The value of a seasonal forecasting system based on phases of the Southern Oscillation was estimated for a representative dryland wheat grower in the vicinity of Goondiwindi. In particular the effects on this estimate of risk attitude and planting conditions were examined. A recursive stochastic...

Non-compensatory preferences may form a significant component of individuals' values for non-market goods such as natural areas, especially in the context of a reduction in environmental quality. The widespread neglect of such preferences can result in erroneous estimates of changes in economic...

The agricultural production of Indian farmers is investigated using a stochastic frontier production function which incorporates a model for the technical inefficiency effects. Farm-level data from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) are used. Variables...

This paper demonstrates that, in situations in which a cumulative externality exists, the basic nature and extent of resource misallocation may be substantially less than we imagine. This conclusion stems from deriving consistent conjectures in a unified framework in which congestion is present....

A pathogenic, soil-borne fungus has been gradually spreading through the jarrah forest of Western Australia for most of this century. On some sites this fungus can cause almost total forest destruction. Infection is incurable and the effects are irreversible. This paper develops a means for...

An important source of growth for Australian broadacre agriculture has been technical progress. We compare alternative measures of productivity growth including the traditional Tornqvist-Thiel total factor productivity index; variants of this approach that allow decreasing returns to scale; the...

Farmers in grain industries make important decisions about investment in crop sowing machinery. This paper shows how some on-farm factors affect profit-maximising levels of investment in crop sowing machinery. The paper examines the effect on optimal investment of discontinuities in sowing...

Blarney, Common and Quiggin (1995) (BCQ) suggest that responses to contingent valuation (CV) questionnaires may be framed either according to the extent of individual benefits received, or according to wider views about ethical frameworks, impacts on other people, or desired societal levels....