Does the emigration of highly-skilled workers deplete local human capital? The answer is not obvious if migration prospects induce human capital formation. We analyze a unique natural quasi-experiment in the Republic of the Fiji Islands, where political shocks have provoked one of the largest...

The paper investigates institutional reforms in Vietnam and their impact on the economic performance of firms. Using the provincial competitiveness index 2006 (PCI06) and firm-level data in Vietnam in 2005, the results show that provincial competitiveness is economically and statistically...

Does land tenure form affect farm level productivity? The answer, from farm level data for oil palm from the Hoskins project in West New Britain province of Papua New Guinea, is in the affirmative. Analysis of farm level output, controlling for all measured inputs, shows systematic differences...

The Australian Northern Prawn fishery (NPF) is one of the few that has adopted a dynamic version of a ‘maximum economic yield’ (MEY) target, and, on this basis, the fishery is undergoing a process of substantial stock rebuilding. This paper details the bioeconomic model that is used to...

Often sensitive industries such as those dependent on agricultural resources are left out of FTAs. On the other hand, FTAs can bring in specific nonWTO aspects like competition policy to facilitate trade. In this paper, the development of the AANZFTA is analysed within a framework characterising...

There are many documented cases of transmission from birds to people, but as yet only rare instances of human to human transmission. Nonetheless, public health officials are concerned about the possibility of a human pandemic, and many countries have policies of banning imports of live birds and...

This paper makes three principal claims with respect to the economic performance of 14 Forum Island Countries (FICs) over the decade to 2005. First, the FICs (as a group) have performed below their potential. Second, it is the poor policy-choices rather than the handicaps of smallness and...

We examine how scarcity pricing can be used to assist with urban water demand management in Sydney in low rainfall periods using an estimated aggregate daily water demand function. Modelling shows that current water supplies and water prices are inadequate to prevent Sydney reaching critically...

Surveillance programs on farms and in the local environment provide an essential protection against the importation and spread of exotic diseases. Combined with border quarantine measures, these programs protect both consumers and producers from major health concerns and disease incursions that...

Theoretical studies suggest that corruption may counteract government failure and promote economic growth in the short run, given exogenously determined sub optimal bureaucratic rules and regulations. As the government failure is itself a function of corruption, however, corruption should have...