Following the global spike in food prices in 2008, there has been a renewed interest in food security. A modest increase in prices over long-term trend in 2009, and some forecasts of higher commodity prices in the longer term, have reinforced concerns. In addition to the concerns with relatively...

A central theme of the invasion biology literature is to predict the introduction and spread of biological invasions but predictive models rarely are applied to inform invasion management. Here, we demonstrate the utility of a spatio-temporal predictive model that has been used to inform...

The presence of transaction costs in trading implies a non-linear adjustment process of real exchange rates towards Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). This may make the traditional tests for PPP using a linear framework --- ones that generally tend to refute the PPP hypothesis --- unreliable....

Conventional wisdom suggests that subsidising biofuel production will reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This paper shows that in many cases, and for a wide range of parameter values, this is not true. Biofuel subsidies can generate supply-side response by fossil fuel producers that...

Using the Survey of Living Conditions in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar of India and the second round of the Vietnam Living Standards Survey, this paper examines whether and to what extent rural consumption inequality of the poor differs in the two countries. While these two countries have experienced...

This paper measures the extent to which donor finance has contributed to higher rates of spending in three key development sectors of the PNG economy—health, education and infrastructure between 1974 and 2008. Results show that high rates of fungibility have occurred within PNG during this...

Poultry sectors’ domestic support and trade protection, or assistance, influences the way they develop, in particular their structure, trade, investments, and aspects of disease risk. Nominal Rates of Assistance (NRAs) measuring adjusted gaps between international and domestic prices were used...

This paper uses quarterly data from September 1981 to December 2000 to quantify the extent to which the Australian real exchange rate is misaligned relative to its long-run equilibrium value. Our modelling suggest, that as of December 2000, the real exchange rate was seven percent below its...

This paper uses a dynamic model to analyse the effects of liberalisation on the longrun output and transitional growth of the Vietnamese rice sector during the period of reform from 1981 to the present. In particular, the paper attempts to allow for the incentive effects which can result if...

This paper makes three principal claims with respect to the economic performance of 14 Forum Island Countries (FICs) over the decade to 2005. First, the FICs (as a group) have performed below their potential. Second, it is the poor policy-choices rather than the handicaps of smallness and...