The effects of global climate change on agriculture will be diverse and complex. Some important qualitative conclusions emerge from the literature. First, it is important to focus on the rate at which climate changes and the capacity of farmers to adjust, rather than on absolute changes in...

In this paper, we employ the propositional approach developed by Grant and Quiggin (2004) and consider the properties of Bayesian updating in the presence of unconsidered propositions

The relative merits of different property right systems to allocate water among different extractive uses where variability of supply is important are evaluated. Three systems of property rights are considered. In the first, variable supply is dealt with through the use of water rights defined...

The precautionary principle, presented as a guide to environmental policy decisions in the presence of uncertainty, has been the subject of vigorous debate. However, the has generally not been discussed in relation to formal theories of choice under uncertainty developed as generalizations of...

The idea that preferences may be state-dependent fits naturally with an analysis of uncertainty based on explicit representation of random variables as state-contingent consumption or production bundles. In this paper we show how these concepts of risk-aversion may be extended to the case of...

The central claim of this paper is that the state-contingent approach provides the best way to think about all problems in the economics of uncertainty, including problems of consumer choice, the theory of the firm, and principal–agent relationships. This claim is illustrated by recent...

Recent developments in the global system of cities present a curious paradox. With the cost of communications declining almost to zero and substantial, though less dramatic reductions in transport costs, there is now little technical requirement for most kinds of production to be undertaken in...

Wik people on Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, aspire to economic independence. Commercial processing of native forest timbers is seen by Wik people as a culturally appropriate engine for economic development; however, much uncertainty surrounds their property rights to native forest timber. The...

The chapter is organised as follows. Section 1 is a historical survey of the fluctuating fortunes of economic liberalism from its eclipse after 1914, to its resurgence in the 1990s, and ending with evidence that economic liberalism has lost ground since the late 1990s, particularly in the...

A cost-based approach to asset-pricing equilibrium relationships is developed. A cost function induces a stochastic discount factor (pricing kernel) that is a function of random output, prices, and capital stockt. By eliminating opportunities for arbitrage between financial markets and the...