This paper presents a quantitative analysis of the model developed in Galor and Moav, Natural Selection and the Origin of Economic Growth (2002), in which agents vary genetically in their preference for quality and quantity of children. The simulation produces a pattern of income and population...

The 2012-13 Budget, which provides for an increase in taxes of $ 39 billion and a reduction in expenditures of $ 7 billion, is strongly contractionary, reducing aggregate demand by about 2 per cent. The government deserves praise for starting the process of fiscal consolidation in a possible...

From the early 1960s onwards, Arnold Zellner has been publishing papers in the areas of statistical theory, econometric applications and macroeconomic modelling. This conversation canvasses Zellner's transition from physics to economics, the reason for the renewal of interest in Bayes's theorem...

Farm survey data show that the risk aversion of West Australian farmers is comparable to that of other asset holders. An increase in the variability of crop yield by 20%, which may be caused by future climate change, would raise their willingness to pay for crop insurance almost one-to-one by...

We propose that the evolution by sexual selection of the male propensity to engage in conspicuous consumption contributed to the emergence of modern rates of economic growth. We develop a model in which males engage in conspicuous consumption to send an honest signal of their quality to females....

This paper details the origin and development of the dependent economy model. The model is also known as the ‘Australian model' and the ‘Salter-Swan-Corden-Dornbusch model', but neither title adequately conveys the scope and sequence of contributions that were instrumental to its...

During his honours research on an index of industrial production at the University of Western Australia, Salter gained an understanding of the composite commodity theorem. The applied work on the index of industrial production provided him with the analytic foundations for his two famous...

Contracts for future delivery of commodities spread from Mesopotamia to Hellenistic Egypt and the Roman world. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, contracts for future delivery continued to be used in the Byzantine Empire in the eastern Mediterranean and they survived in canon law in western...

A negative real interest rate has guaranteed macroeconomic equilibrium during every emergency in the United States since the early 19th century, except the Great Depression in the 1930s when deflation interfered with the interest rate mechanism. During the Great Depression, the interest rate...

The recent emergence of weather index insurance offers a promising new risk management tool for African smallholder farmers. Providing a nontechnical introduction to insurance economics, this paper reviews the challenges faced by the pioneers of agricultural weather index insurance. The greatest...