Risky output prices and production characterise Australian agriculture. Exports are vitally important, sometimes relying heavily on a particular market. In this study a model is developed to include explicitly both output price and technological risks as well as multiple output relationships. It...

In this paper a method for evaluating the supply response of individual producers to a price underwriting scheme is presented. The method includes precise formulae to take account of the impact of price underwriting on the producer's uncertain conditions. The Australian Wheat Board's guaranteed...

The Australian demand for domestically-produced sawn timber is investigated by considering its major use - as an input into residential construction. Using a cost function approach, a system of equations is derived expressing quantities demanded in terms of relative prices. Cross-price...

The process by which producers form expectations has implications for model building and policy analysis. An econometric model of the Australian wool market is estimated. It is shown that the rational expectations hypothesis is not inconsistent with the data for both the period before the floor...

It has often been suggested that more stable wool prices would lead to an outward shift in the long-run demand for wool. To assess this claim it is necessary to examine different sources of risk and instability in wool prices and their impact on the risk borne by wool users. A model is presented...

The time pattern of effects of inflation on prices received, prices paid, asset returns, and real incomes of different members of the agricultural sector is described. In the long run it is argued that inflation will have very small, if any, effects on relative prices or real incomes. For the...

A review of crop-insurance schemes is followed by a discussion of a guaranteed-yield, crop-insurance plan. General formulae for the distribution function and mathematical expectation of indemnities for the insurance plan are presented in terms of the distribution of crop yields. Three special...

A programming technique, utility-efficient programming, is developed for farm planning under risk. The objective function is the parametric sum of two parts of the utility function in which the degree of risk aversion varies systematically with the parameter. This technique has several...

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...

Two aspects of effective rates of assistance for Australian agricultural industries are examined. The long-term rate, rather than the rate for a single year, is determined and a rationale is sought for the pattern of assistance that emerges. Second, the influence of exogenous factors (as...