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...

The extent to which cultural activities can generate social and economic benefits for Indigenous communities, and the way in which those benefits are shared within communities depends largely on the way in which the system of intellectual property rights handles Indigenous cultural products. The...

This paper presents a dual representation of firm-level and market-level equilibrium behavior for a sole proprietorship economy with competitive and frictionless financial markets and stochastic production opportunities in a two-period setting. The dual equilibrium model is used to state...

The construction of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme in the 1960s resulted in the diversion of 99% of the Snowy River's natural flow into the Murray and Murrumbidgee river systems. In 2000, the NSW, Victorian and Commonwealth governments agreed to restore between 21 per cent and 28 per...

This paper investigates the optimality of sharp incentives in contracts where output prices are set at the time of contracting but are random in nature. It shows that when prices are specified with error, schemes involv- ing sharp incentives might result in substantial deviations from first-best...

Large scale forest plantations in the Murray-Darling Basin may be embraced as a carbon sequestration mechanism under a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. However, increased tree plantation will be associated with reduced inflows to river systems because of increased transpiration, interception...

Microeconomic reform dominated Australian economic policy from the early 1980s until the end of the 20th century. Despite strong claims of success, focusing on the economic expansion since 1992, and rapid productivity growth between 1993-94 and 1998-99, evidence of improvements in the...

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

‘Risk’ has become a central theme in 21st-century policy thinking. The fact that individuals and families are vulnerable to a wide range of social, economic and other risks, and that collective action is needed to help reduce and manage these risks, has long been important in social...

The establishment of a Commission of Audit has been a routine measure for newly elected conservative governments since the election of the Kennett government in Victoria in 1992. Most notably, Peter Costello, Treasurer in the incoming Howard government, appointed a commission headed by Professor...