Henry Ergas

Henry Isaac Ergas AO (born 22 August 1952)[1] is an economist who has worked at the OECD, the Australian Trade Practices Commission (now the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) as well as at a number of economic consulting firms. He chaired the Australian Intellectual Property and Competition Review Committee set up by the Australian Federal Government in 1999 to review Australia's intellectual property laws as they relate to competition policy.[2]

Career

Ergas received a first-class honours B.A. in economics at Sussex University and a Master of Economics with high distinction from the University of Queensland.[3] He was adjunct professor of Economics at the National University of Singapore and has taught at Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University, the Centre for Research in Network Economics and Communications at the University of Auckland, Monash University[3] and at the École nationale de la statistique et de l'administration économique (ENSAE Paris).[4] Ergas was managing director of Network Economics Consulting Group (NECG) from 1996 until 2004[1] when it was acquired by CRA International[5] where he became vice president and regional head, Asia Pacific.[6] From 2009 to 2016, he was professor of infrastructure economics at the University of Wollongong, and also was a senior economic adviser to Deloitte Australia. He was an independent contributor to a paper submitted to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission which cautioned against imposing regulations that, while aimed at net neutrality, may cause costs that exceed the expected benefits.[7]

In the 2016 Australia Day Honours, Ergas was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for "distinguished service to infrastructure economics, and to higher education, to public policy development and review, and as a supporter of emerging artists". He is a columnist for The Australian newspaper.

Personal life

Ergas descends from Sephardic Jews in Spain, who, after they were expelled in 1492, moved to Portugal, then to Livorno in Italy, Salonica (History of the Jews in Thessaloniki) in Ottoman Greece. Following a deterioration of relations to local Greeks in the aftermath of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey and the mass slaughter of Jews by the German Wehrmacht in 1943, they moved to Istanbul. After the increasing Islamization of the formerly secular Turkey of Kemal Atatürk, particularly the discriminatory tax Varlık Vergisi and wide ranging Turkification, they had to leave again.[8]

Selected publications

  • 1984 – "Why Do Some Countries Innovate More than Others?", Centre for European Policy Studies, CEPS Papers No. 5. Also available at https://ssrn.com/abstract=1430184 doi:10.2139/ssrn.1430184[3]
  • 1987 – "Does Technology Policy Matter?" in Technology and Global Industry: Companies and Nations in the World Economy, National Academy of Engineering of the United States, National Academies Press, Washington DC. Reprinted in Stephan, Paula E. and David B. Audretsch, (eds.), in The Economics of Science and Innovation, vol. 2, Elgar Reference Collection, International Library of Critical Writings in Economics, vol. 117, Cheltenham, U.K. and Northampton, Massachusetts, pp. 438–492. Also available at https://ssrn.com/abstract=1428246 doi:10.2139/ssrn.1428246.[3]
  • 2008 – Wrong Number: Resolving Australia's Telecommunications Impasse, Allen & Unwin, Sydney.[3]
  • 2010 – "New policies create a new politics: issues of institutional design in climate change policy", Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 26 April {{DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8489.2010.00484.x}}
  • 2011 – "Some Economic Aspects of Mining Taxation" (with Prof. Jonathan Pincus and Dr. Mark Harrison) Economic Papers of the Economic Society of Australia, 29(4).[3]
  • 2013 – (with Prof. Jonathan Pincus) "Have Mining Royalties been beneficial to Australia?", Economic Papers of the Economic Society of Australia, 33(1).[3]
  • 2015 – (with Prof. Jonathan Pincus), "Infrastructure and Colonial Socialism", in The Cambridge Economic History of Australia, eds. Simon Ville and Glenn Withers, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
  • 2016 – "Tocqueville, Hancock and the Sense of History" in "Only in Australia. The History, Politics and Economics of Australian Exceptionalism", Oxford University Press.
  • 2016 – (with Prof. Jonathan Pincus), "The Wealth of the Nation" in Menzies, the Shaping of Modern Australia, ed. J. R. Nethercote, Conor Court publishing in association with the Menzies Research Centre.

Appointments

References

  1. ^ a b Henry Ergas (October 2005). "Report: Adjusted access pricing model for digital STUs" (PDF). p. 30. Retrieved 8 October 2024.
  2. ^ Hall, Eleanor (7 August 2013). "Debate: Economic crisis! Or what economic crisis". The World Today. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. ProQuest 1418030286.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "Curriculum Vitae/Bibliography: Henry Ergas", annexure HE1 pp. 43–62, Australian Competition Tribunal, 26 March 2014
  4. ^ "Martine Durand" (PDF). Variances – la revue des anciens de l'ENSAE (interview) (in French). No. 46. February 2013. pp. 11–12. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  5. ^ "Charles River Associates Acquires Leading Australian Economic and Regulatory Consulting Firm", CRA International, 18 November 2004 Retrieved 8 October 2024.
  6. ^ "Professor Henry Isaac Ergas", Economic Society of Australia Retrieved 8 October 2024.
  7. ^ Weisman, Dennis; Waverman, Leonard; Tardiff, Timothy J.; Taylor, William E.; Smith, Vernon L.; Singer, Hal J.; Robinson, Glen O.; Litan, Robert E.; Leighton, Wayne A.; Kahn, Alfred E.; Hahn, Robert W.; Faulhaber, Gerald R.; Farber, David J.; Ergas, Henry; Ellig, Jerry; Eisenach, Jeffrey A.; Ehrlich, Everett; Darby, Larry F.; Crandall, Robert W.; Cave, Martin E.; Brito, Jerry (12 April 2010). "Net Neutrality Regulation: The Economic Evidence". doi:10.2139/ssrn.1587058. S2CID 52840191. SSRN 1587058 – via Social Science Research Network.
  8. ^ Henry Ergas (4 October 2023). "Without a Jewish homeland these became a perpetually persecuted people". Weekend Australian Magazine. Retrieved 8 October 2024.
  9. ^ Leading Economist Appointed at SMART Infrastructure Facility Archived 2011-04-11 at the Wayback Machine, Campus Daily, 18 August 2010
  10. ^ "Professor Henry Isaac Ergas: Officer of the Order of Australia AO", 26 January 2016, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet