CoPS Contract Research

The Centre of Policy Studies (CoPS) is a research centre with world-leading experts in computable general equilibrium modeling and policy analysis. The research group includes the chief creator of the ORANI, MONASH and USAGE models, Professor Peter Dixon, and the developers of the GEMPACK software used at the Centre and elsewhere. In the past thirty years, CoPS has built computable general equilibrium (CGE) models for many countries and provided training courses to modelers from all over the world. Today, over 400 organisations in over 90 countries are using CoPS-developed CGE models and GEMPACK software.

The Centre has an extensive commercial practice, involving two main lines of business: advice for government policy makers and businesses; and contract research and training for model builders. Some recent contract work is listed here.

Contract research for policy makers in government and business

CoPS has been employed by Australian and international governments and businesses to undertake:

• Scenario analyses on a wide variety of economic decisions and policies;
• Cost-benefit evaluations of large projects;
• Forward-looking analyses of future changes in microeconomic structures; and
• Evaluations of long-term environmental problems, such as Global warming.

Our clients since the start of 2003 have included:

• the United States International Trade Commission;
• USDA Economic Research Service;
• the United States Environment Protection Agency;
• CREATE University of Southern California;
• Federal Aviation Administration, USA;
• Cato Institute, USA;
• The World Bank;
• The Mitre Corporation USA;
• Government Institute for Economic Research (VATT), Finland ;
• New Zealand Institute of Economic Research Ltd;
• Ministry of Finance, Malaysia ;
• The Bank of Papua New Guinea;
• United Nationals Development Program Vietnam;
• Hassall & Associates International;
• Asian Development Bank Institute;
• The Allen Consulting group;
• McLennan Magasanik Associates;
• Ernst & Young;
• Marsden Jacobs;
• Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu;
• URS Australia Pty Ltd;
• Frontier Economics;
• ARRB Group;
• Sinclair Knight Mertz;
• GeoScience Australia;
• ACIL-Tasman;
• the Commonwealth Bank;
• Optus Communications;
• PriceWaterhouseCoopers;
• ChevronTexaco;
• Alcoa Australia; and
• various Federal and State government departments.

Among the many issues addressed have been:

• the effects of fiscal policies such as the introduction of a goods and services tax, business taxation reforms, reallocation of funds between different levels of government and cuts in public expenditure;
• the effects of trade policies including changes in tariffs and the creation of free trade areas;
• the effects of microeconomic policies, such as reforms in the coal industry, introduction of competition in the electricity industry, reductions in waterfront costs, a more open airline policy, and the building of a new train line;
• the environmental impact of drought and water salinity;
• the implications of greenhouse and other energy policies, including Australia ratifying the Kyoto protocol;
• the effects on income distribution of tax changes and other policies;
• the effects of changes in the international environment, such as the September 11 terrorist attack, the Asian economic slowdown and the accession of China to the World Trade Organization.

Apart from their broad applicability in policy analysis, CoPS' models typically have strong forecast capacities. VU-National is used by state and federal government agencies to forecast employment by detailed occupation and region, and MMRF-Green has been commissioned by the Australian Greenhouse Office to forecast greenhouse gas emissions in Australia.

Click here to see a list of recent contract work.

Contract research and training for model builders

CoPS has helped research organizations around the world to build general equilibrium models for Azerbaijan, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, New Zealand, Oman, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Poland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Uganda, United States and Vietnam. The most significant application and extension of CoPS' modeling technology outside Australia has been the creation of a world trade model by the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) at Purdue University. CoPS is closely associated with GTAP and supplies: software used to run the GTAP model; technical expertise with model improvements; and teaching staff for GTAP training courses. CoPS has a long tradition of interaction with model builders from around the world, welcoming visitors at CoPS for various length of time, ranging from six weeks to one year.

Software developments and training courses at CoPS have made general equilibrium analysis increasingly accessible to economists. Recent software developments at CoPS include user-friendly interfaces for running and modifying models, for viewing data and for analyzing model results (e.g. WinGEM, RunDynam, ViewHAR, ViewSOL, TABmate and AnalyseGE). These developments have significantly reduced the computing load for analysts, thus enabling them to be more ambitious in the type of analysis undertaken and in their depth of understanding of model results.

Rates for contract research are subject to negotiation between client and management of CoPS. Enquires regarding contract research should be addressed to the Director James Giesecke (03 9919 1487).