Most models of optimal climate change policy are complex and opaque. In this paper, it is argued that the convexity of climate damage and mitigation cost function provides a basis for the derivation of simple and robust estimates of optimal stabilization targets and carbon prices. For all but a...

We present a formal treatment of contracting in the face of ambiguity. The central idea is that boundedly rational individuals will not always interpret the same situation in the same way. More specifically, even with well defined contracts, the precise actions to be taken by each party to the...

The problem of climate change has been described as ‘a unique challenge for economics: it is the greatest and. widest-ranging market failure ever seen’ (Stern 2007, p. i). Among the factors that make climate change a difficult, the most important, arguably, is uncertainty about the future...

Climate change is likely to have substantial effects on irrigated agriculture. Extreme climate events such as droughts are likely to become more common. These patterns are evident in median projections of climate change for the Murray–Darling Basin in Australia. Understanding climate change...

In this paper, we consider an extension of the commonly used poverty gap measure that may be used to address he question of whether the elimination of poverty is a feasible objective, given sufficient political commitment. The resources potentially available to address poverty may be measured by...

The debate over theFree Trade Agreement with the United States has produced a book, How to Kill a Country, primarily concerned with intellectual property and related issues (Weiss, Thurbon and Matthews 2004). In arguing that Australia will be worse off, Weiss, Thurbon and Matthews examine four...

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...

Game-theoretic analysis is a well-established part of the toolkit of economic analysis. In crucial respects, however, game theory has failed to deliver on its original promise of generating sharp predictions of behavior in situations where neoclassical microeconomics has little to say....

In this paper, I will argue that blogs and wikis are indeed highly significant, but more as instances of a new mode of innovation than as a direct replacement for existing communications media. This new mode has been christened the ‘creative commons’ and both elements of the name are...

This article examines six widely-held doctrines concerning economic theory and economic policy that have been refuted, or at least rendered highly problematic by the global financial crisis, namely: (i) the efficient markets hypothesis; (ii) the Great Moderation; (iii) central bank independence;...