David Round
Professor David Round
Director: Centre for Regulation and Market Analysis
School of Commerce, The University of South Australia
T 61 8 830 20760; F +61 8 830 27001
David.Round@unisa.edu.au
For over 25 years Professor Round has engaged in wide-ranging empirical research into the highly-interrelated issues of competition, regulation, consumer protection and wealth, much of which has been influential in Australian legal and policy circles, and which has led to him being appointed to a number of regulatory and quasi-judicial positions at both State and Federal levels. In his research Professor Round has sought to discover what makes markets work, why market failure has occurred, and what can be done to improve the performance of markets so as to enhance social welfare. In this research he has concentrated on four broad areas - price-fixing, which has been endemic in Australia (this being the area of closest relevance to the proposed research); the misuse of market power and strategic behavior by firms; broad issues relating to consumer protection, but especially with respect to the need for accurate information to be provided to consumers so as to allow them to make optimal decisions; and matters relating to international competition. Professor Round's extensive research on price-fixing is regarded as authoritative in the literature and in the courts; his publications on strategic behaviour have led the way for new judicial findings and regulatory approaches to the assessment of the behaviour of firms with market power; and he is regularly invited to present at overseas conferences (for example, at OECD meetings, at New Zealand conferences and in China) on international competition and consumer welfare issues.
Professor Round has always sought to undertake policy-relevant research that will assist in improving market performance. As a result of his research he has over the years been engaged as a consultant by many Australian and New Zealand firms, has acted as an arbitrator in inter-company disputes, has been invited to participate in international research projects (most recently as the only Australian academic invited to carry out research based in the Law School of Hong Kong University, funded by Microsoft Inc., on the desirable economic objectives for antitrust statutes in developing Asian nations). In addition, Professor Round has been appointed to the following public offices:
• Associate Member of the Trade Practices Commission and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission from 1986 to 1998;
• appointed a Member of the Australian Competition Tribunal in 1998 and reappointed in 2003 for a further five years;
• Associate Member of the Australian Telecommunications Authority (AUSTEL) from 1989 - 1997 and from 1997 to 2005 I was a Member of the Australian Communications Authority;
• appointed to a panel of experts to assist the District Court of South Australia in 2005 in hearing appeals on gas and electricity matters under the Essential Service Commission Act 2002.
In these regulatory positions Professor Round has spent considerable time evaluating the impact of corporate practices (notably price fixing and mergers) on consumer welfare. He supervises PhD students who are assessing price fixing in overseas countries. His experience as a consultant, as a competition regulator and as an appeal body member has given him a unique perspective and ability to contribute to the Cartel Project.
See Professor Round's Academic Profile
See Professor Round's research project 'The Ecomonic and Business History of Cartels in Australia'
A selection of relevant publications by Professor Round includes:
- Serious Cartel Conduct, Criminalisation and Evidentiary Standards Lessons From the Coal Vend Case of 1911 in Australia, Paper presented to the European Business History Association Conference, Bergen, 2008 (with Martin Shanahan)
- The Introduction of Competition Policy in Australia: The Role of Ron Bannerman, (2007) 47(2) Australian EConomic History Review 178-199 (with David Merrett and Stephen Corones)
- The Power of Two: Squaring off with Australia's Large Supermarket Chains (2006) 50(1) Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics 51-64
- Consumers as International Traders: Some Economic and Legal Issues Underlying Consumer Protection, (2005) 12 Competition and Consumer Law Journal 247-274 (with Jeremy Tustin)
- Share Price Responses to Antitrust Enforcement in Australia: Do Investors Care About Price-Fixing Cases?, (2005) 13 Competition and Consumer Law Journal 23-39 (with Robert M. Feinberg)
- Curbing Corporate Collusion in Australia: The Role of Section 45 of the Trade Practices Act, (2005) 29(1) Melbourne University Law Review 242-269 (with Leanne M Hanna)
- Bob McComas and the Trade Practices Commission: Doing it His Way, (2005) 33 Australian Business Law Review 475-484 (with Stephen Corones and David Merrett)
- Consumer protection: At the merci of the market for damages, (2003) 10 Competition and Consumer Law Journal 231-264
- Globalisation and Consumer Protection in East Asia: Is it a Zero Sum Game? (2003) 17 Asian-Pacific Economic Literature 39-50 (with Zeljka Sporer)
- An Empirical Analysis of Price Fixing Penalties in Australia from 1974 to 1999: Have Australia's Corporate Colluders Been Corralled?, (2000) 8 Competition and Consumer Law Journal 83-124
- Horizontal Price Agreements in Australian Antitrust: Combatting Anti-Competitive Corporate Conspiracies of Complicity and Connivance (1994) 9 Review of Industrial Organisation 569-606 (with John J. Siegfried)