In this paper, some aspects of the application of optimal-control techniques to wool industry price stabilisation are considered. It is not intended to provide a blueprint for the immediate adoption of optimal-control techniques in the management of wool price stablisation. Rather, the...

The elasticity of substitution between textile fibres is investigated within a CES production function in which the fibres are grouped according to degree of substitutability. Disaggregated data for U.S. textile usage in the post-war period are examined and the elasticities estimated are...

One country's exports of a particular commodity are usually imperfect substitutes for similar exports from other countries. Consequently, the price elasticity of export demand involves unknown cross elasticities between sub-groups of the commodity. However, there are constraints on the relative...

A model of the Australian orange growing industry to explain changes in plantings, removals, the number and age composition of trees and orange production is developed and estimated. Most of the variation in plantings is explained by the expected profitability of growing oranges, the current...

The economics of a higher loan rate to support US wheat prices is analysed. Utilising optimal control theory, a dynamic wheat trade model is developed. The basic premise underlying the model is that the United States finds itself having transient monopoly power in the wheat market. An expression...

Following the dismantling of a price-support program, a central bureaucracy is left with a commodity stockpile to dispose. It happened with wheat and feed grains in the U.S. in 1986 and wool in Australia in 1991. It soon may happen in Europe with grains, manufactured dairy products and other...

In a recent article in this journal, Tisdell (1) has taken up the question of price stabilisation as it affects both the growers and users of a raw material, in this case wool. He has constructed a model which purports to show conditions under which a reduction in the variability of wool prices...

A model is developed to show how changes in the elasticity of the supply function at the farm level offset increased levels of buyer (processor) concentration such that given percentage increases in demand by large buyers result in the same, or smaller, percentage price changes than do increases...