5 days ago
Australia's Falling Competition Cost $2,000 a Person, RBA Finds
A decline in business competition in Australia from the mid-2000s to the Covid-19 pandemic has hurt productivity and household incomes, according to new analysis by the Reserve Bank.
If competition had not dropped, productivity and therefore output would have been 1% to 3% higher due to resources being better allocated across firms in the economy, the RBA's Jonathan Hambur and Owen Freestone said in a research paper released Thursday. This equates, at the upper end, to around A$3,000 ($2,000) per person, they said.
