ABS and RBA Joint Conference – 2022 Economic Implications of the Digital Economy

Sydney,

This conference is designed to provide a better understanding of the policy implications arising from digital technology-enabled disruption and explore the links to economic measurement and the information needs of policymakers.

Digital disruption leads to existing business models being supplanted by new models that bring more efficiency to the sale or distribution of products. Consumers are increasingly able to use technology to shop for products at lower prices with greater convenience – which has the impact of reducing the pricing power of businesses. This reduced pricing power, in turn, causes businesses to further intensify their focus on creating greater operational efficiencies.

It is likely that this disruption is becoming a greater factor in the economic outcomes of workers. Increasingly, workers with lower levels of educational attainment are seeing their jobs restructured or eliminated. Unless they have sufficient math and literacy skills, or are retrained, these workers will see their productivity and incomes decline as a result of disruption.

Further digital technology provides opportunities for how government interacts with citizens in the delivery of services such as education and health. It also provides the potential for new approaches to policy setting which are more targeted and evidence based than previously due to the availability of more timely and granular data.

The rise of the digital economy has also seen the rise of firms that do not explicitly charge their customers for the products they offer but instead use the data their customers (passively) provide to generate value. This creates questions for the measurement of their economic output. Further, the network benefits that accrue to firms that are dominant suppliers generates an oligopolistic structure for the industry, which has public-policy implications.

Papers

Session 1: Digital Implications for Business Operations and Production: Tax Policy, International Trade, Production Functions, Capital Investment, Fintech
  • Impact of Digital Innovation on New Products, Processes, and Competition
    Presenter: Professor Elizabeth (Beth) Webster, Swinburne University of Technology
    Download 380KB
  • Digital Service Taxation: An Introduction and Policy Options for Australia
    Presenter: Professor Robert Breunig, The Australian National University
    Download 400KB
  • Valuing Data as an Asset, Implications for Economic Measurement
    Presenter: Michael Smedes, Australian Bureau of Statistics
    Download 487KB
  • Head in the Cloud: Firm Performance and Cloud Service
    Presenters: Dr Catherine de Fontenay, Productivity Commission and Dr Ralph Lattimore, Productivity Commission
    Download 2,100KB
Session 2: Digital Implications for the Labour Market: Skills, Education, Wages, Displaced Workers, Intermediaries
  • The Australian Labour Market and the Digital Economy
    Presenters: Professor Jeff Borland, University of Melbourne and Associate Professor Michael Coelli, University of Melbourne
    Download 830KB
  • Navigating New Forms of Work and Australia’s Social Security System: The Experiences of Australian Ride-share Drivers (paper not available)
    Presenters: Professor Marian Baird, University of Sydney; Dr Tom Barratt, Edith Cowan University; Dr Caleb Goods, University of Western Australia and Dr Alex Veen, University of Sydney
  • Digital Skills in the Australian and International Economies
    Presenter: Angela Hope, National Skills Commission
    Download 3,330KB
Panel Discussion
  • Moderator: Dr Andrew Charlton, Accenture
    Panellist: Dr David Gruen, Australian Bureau of Statistics
    Panellist: Dr Guy Debelle, Reserve Bank of Australia
    Panellist: Danielle Wood, Grattan Institute
    Audio Transcript
Session 3: Digital Implications for Consumers: Competition, Utility, Pricing Power and Inflation, Households as Producers, Data Sovereignty
  • Big Data and the Digital Economy: Benefits and Pitfalls in the Insurance Industry
    Presenter: Elayne Grace, Actuaries Institute
    Download 712KB
  • GDP-B: Accounting for the Value of New and Free Goods
    Presenter: Professor Kevin Fox, University of New South Wales
    Download 623KB
  • Looking under the Lamppost or Shining a New Light: New Data for Unseen Challenges
    Presenters: Mark Cully, Australian Treasury and Elise Whalan, Australian Treasury
    Download 410KB
  • Biographies of Presenters
    Download 198KB