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Protection and Structural Change form a Contestable Market Perspective
Author(s) -
Pincus Jonathan J.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
australian economic review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.308
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 1467-8462
pISSN - 0004-9018
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8462.1984.tb00458.x
Subject(s) - competition (biology) , normative , contingency , perspective (graphical) , industrial organization , business , economics , market power , set (abstract data type) , barriers to entry , microeconomics , market structure , monopoly , computer science , political science , ecology , linguistics , philosophy , programming language , artificial intelligence , law , biology
Abstract Because they are so well and so flexibly insulated from private competition, highly protected Australian producers in the public sector are resistant to the forces of structural change. The degree of protection is difficult to rationalise as an attempt to ensure that known technology is used efficiently, although it is possible that the threat of entry could, in some circumstances, produce a multifirm industry when a single producer would be cheaper. To set against this undesirable contingency are the possible normative benefits of freedom of entry (in keeping monopolists hones) as well as the positive power of vested interests.