This paper explores what a critical commentary on micro principles texts might look like, examining what is to be critiqued and how to do it.

This essay will consider the relevance of the social sciences - especially economics - to the foundations of sustainable development. Looming environmental crises have served as a prime motivating force for reevaluating fundamental principles. In particular, the concept of sustainability,...

Australian, state and territory regimes came under review for the Commission’s inquiry into native vegetation and biodiversity regulations. The Commission’s preliminary findings were released for public comment in December 2003. It found that the cost of farm regulations could be reduced if...

If, in international agreements, governments “link'' trade to environmental policy (or other issues with non-pecuniary externalities), will this promote more cooperation in both policies or will cooperation in one policy be strengthened at the expense of the other? We analyze this question in...

To help explain some of the issues and examine the potential environmental impacts (positive and/or negative) of selected tax arrangements, the Productivity Commission sought advice from Robert Douglas, a specialist in the field. This consultant’s report makes a contribution to understanding...

Ecosystem services are the functions performed by ecosystems that lead to desirable environmental outcomes, such as air and water purification, drought and flood mitigation, and climate stabilisation. Markets rarely exist for them. This study examines how newly defined property rights have been...

Many production processes yield both good outputs and undesirable ones (e.g. pollutants). In this paper, we develop a generalization of a stochastic frontier model which is appropriate for such technologies. We discuss efficiency analysis and, in particular, define technical and environmental...