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Looking Back on Microeconomic Reform: A Sceptical Viewpoint

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

John Quiggin*
Affiliation:
Schools of Economics and Polical Science, University of Queensland
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Abstract

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Microeconomic reform dominated Australian economic policy from the early 1980s until the end of the 20th century. Despite strong claims of success, focusing on the economic expansion since 1992, and rapid productivity growth between 1993–94 and 1998–99, evidence of improvements in the performance of the economy as a whole is weak and inconclusive. For an adequate evaluation of the microeconomic reform period, it is necessary to distinguish several different phases of reform and to evaluate reforms on a case-by-case basis.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2004

Footnotes

*

The author wishes to thank Nancy Wallace for helpful comments and criticism. This research was supported by an Australian Research Council Federation Fellowship.

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