The topic Over the past 30 years governments in Australia introduced a set of policies that have come to be known as ‘microeconomic reform’.  These policies shared a defining characteristic – the intention to enable individual agency and markets to play a greater role in economic activity. The extensive scope and scale of the policies have made microeconomic reform a (perhaps the) major theme of economic policy-making in Australia during this time.  In this talk I will provide an overview of this episode of policy reform.  I will begin with a general outline of microeconomic reform and a description of the main explanations for why the reforms occurred.  Then I will provide a series of brief reviews of the main areas of changes to policy: finance; manufacturing; agriculture; labour; government business activity; communications and utilities; and competition policy.   The speaker Jeff Borland is Professor of Economics at the University of Melbourne.  He has a B.A. (Hons) in Economics and History from the University of Melbourne, and a PhD in Economics from Yale University.  In 2010 he was Visiting Professor of Australian Studies at Harvard University.  Jeff’s main research interests are analysis of the operation of labour markets in Australia, program and policy evaluation and design, and Australian economic history.  In 1997 he was awarded the Australian Academy of Social Sciences Medal for Excellence in Scholarship in the Social Sciences, and in 2002 was made a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.  Jeff’s current teaching is in the areas of microeconomics, Australian and world economic history, and sports economics.  At University of Melbourne he has been a recipient of the Ed Brown University Teaching Prize and the Dean’s Award for Individual Teaching, and in 2007 he was awarded a Carrick Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning.  He is currently Co-Editor of Economic Inquiry and on the Board of Editors of the Journal of Sports Economics, and between 1998 and mid-2002 was Co-Editor and Editor of the Economic Record.  He has acted as a consultant on labour market and microeconomics issues to organisations such as the OECD, IMF, ACCC, New Zealand Treasury, and Productivity Commission.   Please register for this seminar here: http://esavic2014pd4.eventbrite.com.au