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Economics Branch

The Economics Branch aims to: Provide economics expertise to improve program efficiency and effectiveness Combine economic principles and scientific information to improve natural resource management and resource allocation Design and test economic frameworks to drive environmental policy To achieve these goals, the Economics Branch will: Develop formal and informal links with experts in relevant areas of economics Apply contemporary economic principles to environmental and sustainability issues Build capability to test and analyse new policy mechanisms before they are released into the economy

The Economics Branch has an important role in shaping the polices that are applied to significant environmental, sustainability and urban problems in Victoria. The Economics Branch contributes to this goal through four programs:

• Economic Advice - The Economics Branch provides input, advice and guidance to the Minister, DSE Executive and policy staff about the efficiency and effectiveness of policy proposals that influence economic efficiency.

• Environmental and Natural Resource Management Program - The Economics Branch takes a pro-active role in designing policy mechanisms that facilitate DSE's policy objectives with respect to private and public land.

• Environmental Economic Design - The Economics Branch provides input to DSE executive and policy staff on appropriate ways to scope, allocate and design solutions for a variety of problems that are faced with the environment.

• ecoMarkets – ecoMarkets have been developed by the Victorian Government to balance ecosystem health and agricultural productivity. Its purpose is to provide incentives for producing ecosystem outcomes such as clean water and biodiversity. The EEU is responsible for the delivery of the ecoMarkets project and providing a range of ecosystem services to coincide with the needs of the Environmental Sustainability Action Statement.

As well as providing mechanisms that will assist in maintaining and restoring Victoria’s natural assets, with the support of sophisticated science and modern computational approaches, the Economics Branch will work alongside the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to produce a series of Environmental Accounts, not unlike the National Accounts that will provide a measurement system for the environment.

Other Relevant Links

Key stakeholders links
Publications
ecoMarkets