Peer Review

1
Peer Review an Australian

• Blair Comley
• General Manager
• Business Tax Division
• Treasury

2
Three aspects of peer review

• Peer Learning
• Peer Support
• Peer Pressure

3
Peer Learning

• Learning in both directions
• Need to understand the issues
• ECB versus the Fed
• Requires openness
• Distributive versus integrative negotiation
• Macroeconomic versus microeconomic
• Micro requires more information

4
Peer Support

• Vested interests
• Counterparties are critical
• Reviewer must have credibility
• Domestic counterparty must be credible
• Variations in domestic counterparties
• Executive/Legislature
• Units within the Executive
• Different levels of government

5
Peer pressure

• Weakest limb of peer review
• Why do we disagree?
• Different objectives
• Different assessments of fact
• Errors of logic
• Distribution of power and information
• Peer pressure is really another form of peer
  learning and support

6
Five conditions

• High degree of trust and respect
• Parties must share information
• Analytical and administrative capacity
• Peers legitimate in eyes of domestic constituents
• Reviewed country counterparty legitimate in the
  eyes of domestic constituents

7
Regional integration

• Five conditions may be easier or harder
• Legal sanctions cause a problem
• EU example

8
Conclusion

• Need to focus on peer learning and support
• Both are multidirectional
• Peer review is fragile
• A few people acting in bad faith can reduce
  information flows
• Relationships matter
• EDRC has met over 1000 times