Economics

Accelerating change and promoting new ways of thinking about the economy

At PwC Economics we are passionate about accelerating change and promoting new ways of thinking about the economy. Our goal is to be a major driver in building trust in society by using our strengths, challenging the status quo and solving important problems.
Our team is committed to a strategy through execution approach where we engage in generating ideas and delivering results. We employ specialist economic frameworks and techniques to provide our clients and the broader community with independent, rigorous and strategic advice across diverse industries in the Asia-Pacific region.
 

Priority areas

Health

Australia’s growing population is one that is both ageing and experiencing an increasing burden of chronic diseases. This continues to place a greater demand and cost on Australia’s health system.

We work with clients including leading private sector players such as insurers, hospitals and other providers, pharmaceutical and medical devices/diagnostics companies, as well as new entrants in the health market to improve and redesign the health system to be more effective and efficient at promoting and preserving good health and wellbeing.

Education and social policy

Our future generations will face unprecedented global issues in sustaining and developing the world. Access to high quality education and social services is essential to build our future generations’ capacity to tackle these issues.

We recognise the challenge that government and the society face to provide education and social services under budgetary pressures. We can assist you with designing and evaluating programs that deliver target outcomes efficiently.

Environmental policy

As Australia and the world are shifting towards a lower carbon economy, we are working with business to understand the implications of changing policy, technology and market dynamics. As government sets and implements its environmental policy agenda, we can assist in analysing the economic and financial impacts of different approaches.  

Utilities

Utilities companies are operating in an increasingly complex environment, with customers, shareholders and the broader community expecting more from these businesses in terms of the quality, cost and reliability of services as well as environmental sustainability. Furthermore, these increasing demands are occurring against a backdrop of an increasingly challenging financial and regulatory environment. We work collaboratively with utilities to meet these challenges, offering a range of services spanning strategy and policy development, financial and economic modelling, organisational reviews and regulatory advice. Find out more. 

International development

By bringing the best of PwC to the field of international development, we can help solve some of the world’s biggest problems – effectively and sustainably. We work with the organisations that strive to transform the lives of poor and vulnerable people. They include multilateral and bilateral funders, foundations, educational institutions, private sector businesses, healthcare organisations, NGOs, and social enterprises. Our work benefits economies, organisations and individuals.

Our services and expertise

Macroeconomic analysis

Our macroeconomic efforts focus on helping businesses to assess the most pressing risks and opportunities in their markets, understand the effectiveness of their forecasts and test their businesses’ sensitivity to a range of economic scenarios. Working at the nexus of economics, strategy and finance, our team provide practical and empirically-supported solutions using the latest economic tools and industry leading expertise. We have a deep understanding of economic data statistics and Government accounting, which we use alongside a suite of modelling platforms, including:

  • Computable general equilibrium (CGE) modelling
  • Intergenerational forecasting
  • Input-output modelling.

Program evaluation

At PwC, we understand that evaluation is key to assessing and realising the overall value and impact produced by program outcomes. Evaluations not only help to understand if the processes and activities which made up the program were effective and successful, but if there were any unintended consequences that were harmful and should be stopped. 

The Economics team supports private sector clients to monitor and evaluate the progress and achievements of programs being undertaken. It takes a tailored approach to both the design and execution of evaluation - drawing on a range of methodological approaches and techniques such as participatory action research, co-design and realist methodology. We have experience developing program logics - as a core and foundational tool in our evaluation suite - and experience undertaking human research ethics applications to ensure our research is ethically acceptable and compliant with relevant standards and guidelines, and use a program logic.

Cost-benefit analysis

Ensuring that investments offer a net benefit to our communities is of critical importance to government decision makers. Our teams are highly experienced in performing cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and creating robust business cases to support some of Australia's most significant investment decisions. 

