Ten years of the Productivity Commission

The Productivity Commission celebrates the tenth anniversary of its formation this year. It was formed through the amalgamation of three predecessor bodies. These were the Industry Commission, the Bureau of Industry Economics and the Economic Planning Advisory Council. It is worth noting that the Industry Commission itself was formed from the former Industries Assistance Commission, which had earlier been formed from the former Tariff Board.

The Productivity Commission and its predecessor bodies have made many important contributions to the research and analysis of microeconomic issues facing the Australian economy. A nice discussion of the quantitative techniques used in some of the microeconomic research conducted by the Productivity Commission can be found in the following paper by Dr Philippa Dee, a former head of the Productivity Commission's Trade and Economic Studies Branch:

Dee, P (2005), Quantitative modelling at the Productivity Commission, Productivity Commission Consultancy Paper, Productivity Commission, Melbourne.

This paper is available online at this part of the Productivity Commission's website.

Disclosure: I have previously worked for the Productivity Commission on two separate occassions.

Update: As a further disclosure, I should probably note that during one of the occassions that I worked at the Productivity Commission, I was located in the Trade and Economic Studies branch while Dr Philippa Dee was the head of that branch.