Irrigation areas in the Southern Murray-Darling Basin face a number of environmental and agricultural production problems. Two of the major on-farm environmental concerns for farmers are waterlogging and soil salinisation. Excess water use during irrigation can lead to salinisation and waterlogging by raising the level of the watertable through net recharge. This study examines three policy options that could be implemented to encourage increased water use efficiency, thereby reducing net recharge. The three policies are; a reduction in irrigation water allocations, an increase in the water price and the introduction of a tiered block water price scheme. The Coleambally Irrigation Area was chosen as a representative of irrigation areas in the Southern Murray-Darling Basin. A representative farm approach was used for modelling purposes. A farm level spreadsheet financial model and a linear programming model were developed to examine the effects of the policy options on farm financial performance and enterprise mix. A reduction in farm irrigation water allocation will provide a strong incentive to improve water use efficiency. However, the impact of this policy on financial performance is substantial. A flat water price increase saw no change in the land use patterns of the four representative farms though farm financial performance decreased significantly. Under a tiered block pricing structure 'inefficient' irrigators will be adversely affected financially by the introduction of a tiered pricing structure to a greater extent than under a flat price increase. The linear programming analysis suggests that the tiered pricing structure specified will provide a greater incentive for farmers to change enterprise mix to water efficient crops than a flat price increase. The results indicate that tiered block pricing for irrigation water has the potential to address the environmental problems of irrigation areas in the Southern Murray Darling Basin. Tiered block pricing provides a direct and ongoing incentive to continuously improve irrigation water use efficiency.

Managers of deciduous perennial fruit crops must consider both biological and economic relationships in determining orchard design and life-time orchard management strategies. Orchardists require a good understanding of the many environmental, physiological and horticultural factors that influence tree growth, fruit production and fruit quality. Of particular importance in apple-tree management is knowledge of how the growing environment and horticultural manipulation of past years affect current and future growth habits and productivity of the tree. In addition to understanding biological factors that influence apple-tree productivity, a diverse range of orchard systems are currently available to orchardists. Each system, consisting of a particular combination of cultivar, rootstock, tree spacing and training method, has implications for fruit quality, quantity and ultimately profit. A dynamic simulation model of apple orchard production is developed in this research, and used to investigate a range of issues of relevance to the commercial apple orchardist. The model is developed in a bioeconomic framework and consists of biophysical and economic components. The biophysical component describes the vegetative and reproductive physiology of an apple tree, factors affecting the quantity and quality of apples produced and interrelationships between these factors. The economic component describes the costs and revenues associated with each orchard system from planting to maturity.

Green Power schemes offer electricity generated by recently constructed renewable energy sources to customers for a higher price than ordinary electricity. This study examines the place of Green Power in the electricity supply industry and among policies to counter global warming, the demand and supply characteristics of Green Power, its effectiveness and measures which could increase its sales. Although growing rapidly, Green Power sales are less than 0.5% of total electricity sales in Australia. The wide variation in market penetration between jurisdictions and between countries for Green Power, the discrepancies between stated willingness-to-pay surveys and actual sales and the low awareness of Green Power found by surveys indicate that Green Power sales could be increased by appropriate marketing and government policies. A sample of 250 pooled time series and cross sectional observations was used to estimate a statistically significant elasticity of demand for residential customers for Green Power with respect to price of -0.96. Green Power schemes appear not to be necessarily loss-making activities for retailers. There has been ample generating capacity for Green Power to meet the growing sales to customers to date. The most cost effective means to increase sales was found to be advertising campaigns such as the campaign in Victoria in 2005. It was also found that full tax deductibility of the Green Power premium to residential customers, an exemption of the Green Power premium from the Goods and Services Tax and a tax rebate for Green Power are probably less cost-effective for promoting sales than direct government purchase of Green Power in terms of cost of policy per unit of increased sales. Green Power plays a small but important role as one amongst a number of climate change policies and the potential of this role is yet to be fully realised.

A farm financial model with leverage and investment in two farm enterprises is specified. The model is extended to incorporate futures hedging and the Separation Theorem is used to show that optimal hedging is zero. The assumption of a risk-free asset is relaxed and, while this leads to a violation of the Separation Theorem, the result that optimal hedging is zero is maintained providing that futures markets are efficient. It is concluded that if capital markets are efficient then farmers will have little interest in futures markets except to speculate.

