The Nested PIGLOG Model: An Application to U.S. Food Demand

A new demand system is introduced, the Nested PIGLOG model, nesting thirteen other demand systems including five that are also new. This new model and its nested special cases are applied to models of U.S. food demand that include food-at-home (FAH), food-away-from-home (FAFH), and alcoholic beverages. Although nested tests and out-of-sample forecasting performance favor generalizing models to a certain degree, statistically insignificant improvements to in-sample-fit and even poorer out-of-sample forecast accuracy undermine further generalizations. Based on a subset of preferred models, FAFH is found to be price and income elastic compared to FAH which is price and income inelastic.     

Annuity Values in Defined Contribution Retirement Systems: Australia and Singapore Compared

Annuities promise to play an increasingly important role in countries with national defined contribution retirement systems. In this article we examine life annuities in two countries, Singapore and Australia, each of which has a national mandatory pension program. Exploiting data on annuity pricing and purchase behaviour, we compare the money's worth of life annuity products across these two nations. Our results indicate that, after controlling on administrative loadings, there are important differences in measured adverse selection. Part of the explanation may be due to the different structures of the two countries’retirement systems.     

A LINEAR PROGRAMMING SOLUTION TO SOME MARKET ALLOCATION PROBLEMS

Certain market allocation problems involving linear average net revenue functions can be solved by linear programming. The technique can be applied to an objective function derived from linear marginal net revenue functions, the objective being to force each marginal net revenue as near to zero as possible given the constraint set. If a particular problem is suited to a linear programming solution, researchers may prefer to use this technique rather than more sophisticated optimization methods.     

ESTIMATING SOURCES OF FLUCTUATIONS IN THE AUSTRALIAN WOOL MARKET: AN APPLICATION OF VAR METHODS

Vector autoregression (VAR) methods are used to analyse the contribution of supply, demand and policy shocks to unpredictable fluctuations in the market for Australian wool. VAR procedures are compared with conventional structural econometric models as methods for decomposing sources of instability. While each has advantages and disadvantages, VAR procedures might be viewed as preferable when the underlying market structure is complex and uncertain, as it is in the case of wool. Based on the results obtained, demand shocks are the dominant source of uncertainty in the wool market in the absence of Australian Wool Corporation intervention, but intervention has blunted their effects, reducing market uncertainty and increasing the average level of prices and revenues.     

Spatiotemporal Modeling of Asian Citrus Canker Risks: Implications for Insurance and Indemnification Fund Models

Asiatic citrus canker is a disease that poses a significant hazard to commercial citrus production. This article examines spatiotemporal models of the risks of citrus canker transmission. Models evaluate risks and are used to price annual contracts, which would pay producers a prespecified indemnity in the event that their grove is found to be infected with canker. Implications for risk management policy are discussed.     

SOME OLD TRUTHS REVISITED

The primary objective in this paper is to 'promote' the use of equilibrium displacement modeling, or comparative static analysis of general function models, as a research tool in agricultural price and policy analyses. This is by no means a new tool, but it does seem to be used much less in Australia than it is in the US where it has been the basis of several important journal papers in recent times, The paper includes applications to: (a) reproduce important results obtained by Euse (1958) regarding total elasticities; and (b) examine the price premium argument that has been advanced in favour of single-desk selling arrangements. The latter is the secondary objective in the paper. Whilst equilibrium displacement modelling has its shortcomings, it is a research tool that can provide useful results with few assumptions. It can be a substitute for econometric modelling when resource and time constraints are binding. The application to the price-premium argument re-confirms the doubts that many analysts have expressed about single-desk selling.     

Pensions,Ageing and Retirement in Australia: Long‐Term Projections and Policies

Australia's retirement income provision system, comprising the ‘three pillars’ of a means‐tested aged pension, mandatory occupational superannuation and other, voluntary long‐term savings, is at the heart of understanding the fiscal implications of ageing. While the Intergenerational Report, an account of long‐term fiscal sustainability, is celebrating its tenth birthday since the first edition was published, the Superannuation Guarantee, first implemented in 1992, turns a sprightly 20 years old. This article considers the Intergenerational Report as a prism for studying fiscal, demographic and policy developments in the Australian retirement income system over the last decade and into the future.     

Aged-care support in Japan: perspectives and challenges

This article explores economic aspects of the market for long-term care (LTC) in Japan. As the world's most rapidly aging nation, it is of interest to understand that country's current LTC system and projections of LTC utilization patterns and costs, as well as their potential drivers. Since Japan appears likely to experience important shortfalls in LTC in the future, the authors also discuss alternate forms of provision.