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The Fiscal Impact of the Privatisation of the Victorian Electricity Industry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

John Quiggin
John Quiggin*
Affiliation:
School of Economics, Australian National University
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Abstract

This paper is an analysis of the fiscal effects of the privatisation of the Victorian electricity industry. Privatisation is found to be approximately neutral in its effect on the net worth of the Victorian public sector. The buyers of electricity assets lost money, apparently because they anticipated more favourable regulatory treatment than they actually received. Electricity prices were increase prior to privatisation, and are still higher than those in states where the electricity industry has remained in public ownership, but consumers were not directly affected by privatisation as such. There were reductions in employment both before and after privatisation.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , December 2002 , pp. 326 - 339
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2002

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Footnotes

*

The author would like to thank Tristy Fairfield, Andrew McAlister, Andrea Sharam and Nancy Wallace for helpful comments, information and criticism. This research was supported by an Australian Research Council Senior Fellowship and Australian Research Council Large Grant A00000873

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