The proposition that a relatively new technology such as a Differential Evolutionary Algorithm (DEA) can violate the weak form of the Efficient Markets Hypothesis is tested using daily data from the Australian share market from 2000 until 2008. An options trading strategy based on forecasts from a DEA is shown to perform better than a buy and hold strategy over parts of the sample space and, on average, over all of it. The paper concludes speculators may make supernormal profits from new methodologies however that such profits are unlikely to be sustained.

Numerous state-based and national public inquiries across Australia have demonstrated conclusively that local councils face almost insurmountable problems in coping with the problem of financing a massive backlog in local infrastructure maintenance and renewal. Various solutions have been advanced to tackle the problem, including the establishment of a federal government local infrastructure fund. In this paper we develop an alternative funding approach based on the issue of asset-backed securities by local councils in the capital markets. Using the case of water and wastewater operations by local councils in New South Wales, we show that local government has access to a relatively attractive asset in the form of municipal income that can form an income stream payable on a fixed-income security issued by the Australian local government sector.

The objective of this study was to develop an appropriate analytical model for identifying an efficient level of exploitation of the inland fishery resource in South Sumatra, Indonesia. This study involved the evaluation of the existing status of fish stock and assessment of various possible policies for the fishery. The main problem for the inland fishery in South Sumatra is the tendency for the resource to be over-fished, which has been well recognised as shown by some overall indicators, such as virtual disappearance of certain important species and continuous reduction in the size of harvested fish. These problems indicate that proper management is required. This was approached by formulating an analytical framework which includes biological, economic and social aspects of the fishery. Using the biological surplus production model, a bioeconomic model for the inland fishery was developed. Based on the models of Gordon-Schaefer, Gordon-Fox and Copes, supply models for the fishery were estimated. Demand for freshwater fish in the region was assumed to be perfectly elastic. Primary data were used to describe recent cost of fishing effort. Secondary data, combined with results of analysis of primary data, were used to derive a supply function for the fishery. Given available data, and in order to satisfy the requirements for applying the selected model, different types of fishing gear were standardised into a single fishing unit and mixed species of harvested fish were treated as an aggregated fish stock.

The proposition that a relatively new technology such as a differential evolutionary algorithm (DEA) can violate the weak form of the efficient market hypothesis is tested using daily data from the Australian share market from 2000 until 2008. An option trading strategy based on forecasts from a DEA is shown to perform better than a buy and hold strategy over parts of the sample space and, on average, over all of it. Speculators may make supernormal profits using new methodologies however such profits are unlikely to be sustained.

This study investigates whether large Australian companies use their political power to lower their effective tax rates (ETRs) over and above their political costs. It also tests whether there is an industry effect on ETRs for the mining and financial industries in Australia. This study expands the current research into the effect of political power on ETRs by incorporating other tax rate theories. Using 402 mature Australian public companies over a 13-year period the study applies three separate tests to profitable companies.
Firstly, we employ panel data analysis to examine changes in the ETR of 55 profitable companies over the 2000-2012 periods. Secondly, we use cross-sectional analysis to ascertain the relationship that the effect can be seen over a long period by using panel data testing methodology between company size and ETR for profitable companies on a year-by-year basis. Finally, we assess various tax-rate theories by examining the ETR paid by the profitable public companies in 2012.
Out findings from this study provide evidence that there is a consistent negative relationship between company size and ETRs. We suggest, that further research incorporating the use of qualitative data would be needed to counter the effect of political costs on individual companies and industries.

The objectives of this research are threefold. The first objective is to analyse the patterns of output and employment change in Indonesian agriculture compared to other sectors. The second is to utilise a CGE model of the Indonesian economy to analyse macroeconomic agricultural linkages and evaluate sectoral effects of changes in the external shocks and changes in domestic policies on agricultural development performance in Indonesia. The third is to analyse existing agricultural development policies in response to the external shocks with a view to finding policies that generate the highest rates of economic growth and equal income distribution. By using the input-output framework this study analyses growth and structural change in the Indonesian economy with special reference to the agricultural sector. Growth and structural changes are examined in terms of how changes in a sector's output and employment can be apportioned between changes in (1) domestic final demand, (2) export demand, (3) import substitution, and (4) technological change. Results indicate that the growth and structural change in output and employment of agricultural sectors and other sectors in the Indonesian economy during the periods of 1971-1985 and 1985-1995 are heavily dependent on domestic demand. It is found that the contribution of exports to output growth became relatively stronger in the process of economic development, especially in the manufacturing sectors. The agriculture sector always records positive net effects due to trade. It is also found that the most important sources of growth in employment in agriculture are changes in domestic final demand and labour productivity. Changes in technology have significant impact on structural change in agriculture.