Catherine de Fontenay

Commissioner

Catherine de Fontenay commenced a 5-year term as a full time Commissioner with the Productivity Commission (PC) in July 2019. Catherine was reappointed for a further 5 year term commencing July 2024.

After completing her PhD in 1998 at Stanford University, Catherine taught at the University of New South Wales. She joined the University of Melbourne in 2001, and held roles in the Business School and the Economics Department. She has held visiting positions at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, Stanford University, and the Stern School of Business, New York University. Most recently she was an Associate Professor of Economics at the Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne.

Her research has been published in a number of international journals, including the American Economic Review, the RAND Journal of Economics, and the Journal of Industrial Economics. In competition economics, her research has focused on firm-to-firm negotiations, and how mergers or exclusive dealing contracts will affect negotiated outcomes. She has also researched topics from organisational economics and development economics.

Catherine co-leads the Industry and Trade stream of work at the PC.

She also leads the Health and Ageing stream of research at the PC. In this role she has led work on:

• Measuring healthcare productivity
• Digital technologies in healthcare
• Aged care employment
• Unpaid leave for Carers

Catherine has also worked on:

• Productivity inquiry (Innovation and higher education)
• Wealth transfers and their economic effects
• Small and medium business access to finance
• PC Productivity Insights 2021: Recent developments
• Things you can’t drop on your feet: An overview of Australia’s services sector productivity
• Vulnerable supply chains
• Why did young people’s incomes decline?
• Climbing the jobs ladder slower: Young people in a weak labour market
• Expenditure on children in the Northern Territory