Optimal Public Transport Fares Speaker:    Mike Smart Date:          Tuesday, 29 April 2014 Time:          12.15pm for a 12.30pm start Venue:        Ground Floor East Seminar Room, RBA, 65 Martin Place, Sydney Cost:           Free – light refreshments provided Presentations usually conclude between 1.15pm and 1.30pm. In this presentation, Mike Smart will outline an approach for determining optimal public transport fares.  The main insight is that ideal fares diverge from marginal costs because of externalities.  In a series of studies for IPART, Mike has quantified the key externalities relating to congestion, pollution and accidents.  From these, mathematically optimal fare levels can be estimated.    Public transport subsidies can also be optimised using this approach. This work has influenced recent fare determinations. Mike Smart is an economist specialising in competition law, competitive strategy in concentrated industries and regulation of networks. He has been a consulting director of Sapere Research Group since it was formed in December 2010.  He has consulted widely on third party access to essential facilities across the rail, telecommunications, gas, payment systems and aviation sectors.  Mike has given expert evidence in the Federal Court of Australia and the Australian Competition Tribunal. He is a member of the Competition and Consumer Committee of the Law Council of Australia, and of the Economic Society of Australia.  For the past several years he has advised IPART on fare reviews for rail, bus and ferry services.