The Economic Benefits of the Biological Control of Rabbits in Australia, 1950–2011

Wild European rabbits are serious agricultural and environmental pests in Australia; myxoma virus and rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus have been used as biocontrol agents to reduce impacts. We review the literature on changes in rabbit numbers together with associated reports on the economic benefits from controlling rabbits on agricultural production. By using loss–expenditure frontier models in with and without biocontrol scenarios, it is conservatively estimated that biological control of rabbits produced a benefit of A$70 billion (2011 A$ terms) for agricultural industries over the last 60 years. The consequences for ongoing rabbit control and research investment are discussed.     

A Common Pitch and The Management of Corporate Relations: Interpretation, Ethics and Managerialism

This paper examines how good management can repair fractured relationships within organisations, addressing problems that if left unattended will threaten the future existence of many of these companies. It analyses why there is a mood for change in management thinking, and what direction that change can take. Part of the challenge is how managers can best satisfy the objectives of corporate social responsibility initiatives, and repair organisational and fractured community relationships. A possible role for management is to examine alternative ways of thinking about the potential benefits for the organisation that can be achieved by enhancing employee relationships. In this regard, this paper offers strategies to examine management’s adverse affects on workers’ life-plans. The art of interpretation is used to expose how bureaucratic logic ignores workers’ rights and potentially damages the corporation’s longevity. Interpretation, as opposed to procedure, suggests that organisations are not simply profit mechanisms, but active and dynamic civil societies. By better understanding the facilitating processes of administrative and management thinking, it is possible that we can develop alternative strategies that empower individuals to circumvent the negative consequences of instrumental rationality and enable them to act more responsibly in the public interest. Glen Lehman is Associate Professor, School of Commerce University of South Australia. He has published articles in Philosophy and Social Criticism Accounting, organization and society as well as Critical Perspective on Accounting.     

Strategic Communication in U.S. Higher Education: Testing Congruity Effects of University Identity and Image Among Parents of Prospective Students

Although higher education institutions (HEIs) are in a quest to win the “reputation race” in the hopes of luring prospective students, debate exists about how much strategic effort and internal organizational structure influence HEI reputation, which is subjective and multidimensional by nature. Thus, this study poses the question of how HEIs’ identity and image through strategic communication influence parents of prospective students. We examined this question by conducting a web-based experiment with 314 United States (U.S.) parents of prospective college students. We explored their perceptions of university identity and image as their supportive condition based on the theoretical argument of relational reputation management. Although the results show that parents perceive both identity and image as important assets for HEIs, establishing a strong identity is critical to enhancing their perceptions of and behavioral intentions toward a university. The findings contribute to understudied strategic communication research assessing parents’ informational and cognitive processes toward HEI reputation and reveal how HEIs can build their strategic communication directions.     

Product line strategies of new entrants in an established industry: evidence from the U.S. bicycle industry

A firm's product line breadth in a given market has both benefits and costs; these effects can be more clearly seen by examining not only the number of products a firm offers, but also the degree of complexity that the product line represents. The effects of breadth are particularly important for new entrants in a relatively mature industry and I examine the breadth–survival relation on new entrants in the bicycle industry in the period 1993–98. I find that firms offering a greater number of products, those with very simple and very complex product lines, and those whose product lines have a moderate degree of overlap with rivals have the highest survival rates. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cereal producers and the structural adjustment programme (SAP) in Ghana: A welfare analysis of the first decade of SAP

Small-scale food producers in Ghana produce about 90 per cent of the food in the country. Behaviourial patterns characteristic of these semi-commercial producers are complex, making it hard for policy makers to predict the consequences of policies on them. This study analyses the effects of the Structural Adjustment Programme on cereal producers in Ghana. A system of demand and supply equations was employed in a simulation analysis performed under three different scenarios to observe the aftermath of price increases; measure the impact of devaluation of the cedi; and gauge the effect of price increases and devaluation. The results show that cereal producers gain but consumers lose in terms of producer and consumer surplus. There is a net welfare loss as a result of the SAP.     

CONSTRUCTING AN ENVIRONMENTALLY-EXTENDED MULTI-REGIONAL INPUT–OUTPUT TABLE USING THE GTAP DATABASE

The use of Multi-Regional Input–Output Analysis (MRIOA) for understanding global environmental problems is growing rapidly. Renewed interest in MRIOA has led to several large research projects focused on constructing detailed and accurate MRIOTs. However, very few researchers have made use of the already available and regularly updated database produced by the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP). We demonstrate and discuss how the GTAP database can be converted into an MRIOT without the need for additional balancing. An illustrative example uses the GTAP-MRIO to reallocate carbon dioxide emissions from producing to consuming countries. We suggest that an MRIOT that treats international transport exogenously is adequate until more reliable data on international transport margins and emissions are available. To focus resources and refine methods, a concerted research effort is needed to compare the results of the GTAP-MRIO model with the new MRIO datasets under development.     

Saving babies? Revisiting the effect of very low birth weight classification

We reconsider the effect of very low birth weight classification on infant mortality. We demonstrate that the estimates are highly sensitive to the exclusion of observations in the immediate vicinity of the 1,500-g threshold, weakening the confidence in the results originally reported in Almond, Doyle, Kowalski, and Williams (2010).