Thredbo at thirty: Review of past papers and reflections

Abstract

Thredbo 15 is the fifteenth biennial conference of the International Conference on Competition and Ownership in Land Passenger Transport. Since its inception, 620 completed workshop and other papers presented at the conference have been published. A review of features of the papers, how they have changed over time, and the extent to which they have influenced the broader research community finds that: (i) there is a substantial body of evidence that tracks the evolution of concerns and practice over the period; (ii) the extensive citation of published Thredbo papers indicates that they have been useful to a wider audience; (iii) there are positive trends such as the increased use of quantitative methods; (iv) there is extensive evidence from Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and South America, but rather less from North America and Asia; (v) the share of papers authored by academics has risen over time; (vi) regarding contracting of public transport, less work has been undertaken on procurement of contractors than the design of contracts, and even less on the management of contracts; and (vii) there has been a shift in the focus of papers away from the original core interest of the conference series. This paper complements the companion Thredbo history review Wong and Hensher (2018).