTA governance – Paul Kerin on Alan Jones
Paul Kerin appeared on Alan Jones’ radio program yesterday making the case for free trade and the need to improve governance arrangements that would help ensure that future Free Trade Agreements deliver more of the considerable benefits that are potentially available. This follows on from the article that 7 leading economists (including former Industries Assistance […]
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The looming downside of household leverage – Mike Fitzsimmons & Paul Kerin
Today’s Australian contains a piece by Mike Fitzsimmons and Paul Kerin. The authors note the substantial increase is household leverage over the last quarter of a century, particularly the rise (more than tripling) of household debt relative to cash disposable income. While this may in part be a good thing (reflecting better credit access in […]
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Call for key reforms in trade negotiations
I was honoured to be one of the economists who put their names to a major feature in today’s Australian, titled “Free trade mythology”. Despite the title, we are very much pro free trade – but we call for a number of reforms to our trade negotiation and communication governance processes and a renewed emphasis on […]
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Voting again beats minority government – Paul Kerin
In an article in today’s Australian, I expand on the argument I made on the Adelaide Economic Policy Forum article last Monday (available here) that unless one party can form a majority Federal government, it would be in the public interest to go back to the polls. The key point is that a majority government […]
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Federal election: should we vote again to save the economy? – Paul Kerin
In my January column in Company Director, titled “The election effect” (and available here), I pointed out that economic research shows that in the year leading up to an election, business investment is (on average) about 5% lower than it otherwise would be. As business investment accounts for about 15% of GDP, a typical election […]
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Economic briefing on SA, Australian & global economies – SACES
At the SA Centre for Economic Studies’ Economic Briefing Luncheon this week, the Centre’s Deputy Director Steve Whetton, gave an excellent overview of the SA, Australian and global economies. Steve’s slides are available here.
Beef with knock-back of Kidman sale: a lost foreign direct investment opportunity – Christopher Findlay & Paul Kerin
In their article in The Weekend Australian, Christopher Findlay and Paul Kerin argue that the Federal Treasurer’s rejection of the sale of the S. Kidman & Co. cattle stations to a consortium 80% backed by private Chinese businesses has not been in Australia’s public interest. As well as forgoing the usual benefits that foreign direct […]