Fast and Loose: An Evaluation of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Report Marriage Equality in Australia

Abstract

Public policy is based increasingly on the “externalisation” of policy advice by means of reports commissioned from commercial consulting companies, sometimes termed the “invisible public sector.” The literature examining the accuracy and analytical rigour of such public policy advice suggests that there are moral hazards flowing from externalisation. This paper critically examines the 2016 PricewaterhouseCoopers report, Marriage Equality in Australia: The Cost of Holding a Plebiscite, by evaluating the merits of the economic analysis and the underlying motivation for a private for-profit consulting company to prepare and release the report gratis. It finds that the costings are seriously flawed, with evidence of “selection bias,” and argues that the report represents an exercise in “virtue-signalling” rather than sound economic analysis.