  • Business cases - As economists, our role is to ensure that the business cases we develop are consistent and transparent with state and national guidance so that decision makers can allocate society's resources effectively. 
  • Cost-benefit analysis - Cost-benefit analysis is the most widely used method to assess the economic merits of a project. Our team has deep experience across multiple sectors including transport, land use, health, and education.
  • Project prioritisation - The outputs of our work can provide measures such as benefit cost ratios (BCR) and net present values (NPV) to help to determine priority projects.

Geospatial analysis

PwC’s Geospatial Economic Model (GEM) calculates the economic output, employment and industry characteristics for 2,214 ‘locations’ across Australia. With growth and productivity on the agenda for many organisations, we developed GEM to:

  • Provide business and government leaders with an understanding of how Australia's economy is performing on the ground.
  • Understand strategic opportunities and market landscapes. Where are the opportunities for growth?
  • Get a clearer picture on business performance. What areas are most profitable? What is the relative performance of a location? Are there any risks that can be mitigated?

Behavioural economics

You can’t force people to be more rational, but by recognising and anticipating cognitive biases using behavioural science and data analytics, you can design targeted, cost-effective interventions that nudge people toward better decisions and behaviours. Our approach is aimed at helping our clients to identify, understand and address irrational behavioural tendencies to move towards better behavioural outcomes. It is based on the idea that customers/citizens are prone to important behavioural biases, and if we can understand how these biases arise in different decision moments we can work to reduce, harness or counter them. 

Find out more.

Pricing

A business’ pricing strategy is a key conduit through which it interacts with its customers. Combining economic expertise, commercial acumen and contemporary analytical tools, we help our clients develop pricing strategies that support a business’ commercial and other objectives, delivering value, managing risk and enabling other business transformations such as operational efficiency initiatives.

Working with a cross section of industry and non-government organisations, we have delivered industry price benchmarking analyses, undertaken economic modelling of pricing and market entry strategies, and developed tailored pricing frameworks to support major programs and projects.

Benefits realisation

Benefits realisation helps organisations measure performance in a unique way. We partner with private sector clients to undertake benefits realisation for specific programs or whole of organisation investments. Our approach supports clients to identify how much and for whom something is being achieved and how this happens. We combine quantitative and qualitative tools to support decision making and key message communication. Our tools use client data and are designed with the user experience at their centre so that staff themselves can continue to monitor ongoing performance. 

Impact analysis

Our team gives industries and organisations the opportunity to understand their impact on the economy. In order to measure this impact, we analyse economic contribution in three ways:

  • Direct contribution – often estimated in gross value added (GVA) which is the aggregate economic value generated by the industry itself. GVA is a measure of the industry production value and the contribution to overall gross product and is considered a good estimate of economic contribution because it removes distortion caused by taxes and subsidies across different industries.
  • Indirect contribution – the economic contribution which arises from the goods and services required by an industry or organisation to run its own operations, with the effect of generating further contribution in supplying companies
  • Induced economic contribution – the economic contribution flowing from the spending of employees for their own consumption.

Contact us

Marty Jovic

Marty Jovic

Partner & Consulting Chief Operations Officer, Health Economics, PwC Australia

Tel: +61 2 8266 3988

Jeremy Thorpe

Jeremy Thorpe

Partner & Chief Economist, Insight & Economics, PwC Australia

Tel: +61 416 245 535

Hettie Farrell

Hettie Farrell

Partner, Energy Transition, PwC Australia

Tel: +61 432 757 447

Nicholas Dimitropolos

Nicholas Dimitropolos

Director | Health & Wellbeing, PwC Australia

Tel: +61 423 383 843

Craig Fenton

Craig Fenton

Partner, Energy Transition, PwC Australia

Tel: +61 402 949 419

James Loughridge

James Loughridge

Senior Economist, PwC Australia

Tel: +61 (0) 421 936 604

Amy Lomas

Amy Lomas

Partner, Energy Transition, PwC Australia

Tel: +61 438 021 277

David Williams

David Williams

Director, Insight & Economics, PwC Australia

Tel: +61 2 8266 6376

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