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Grain marketing and National Competition Policy: Reform or Reaction?
Author(s) -
Watson A. S.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
australian journal of agricultural and resource economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.683
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-8489
pISSN - 1364-985X
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8489.00089
Subject(s) - economics , commonwealth , statutory law , monopoly , government (linguistics) , competition (biology) , deregulation , marketing , public economics , market economy , economic policy , business , political science , law , ecology , linguistics , philosophy , biology
Grain marketing arrangements in Australia have been controversial for many years. Following an account of the historical background to grain marketing, this article concentrates on more recent debates. The most interesting technical economic argument concerns the validity of claims that statutory marketing authorities with export monopoly powers can obtain higher prices. The article also discusses how marketing in Australia has been affected by Commonwealth and State Government policies with respect to microeconomic reform and privatization. Although major changes appear to have been made in grain marketing and its institutions, there are inherent economic problems with the current approach to deregulation.