Our Outputs

Please find below some outputs for public access which Lateral Economics has either produced or collaborated to produce in recent times.

  • Engage : Getting on with Government 2.0

    Report of the Government 2.0 Taskforce to the Australian Government, 2009. The Government 2.0 Taskforce was chaired by Nicholas Gruen in 2009 and was charged with producing a blueprint for the Australian Government to improve its efficiency and effective with the use of the internet as a collaborative platform.

  • The economic costs and benefits of scientific infrastructure: the case of AuScope

    This report is a cost/benefit study of the major programs of physical and virtual infrastructure for geoscience and geospatial knowledge of the Australian continent. With detailed analysis of impact pathways Lateral Economics best estimate was that $15 of economic output is generated for every $1 invested in the programs.

  • Improving education by improving information flows

    University and VET students should be able to find out what other students think of the courses they’re considering. They should even be able to find out what other students like them think of them. This report sets out how it can be done

  • Extending Patent Life: Is it in Australia's economic interests?

    In acceding to the Trade Related Intellectual Property (TRIPs) Agreement, amongst many other things, Australia increased the statutory term for both new patents and for patents already running from sixteen to twenty years. This study estimates the economic effect on Australia of these changes.

  • Avoiding Boom Bust

    Although more than two decades of reform has delivered many benefits to Australia, there is still unemployment which remains one of the biggest challenges for the country. Any lasting solution to this problem must be multi-faceted.

  • Rebuilding the Safety Net

    Despite nearly a decade of strong and steady economic growth, unemployment remains quite high in Australia – a sure sign that New Directions are needed.

  • Greater independence for fiscal institutions

    The paper seeks to outline the thinking behind a proposal contained in a recently released discussion paper by the Business Council of Australia (BCA). The proposal was to re-engineer fiscal policy institutions to make them more like monetary policy institutions.

  • More Flexible and Independent Fiscal Policy

    This article outlines a possible reform to the institutions of fiscal policy. This would help guard against fiscal irresponsibility and at the same time substantially improve the scope for fiscal policy to be used in the management of the economic cycle.

  • Trade Liberalisation - Towards a more general approach

    This paper accommodates instruments of ‘new trade liberalisation’ within a more general understanding of trade liberalisation illustrating their similarities and their differences. Both old and new trade liberalisation can, on their own, bring about complete free trade.

  • A proposal for 'extended access' to government owned assets

    The National Competition Policy is a response to the problems of monopoly. The policy includes imposition of rules of access and prices surveillance on infrastructure of national significance as well as associated reform of Government Business Enterprises (GBEs) so that they facilitate the emergence of competitive national markets.

  • Economic Reform: Renovating the Agenda: With an Example from the Market for Information

    The paper argues that the second phase of Australian economic reform is facing diminishing return and the third phase will be marked by return to ‘Mixed Economy’ theme. Readers are invited to consider this third stage as a development of the first two stages rather than some swinging of the pendulum back towards government intervention in any crude sense.

  • Health, Information and Economics: some fresh ideas

    Australia has emerged as a leader in government and economic reform over the last two decades. The political consensus for change has been stronger, and there has been limited backsliding despite changes of government.

  • Adam Smith is to markets as Jane Austen is to Marriage

    To understand Adam Smith on his own terms, seeing him in his own times, the paper proposes a sub-theme: Adam Smith is to markets as his near contemporary Jane Austen is to marriage. In fact not unlike Jane Austen’s novels, Smith’s great books were a tour de force in the eighteenth century rhetorical tradition, with the threefold task of instructing, delighting and persuading their audience.

  • Geeks bearing gifts: Open source and it's enemies

    This report presents information on the economic aspects of open source software (OSS). Though OSS has been an inspiration behind a growing enthusiasm for sharing as a modality of ‘economic production’, it is not just ‘sharing’. Sharing over the internet is integral to its rise, but the engine driving OSS is the fact it cannot be accessed without abiding by and so, standing to propagate its terms.

  • Beyond Central Planning: Innovation in Government in the 21st Century

    Policy Forum: enhancing the national innovation system. The paper discusses the scope of innovation culture within the government and the private sector.