Governments are under increasing pressure to deliver results. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency and relevance of the public service in implementing policies and programmes for social betterment. Without such evaluations, it is difficult to ensure that evidence...

Replaced with revised version of paper 06/28/11.

Grain prices have risen sharply since 2005 and 2006 affecting livestock markets by increasing feed prices and leading to significant volatility shocks. The high price levels and magnitude of sustained high volatilities has raised concerns for many sectors of the economy, in particular those with...

Variable eating quality was identified as a major contributor to declining Australian beef consumption in the early 1990s. The primary issue was the inability to predict the eating quality of cooked beef before consumption. A R&D program funded by industry and Meat and Livestock Australia...

Copulas have become an important analytic tool for characterizing multivariate distributions and dependence. One is often interested in simulating data from copula estimates. The process can be analytically and computationally complex and usually involves steps that are unique to a given...

An extensive empirical literature addressing the behavior of prices over time and across spatially distinct markets has grown substantially over time. A fundamental axiom of economics|the Law of One Price"|underlies the arbi- trage behavior thought to characterize such relationships. This...

In this study, we develop a new approach to investigate spatial market integration. In particular, it is a Markov-Switching autoregressive (MSAR) model with time-varying state transition probabilities. Studying market integration is an effective way to test whether the law of one price holds...