In New Zealand, there has been increasing interest in productivity growth, both at economywide and sector levels. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry maintains a total factor productivity series for the primary sectors. As part of the ministry's flagship project on growth and productivity,...

Shallow lakes display hysteresis in their response to phosphorous loading. Gradual increases in the nutrient content of the lake can appear to have little effect on the oligotrophic state of the lake until a point at which the lake suddenly flips to a eutrophic state. Ecotaxes on phosphorous...

This paper examines whether there is room for the improvement of farm program decisions through the incorporation of mathematical optimization in the practical planning process. Probing the potential for improvement, we investigate the cases of four German cash crop farms over the last six...

There is growing interest in agriculture as a source of bio-fuels to replace petroleum-based transportation fuels. Ethanol production has more than doubled from 2000 to 2005 but still accounts for less than two percent of the world's transportation petrol supply. The future role of bio-fuels...

Knowledge about the size and distribution of returns from alternative broad types of R&D and promotion investments permit strategic-level decisions about resource allocation, both within and across research programs. The Australian sheep meat and wool industries are characterised by strong...

The non-renewal of land leases since 1997 and the impending withdrawal of the European Union's sugar preferences in 2007 have created major uncertainties in Fiji's sugar industry. In the context of this troubled environment, this paper examines the impact of various socio-economic factors on the...

Modelling global climate changes without taking account of the changes in resource markets can produce climate policy with perverse consequences. In even the simplest economic model of emissions of greenhouse gases, naïve policies that ignore markets can lead to perverse outcomes- the opposite...

The structure of water tariffs is attracting the interest of scholars concerned about the efficacy of the present pricing arrangements. However, finding consensus on the 'appropriate' structure of water and wastewater tariffs has proven problematic. In addition, relatively little is understood...

Geographical Indications (GIs) have increasingly been used as a marketing tool to create an image of quality and uniqueness, and so capture premium prices. Hedonic pricing studies have shown that indication of geographical origin of production (e.g. country, region, wineries, and location), can...

Environmental economists have long used surveys to gather information about people's preferences. This is particularly true in the field of non-market valuation, where techniques such as contingent valuation, choice modelling and the travel cost method invariably employ some form of survey...