Economics

Accelerating change and inspiring new ways of thinking about the economy

PwC’s economists are passionate about working with you to accelerate change and inspire new ways of thinking about the economy. We combine diverse and bold perspectives and deep expertise to solve problems and unlock opportunities.

Our team is committed to a strategy through execution approach to generate fresh ideas and new ways of thinking that deliver purposeful and sustained outcomes. We employ specialist economic frameworks and techniques to provide you and the broader community with independent, robust and strategic advice across diverse industries in the Asia-Pacific region.

How we can help

Our team of economists work alongside you to:

inform your strategic choices
help you engage on issues of policy reform
engage with government in a range of contexts including grant, licence and development approvals
assess your contribution to the economy
identify the actual and potential socio-economic impact of your activities

Industries we work with

Defence industries
Education
Energy
Financial services
Health & social services
Infrastructure
Media & technology
Property
Resources
Retail & consumer
Tourism & events

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

We understand that evaluation is critical to assessing the overall value and impact produced by an investment into a particular program, project or initiative. Evaluations not only help to understand if processes and activities which make up the program were effective and successful, but if there were any unintended consequences that were harmful and should be stopped.

Our economists support clients to monitor and evaluate the progress and achievements of their investments. Our evaluation methodology is founded on a tailored approach to both the design and execution of evaluation - drawing on the systematic collection and analysis of qualitative and quantitative information to make fit-for-purpose judgements about the effectiveness, efficiency, and appropriateness of an investment and the program that it is attached to.

Cost-benefit analysis

Ensuring that investments offer a net benefit to our communities is critical importance. 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 energy, water, natural resources, 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.

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. It offers organisations the ability to track performance in a real-time manner - ongoing - against metrics and measures that are defined in collaboration between the organisation and PwC.

We collaborate with our clients to undertake benefits realisation for specific programs or whole of organisation investments. Our approach supports clients to estimate the benefits and impacts of an investment, identify who (stakeholder) and what (process or activity) is responsible for the impact, 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 center so that staff themselves can use them to monitor ongoing performance.

Economic impact analysis

Our team helps people understand the economic impact of investments, activities and policies. To do this we use sophisticated economic models that enable us to estimate:

the economic contribution of activities and organisations
the future impacts of proposed policies, investments and activities.

This is inclusive of the direct, indirect and induced impacts, which captures all of the flow-on multiplier effects. These models include:

input-output and economy-wide (computable general equilibrium) models of Australia, its states, territories and regions
single-country and multi-country models covering 141 countries.

The outputs of these can include impacts on:

gross domestic product
jobs
carbon emissions
industry output
exports and imports
many more macroeconomic variables

Economic expert witness advice

We provide expert advice in courts and tribunals in Australia and overseas relating to matters such as pricing, third party access arrangements, currency forecasts, and economic valuations of losses.

Market entry analysis

We provide market appraisals to businesses looking to expand domestically or overseas, drawing on the breadth and diversity of our global network of experts to better understand overseas market characteristics.

Social impact analysis

We identify, quantify and evaluate the social impacts of projects / programmes for clients in the property, health, education, energy, resource and infrastructure sectors to help deliver purposeful and sustained outcomes (such as direct and indirect employment, education and health outcomes).

Economic regulation and pricing

Key sectors of our economy are governed by different types of independent economic regulation, ranging from light-handed price monitoring (such as for major metropolitan airports) to direct determination of allowable revenues or prices (such as for electricity transmission and distribution utilities). Regulation aims to ensure that those businesses invest and operate efficiently, and deliver and price appropriately services to end-users.

We have experience working with regulated network utilities and infrastructure businesses across the electricity, gas, water, ports, rail transport, airports and telecommunications sectors, including helping to shape regulatory submissions, developing supporting analyses for major built-infrastructure or other expenditure proposals, valuing consumer benefits, and developing pricing proposals which balance the interests of service providers and consumers.