The 2013 ACCC/AER Regulatory Conference will be held in Brisbane on 25 and 26 July at the Sofitel Hotel.
The themes of the conference revolve around two major issues – customer involvement and pricing. Questions to be explored will include the following:
Is customer involvement the next frontier for regulatory reform?
How can customer involvement be designed into our regulatory structures?
What can experience in the United States tell us about consumer engagement?
Is economic regulation sending the right pricing signals?
Can pricing be used to manage congestion in our digital communications environment?
Can time-of-use tariffs be designed in such a way that they facilitate efficient pricing and smarter use of electricity networks and at the same time are acceptable to customers?
How should water pricing decisions interact with wider structural adjustment objectives in regional communities?
What are investors looking for when investing in infrastructure assets and what does this imply for regulatory settings?
The following international speakers will be participating in the conference:
Associate Professor James Bushnell, Department of Economics, University of California, Davis
Dr Jonathan Cave, Research Leader, Rand Europe and Senior Lecturer, Warwick University
Professor Michael Crew, Director CRRI and CRRI Professor of Regulatory Economics, Rutgers University
Professor Matthias Finger, Director, MIR, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland
Professor Mark Jamison, Director, Public Utility Research Centre (PURC), University of Florida
Dr Bridger Mitchell, Senior Consultant, Charles River Associates
Mr Sonny Popowsky, Former Consumer Advocate, Pennsylvania and President of the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocate
Professor Catherine Waddams, ESRC Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia
Professor Frank Wolak, Professor of Economics, and Director, Program on Energy and Sustainable Development, Stanford University
To reserve a place please supply your expression of interest to attend this conference to Regulatory.Conference@ACCC.gov.au. There is a limit on numbers.
Other speakers are being added to the program. A detailed program will be published on the ACCC website.
