The populist view of economic development and the environment is that advances in one will necessarily result in a decline in the other. Evidence in the Australian context is that the dual goals can be achieved simultaneously. As economic development progresses, the increasing levels of income...

Governments are under increasing pressure to deliver results. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency and relevance of the public service in implementing policies and programmes for social betterment. Without such evaluations, it is difficult to ensure that evidence...

The Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) spent the latter decades of the 20th century fully integrating the surface and sub-surface drainage systems with the water distribution network in northern Victoria, thereby enabling complete recycling of outfalls, leaks and...

The global food system and related government policies are in disarray. In response to increasing food prices and greater food price volatility, national governments are pursuing a variety of policies to protect population groups of greatest importance for maintaining government legitimacy. Some...

The WTO negotiations on agriculture remain deadlocked after four years of discussion, and efforts to find a solution at Cancún failed. Analysis shows that the recent draft Cancún text offers more flexibility than earlier proposals, and such flexibility most likely implies a lower level of...

People are part of a complex natural system and have the ability to actively interfere with their environment. Collective decisions made by governments represent social rules that limit the extent of people's interference with the environment that support them. Environmental decisions made by...

The irrigated rice-wheat cropping system is the predominant and most profitable farming system in north-west India, especially in Punjab. However, there are growing concerns about the environmental effects of the system, particularly with the practice of burning rice stubbles, due to its adverse...

This research seeks to understand the impacts of the deregulation of export wheat marketing in Victoria’s western Wimmera. The dismantling of the single desk for wheat exports, operated by the Australian Wheat Board, was finalised in June 2008. In the five years since, no studies have...

A rising saline aquifer in the Coleambally Irrigation Area constitutes a common pool resource, characterised by costly exclusion and rival utilisation for regional irrigators. The approach outlined in general terms in this paper is the application of formal, empirical techniques to guide the...

To maximise the economic benefits of tradable emission permits or emission taxes, while keeping these emission pricing mechanisms politically acceptable, requires the use of payment thresholds. There is no other way to avoid the "rock versus hard place" dilemma posed by the standard, polar forms...