Ilias is a senior economist with over thirty years of experience providing the highest quality advice to state and federal governments. Ilias has led inquiry, research and policy teams analysing complex economic policy problems at the federal level for the Productivity Commission, Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Industry Commission. At a state level Ilias has acted as the senior economist for both the Victorian Department of Education and Training and the Victorian Department of Health.
Ilias has deep quantitative (technical) skills including cost–benefit analysis, microeconometrics, partial and general equilibrium analysis, productivity and efficiency analysis. His areas of expertise include (but is not limited to) environmental and resource economics, infrastructure pricing and access.
Other topics of expertise include competition policy, international trade, industry policy, public finance, and regional and economic development.
Ilias’s roles have included
- 2017-21 and 2023 — Victorian Department of Education and Training, Principal Policy Officer — analysed the determinants of early childhood and student outcomes, the value-for-money of government education initiatives, and the value added, productivity and efficiency of Victorian government schools using detailed student-level data.
- 2022 — Productivity Commission, Senior Research Economist — analysed the effect of eldercare on employment and retirement choices using Household, Income and Labour Dynamics of Australia (HILDA).
- 2014-17 Victorian Department of Health, Principal Economist. Ilias undertook business case analysis, budget modelling, demand analysis, demand-and-supply modelling, productivity measurement and efficiency measurement. Also initiated and convene the Health Economics Forum.
- 2008 Prime Minister and Cabinet, Economist assisting the Strategy and Delivery Division support the Australian Council of Local Governments and develop policy proposals regarding the improvement of asset management and financial management of councils, and the development of service delivery partnerships between councils and between councils and other levels of government.
- 1998-2014 Productivity Commission, Research Manager, and senior economist with the Commissions Infrastructure Group. Ilias developed an economic demand-and-supply model simulating the effect of National Quality Reforms on the demand and supply of childhood education, care services and supply of early childhood workers. Ilias also estimated the best-practice frontier efficiency of Australian public and private hospitals, the first of its kind in Australia.
- 1996-98 Industry Commission, Senior Economist.
- 1990-96 Bureau of Industry Economics, Economist.