Price Regulation in Australia: How Consistent Has It Been?

We assemble a database consisting of 52 regulatory decisions made by seven different regulators across five different industries. We examine how the proportion of firms' revenue requirements that were disallowed by the regulator vary by regulator, industry and time. Despite the differences in the implementation of price regulation across industries and across jurisdictions in Australia, outcomes are surprisingly consistent. For example, we show that it is not possible to reject the hypothesis that the regulatory outcomes in South Australia, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria are similar despite the different regulatory approaches undertaken in these jurisdictions.