Economics, ideology, and the creation and performance of state-owned electricity utilities in Australia, 1900 to 1950

Malcolm Abbott and Bruce Cohen

Utilities Policy, 2022, vol. 77, issue C

Abstract: This paper examines the factors that contributed to the evolving structure and ownership of the electricity industry in Australia in the inter-war and immediate post-World War II period. It details how the industry developed in the Australian states from the latter part of the 19th century through the first half of the 20th century. In examining the industry's transformation, network effects, generation plant scales, and the influence of the conflicting ideologies of socialism versus private ownership are considered. It then provides an assessment of the impact the changes in structure collectively had on the industry's performance during this period.

Keywords: Network externalities; Electricity industry; Utilities; Economies of scale; Socialism; Private ownership (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L32 L94 N47 N77 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0957178722000455
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:juipol:v:77:y:2022:i:c:s0957178722000455

DOI: 10.1016/j.jup.2022.101380

Access Statistics for this article

Utilities Policy is currently edited by Beecher, Janice

More articles in Utilities Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().