Laos is a mountainous country with poor roads and a high rate of poverty incidence, especially in rural areas. It is obvious that better roads could reduce poverty, but by how much? And what forms of road improvement reduce poverty the most? The economic effects of road improvement are complex...

Paper removed for revision at request of author - 09/20/07.

In this paper, we extend the Solow growth model to include corruption as a determinant of the multifactor productivity using a Cobb-Douglas production function framework. In addition to the classical components of any growth model (output, labor, capital), we incorporate corruption as a...

This article compares the effects of various fiscal policies on choices of development timing and capital intensity when rents on housing follow geometric Brownian motion with those when rents follow arithmetic Brownian motion. These policy instruments include fees on capital, housing, and land,...

Economic activity is inherently variable and monitoring it is a major challenge, especially in regional economies where resources are fewer and activity is more variable. Using a recent study of the Riverland region, the authors set out the information available, its limitations and means by...

Non-farm rural enterprises (NFRE) are increasingly studied because of their role in poverty reduction. However, existing studies of the effects of infrastructure on NFRE may give incorrect inferences because they typically fail to account for spatial effects. Such effects could reflect either...

Over the past 220 years since European settlement, Australia has amassed a diverse array of historic heritage places. Currently there are approximately 200,000 places listed on statutory heritage lists across the nation. Owing to the public-good nature of heritage, community values for the...

Energy is a significant agricultural input in both Australia and New Zealand. Likewise agriculture in NZ Australia has the potential to produce significant energy sources - the extent to which depends on the price of competing energy sources - particularly oil. Higher energy prices, resulting in...

Dairy industry organizations, universities and government agencies are variously involved in embedding web-based, standardized farm business performance systems in the Australian and New Zealand industries. The spectrum of involvement prompts an exploration of demand drivers and expectations of...

The flexibility of farms to respond to changing economic or environmental conditions has received attention in recent years, particularly in the context of changes in the availability and pricing of irrigation water. This study uses a new unit record data set of Australian farms and a...