Date
From: Thursday November 26, 2015, 9:00 am
To: Thursday November 26, 2015, 4:00 pm
The Economic Society of Australia (Victoria Branch), supported by the Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources, invites you to attend a forum on Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA). The forum will focus on CBA in Government investment appraisal.
Event flyer -
Event closed for registrations
Why attend?
Understanding the conceptual basis for CBA is critical for those involved in studies that seek to inform investment decisions. As well as providing attendees with expert views on the role of CBA in decision making (including its strengths and limitations), the forum will explore current topical issues in CBA including wider economic impacts, measuring non-market benefits and costs, and valuing human life. It will also explore the use of real options analysis to inform infrastructure decisions.
The forum will provide attendees with an opportunity to hear from and discuss key issues with experts in CBA.
Who should attend?
The forum will be of interest to both users and developers of CBA.
The forum will be invaluable to public policy managers involved in developing and presenting evidence to inform investment and policy decisions.
Date, time and venue
8.45am arrivals
From 9.00am to 4.00pm
Thursday, 26th November 2015
Rydges, Melbourne
186 Exhibition Street
To register
Closed for registrations
Registration fees
** EARLY BIRD – TO 28 OCTOBER 2015
- Non Members $190 (incl. GST) Members - $140 (incl. GST)
** STANDARD – AFTER 28 OCTOBER 2015
- Non Members $240 (incl. GST) Members - $180 (incl. GST)
Note: membership to the Economic Society is from only $90 (incl. GST) per annum.
Confirmed speakers
Anthea Harris – Lead Deputy Secretary, Strategy and Planning, Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources.
Anthea is currently Lead Deputy Secretary, Strategy and Planning at the Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources. Formerly Chief Executive Officer of the Climate Change Authority, Anthea is an experienced senior executive with a strong record of leading the collaborative development and delivery of strategic policy for both State and Federal Governments. Anthea has previously held senior roles within the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, led the Secretariat for the National Emissions Trading Taskforce and held positions with the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet and at the Productivity Commission.
Chris Olszak – Director, Aither
Chris is an economist with 15 years of consulting experience. He specialises in public policy and economic appraisal with a focus on infrastructure, natural resources and the environment. Chris has completed numerous economic cost benefit analysis projects for Victorian Government policies, programs and projects. He recently completed Aither’s review of the $600 million program of Environmental Contribution levy investments over the last 10 years for DELWP and has undertaken CBAs for a range of integrated water management projects. At a national level, Chris advises Infrastructure Australia in their review of cost benefit analyses and business cases for projects being considered for the National Infrastructure Priority List. He brings a practical yet principled approach to economic appraisal, with a focus on engaging his non-economist clients through the process. He co-founded Aither in 2012 after previously working with Frontier Economics, URS and Arthur Andersen.
Dr George Rivers – Associate Dean (Research Collaboration) in the Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University
George has a Bachelor of Economics (Honours), a Masters of Economics and a PhD in industrial economics from Monash University. He has worked in a range of industry-related research projects including, most notably, his research for the Royal Botanic Gardens on benefit transfer, which played a key role in securing $21 million from the Bracks Government for the construction of Stage 2 of the Australian Garden. Another example of his impactful industry engagement is his work on power line safety for Energy Safe Victoria, which was used as evidence by the 2009 Black Saturday Bushfire Royal Commission. He has also undertaken contract research for organisations including: the Department of Primary Industries; the Department of Sustainability and Environment; the Department of Justice; The Department of Business Innovation; the Australian Tax Office; and the Australian Institute of Building Surveyors. The range of research projects he has worked on has included: road safety; animal welfare; regulation reform; integrated water management; and ICT innovation and productivity. His research interests relate to the theory of the firm including mergers and acquisitions, downsizing and transaction costs.
Robert Kinghorn – Associate Director, Advisory, KPMG
Rob has over ten years' experience in infrastructure project and policy appraisal, predominantly in the transport sector. He has prepared inputs to a variety of business case submissions for capital funding for major highway, rail, urban public transport, port and freight projects in the UK and Australasia, providing advice to various state road and transport agencies as well as private sector clients.
Professor Lin Crase – Director, Centre for Water Policy and Management, La Trobe University
Lin is Professor of Applied Economics with the School of Economics at La Trobe University. He is also the Director of the Centre for Water Policy and Management and the Albury-Wodonga campus. Lin has a PhD in Economics and his fields of competence are primarily in water policy, institutions for managing water allocations, water property rights and analysis of the trade-offs between sectors that compete for water access. He is currently managing research projects for the Commonwealth government and regularly provides advice to state and regional agencies on water policy. He has published four books and more than 75 refereed journal articles along with numerous book chapters, conference papers and invited contributions. He is regularly sought out by the media and others for his views on the political economy of water policy in Australia.
