regulation

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Lessons learnt from the GFC and how to heed them

April 27, 2019May 20, 2017 by Nicolas Alexiou

The Global Financial Crisis highlighted the shortcomings of the financial sector and its exposure to risk. Fuelled by the failures of financial regulators, governments and central banks, many lessons can be learnt from the GFC.

This article first appeared in Short Supply 2017 – check out the full magazine via the Short Supply tab at the top of this page!

Uber is problematic – but you’ll keep using it anyway

March 3, 2017March 1, 2017 by Justin Liu

Uber is practically a staple of modern transport, but its meteoric rise has come at a cost.

The story of the real Australian economy: Part 3 – The RBA’s toolkit

February 20, 2016May 26, 2015 by Benjamin Wee

In Part 3 of ‘The Story of the Real Australian Economy’, Ben looks at monetary policy setting and the dilemma faced by the Reserve Bank of Australia in light of the economy’s structural problems.

“Water you going to do about it?”

February 20, 2016March 27, 2015 by Anisha Kidd

We use water everyday – but do we value it? and can we?

The Economics of Uber

February 21, 2016August 19, 2014 by Chandan Hegde

Chandan Hegde offers insight into how Uber represents key microeconomic concepts.

The problems (and promise) of microfinance

October 13, 2019April 15, 2014 by Matthew Vethecan

Just three decades ago, billions of people around the world were stuck in a trap. Faced with low incomes on the one hand and exploitative loan sharks the other, they could neither save for the future nor purchase the capital required to generate a living. This changed with the pioneering work of Mohammad Yunus in Bangladesh, and with the establishment of the Grameen Bank in 1983, microfinance was born.

Self-managed super funds: a blessing or a bomb?

October 12, 2019March 22, 2014 by Yannis Goutzamanis

I remember sitting in a finance lecture on superannuation, presumably paying little attention, until the lecturer suddenly decided to embark upon a tangential rant. Being an avid listener of talkback radio on the long drives to and from Monash University, Clayton, I had acquired a taste for the rhetorical art-form commonly known as ‘the rant’. I listened keenly.

Applying economics in the so-called ‘real world’

October 12, 2019January 5, 2014 by Guest

ESC Chairperson Dr Ron Ben-David presents three intriguing challenges for economic regulators in Victoria to get your analytical minds racing.

Competition and the law – economically sound, or theoretically patchy?

February 16, 2016October 12, 2013 by Stephanie Gale

If you look across today’s media, discussion about the level of modern competition appears to be everywhere. Headed by Coles and Woolworths, Australians are slowly seeing numerous facets of their everyday lives taken over by the large conglomerates – petrol, insurance, let alone the (decreasing number of) brands that can be physically purchased when heading to the supermarket.

An interesting question for consideration, at least in my view, is how our legal and enforcement systems actually deal with changes in competition, and how ‘economic’ their motives behind their decisions really are. How does the judiciary impose law onto what would otherwise be the free market – and, for those of us with a piqued interest in the subject, where do economic advisers fit in?

John Freebairn Lecture recap

February 16, 2016September 25, 2013 by Henry Lin

On Thursday the 19^th of September the University of Melbourne hosted the inaugural John Freebairn lecture titled ‘Governing the ungovernable: the market, technology and you’, presented by Professor Stephen King from Monash University. I had the opportunity to attend what was an insightful lecture about how the growing complexity, pace of change and use of technology has brought about a conundrum for market regulators. Stephen King’s speech was broken up into three parts: how regulation has adapted in the context of new technology, how some of the old rules will need remaking as technology has changed many business models, and finally regulating big data and the information revolution. This article will provide a recap of the lecture for those who could not attend the event.

How to regulate a legal cannabis market

February 16, 2016August 17, 2013 by Christine Li

In what had before seemed a distant future for pro-cannabis legalisation advocates, cannabis will soon be legally traded in recreational pot shops as a market good.

The passing of Amendment 64 to the Colorado Constitution last November allows U.S. states to create their own laws regulating marijuana production and consumption within sanction of the federal law.