INSIGHTS INTO ECONOMIC REGULATION

The Australian Centre of Regulatory Economics (ACORE) is to be established at the Australian National University, with a unique research and education program to begin in 2004.

The multimillion-dollar Centre will bring together an array of world-class experts to undertake the most extensive program of research on economic regulation in Australia.

It will also introduce three new types of postgraduate programs, providing an education program which is currently unavailable. Intensive Summer School courses will also be established on selected topics for senior staff of regulatory bodies and industry.

ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Chubb said the centre was a joint initiative of Australian regulatory agencies, organisations that are subject to regulation and Australia’s national university. 

“This Centre will add further to the University’s intellectual leadership in economics and regulation,” Professor Chubb said.

“The ANU was established as Australia’s national university to consider the big issues for Australia and Australian institutions, so it is fitting we will be the home of such an important initiative.” 

Mr Lew Owens, Chairman of the Essential Services Commission of South Australia and convenor of the working party representing the organisations supporting this initiative, said

“This is an important step in the development of the regulatory discipline in Australia. It will ensure that Australia continues to refine and challenge the various approaches to regulation and we deliver value from regulation across the regulated industries”.

The bid was led by ANU Faculty of Economics and Commerce and included input from the Australasian leader in auction theory Dr Flavio Menezes.

“The ANU has a significant concentration of staff expert in various aspects of regulation including those in the Regulatory Institutions Network, Faculty of Law, Asia Pacific School of Economics and Government and the National Graduate School of Management,” the Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Commerce, Professor Keith Houghton said. 

“The Centre draws on this impressive array of expertise and also on the significant talents of many outside the ANU. 

“One of the major structural changes that has occurred is the transformation of parts of the
public sector into government-owned independent corporate structures or the private sector. Generally these organisations and companies are then wrapped in a regulatory framework that has different economic incentives and imperatives than in unregulated or less regulated environments. 

“There is much more we need to know about these types of regulatory environments.  This Centre will provide independent research on matters crucial to regulators and those that are regulated.  It will also be the key source of key educational programs.”

Wold renowned regulation expert Professor John Braithwaite said “Australia leads the world in many aspects of regulatory research. With the ANU so important in this leadership and ANU being the highest ranked Australian university in economics, a world class
regulatory economics centre at ANU is a natural step, and an exciting step for Australia."

Professor Chong Choi, who recently moved from being Director of the University of Cambridge MBA program to the position of Executive Director of the National Graduate School of Management at ANU said research and teaching on ‘regulation’ was spreading throughout the world.

“ACORE in ANU will combine the best of rigorous, economic and market theories, complimented by institutional and social insights from ANU's other schools in social sciences and management,” Professor Choi said.

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