Dr Bethany Cooper – Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Water Policy and Management, La Trobe University
Dr Bethany Cooper is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Water Policy and Management. In recognition of the quality of her research, Dr Cooper has received numerous scholarly awards, including a Committee for Economic Development of Australia award. Her PhD and subsequent research has focused on choice behaviour, non-market valuation and water policy and she has published several empirical studies in prestigious scholarly journals, such as the Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Water Resources Research. Dr Cooper has also completed a number of projects funded by major water utilities and regulatory bodies.
Rex Deighton-Smith – Director, Jaguar Consulting
Rex has 30 years’ public policy experience, specialising in regulatory policy and reform through most of this period, while also working extensively on competition policy and on policy analysis and development more generally. An independent consultant since 2000, as Director of Jaguar Consulting his clients include a wide range of Federal and State government departments and regulatory agencies and several international organisations.
He previously worked for several years in the OECD’s Public Governance Directorate in Paris, contributing to the development of the OECD's conceptual model of regulatory policy and governance, and working on the OECD's program of country reviews of regulatory reform, which provides targeted and country specific advice on better regulation priorities.
Rex was previously the Director of the Victorian Government's Office of Regulation Reform, with responsibility for managing the Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) system and implementing government regulatory reform policies more broadly. He is recognised internationally as a RIA expert and has published widely on methodological and process issues in RIA in both Europe and Australia, as well as being the author of some of the most substantial RIA of proposed regulation developed in Australia.
Rex was appointed as a founding member of the Advisory Board of Monash University's Centre for Regulatory Studies and has lectured in the Centre's Master of Regulatory Studies degree program since 2006.
Marianne Lourey – Deputy Executive Director, ACIL ALLEN CONSULTING
Marianne Lourey is a Director in ACIL Allen Consulting’s Melbourne office. Marianne has more than 30 years of experience, predominantly in the energy sector, working in, and consulting to, government, regulators and industry. She has worked in a broad range of areas including energy and climate change policy, and economic regulation.
As the Executive Director responsible for energy and earth resources policy within the Victorian Government, Marianne was a member of a small group, led by DTF, to examine methodologies, including real options analysis, which could be applied across government to assess projects subject to a high level of uncertainty. Given the uncertainties associated with climate change policy at that time, Marianne instigated a project to apply real options thinking to inform the strategy and planning for carbon capture and storage in Victoria.
ACIL Allen has provided advice on the application of real options analysis in a range of industries, particularly water supply augmentation, defence and technology-based industries. In 2012, ACIL Allen assessed the application of real options analysis for the appraisal and procurement of infrastructure and ICT for DTF. More recently, ACIL Allen provided advice to the Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources on using real options methods in planning transport infrastructure and strategy.
Program
| Time |
Topic |
Speaker |
| 9.00 – 9.10am |
Welcome and introduction |
Dr Rodney Maddock – President, Economic Society of Australia (Vic Branch)Anthea Harris – Lead Deputy Secretary, Strategy and Planning, Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources |
| 9.10 – 9.55am |
Overview – Role and importance of CBA |
Chris Olszak - Director, Aither |
| 9.55 – 10.40am |
The policy environment in Victoria as it relates to CBA |
Anthea Harris - Lead Deputy Secretary, Strategy and Planning, Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources |
| 10.40 – 11.00am |
Morning tea |
|
| 11.00 – 11.45am |
Fundamental concepts in CBAOverview of issues and challenges |
George Rivers – Associate Dean (Research Collaboration) in the Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University |
| 11.45am – 12.30pm |
Wider economic impacts – issues and measurement for CBA |
Robert Kinghorn – Associate Director, Advisory, KPMG |
| 12.30 – 1.15pm |
Lunch |
|
| 1.15 – 2.00pm |
Contemporary approaches to including non-market benefits in CBA |
Professor Lin Crase – Director, Centre for Water Policy and Management, La Trobe UniversityDr Bethany Cooper – Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Water Policy and Management, La Trobe University |
| 2.00 – 2.45pm |
The value of a statistical life: How can we include lives saved and injuries prevented in benefit/cost analysis?” |
Rex Deighton-Smith – Director, Jaguar Consulting |
| 2.45 – 3.00pm |
Afternoon tea |
|
| 3.00 – 3.45pm |
Use of real options analysis to inform infrastructure decisions |
Marianne Lourey – ACIL ALLEN CONSULTING |
| 3.45 – 4.00pm |
Summary of discussions and close |
Dr Rodney Maddock – President, Economic Society of Australia (Vic Branch)Anthea Harris – Lead Deputy Secretary, Strategy and Planning, Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources. |
Venue
Rydges, Melbourne
186 Exhibition Street, Melbourne Victoria
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