ABSTRACT
Over the past 30 years Australian economists have scrutinised public policy using a market failure/government failure approach to policy evaluation, with considerable success in terms of creating insight into the nature of the measures and their impact on economic efficiency. Over the same period the nature of government policy has been the subject of considerable reform, with many long-standing policies being brought into question and finally being abolished. No longer is microeconomic policy in Australia based on the use of protective measures to support domestic manufacturing and agriculture, as it was in the early 1970s, along with support for substantial government business enterprises in the communications, transport and energy sectors of the economy. Instead a more market based and global approach has been adopted by most governments, including making use of microeconomic techniques to evaluate government policy proposals.
