Australia is subject to widespread droughts, with significant financial implications for agricultural producers, regional, state and national economies. Most economic assessments conclude there is no economic efficiency case for governments to provide drought assistance. However, significant...

Grain is China’s most significant agricultural product, its output being the most watched indicator by government officials, traders and researchers both inside and outside China. This paper looks into China’s grain production trends in the recent decade and how the grains industry has...

The degradation of environmental quality has been one of the main concerns in Indonesia. The government has mentioned the environmental tax as the instrument of environmental management; however, the primary potential problem will be the issue of compliance. Inspired by the situation in...

How much has food abundance, attributable to U.S. public agricultural R&D, contributed to the high and rising U.S. obesity rates? In this paper we investigate the effects of public investment in agricultural R&D on food prices, per capita calorie consumption, adult body weight, obesity, public...

Problems in natural resource management arise when markets do not work effectively to resolve the inefficiencies associated with the way resource access rights are currently specified. In most cases, this can be linked to incomplete markets. In order to assess potential management options it is...

Pooling of costs and revenues is commonly practiced by public utilities, and by other firms exercising a degree of market power. In this paper, a variety of explanations of pooling are considered. A new explanation based on the concept of common property, is advanced. The costs of pooling are...

We analyze the welfare cost of the U.S. sugar program, using a multimarket model of U.S. sweetener markets, which includes raw crops, sugar extraction and refining, and sweetener users (food-processing industries and final consumers). We address the industrial organization of food industries...

Theory indicates that charging for government services provided to identifiable clients should improve resource allocation. The question arises - what level of fees and charges should be applied. One popular theory is that charges should be calculated by dividing costs in proportion to...