The National and Regional Economic Consequences of Rapid Growth in Australia's Telecommunications Sector

The Australian telecommunications services sector has experienced rapid growth in recent years, with real output increasing at an annual average rate of approximately 20 per cent since 1996/97. Impetuses to this growth were competition-promoting reforms and the diffusion and introduction of new telecommunications products and technologies. This paper investigates the national and regional economic consequences of the sector's growth over the period 1996/97-2001/02 using a dynamic multi-regional CGE model of the Australian economy. The modelling suggests that the growth of the sector has contributed to a substantial rise in national real GDP and real consumption (by around 2 and 1 per cent respectively). The range of regional real GDP impacts is diverse. In particular, regions other than the major urban regions are found to have experienced relatively small increases in real GDP as a result of the sector's rapid growth, indicating that the structural and policy changes to which the sector has been subject have contributed to the concentration of economic activity in major urban regions.