Synergies between Australian indigenous tourism and ecotourism: possibilities and problems for future development

This paper examines and finds synergies between indigenous tourism and ecotourism in Australia. Both were recognised in the 2003 Tourism White Paper as drawcards for international tourists; Tourism Australia markets both as two of the country's seven key visitor experiences. Despite this, and the proven need to assist indigenous peoples’ socio-economic position, the indigenous tourism sector remains relatively immature. The paper, using a mixed-methods approach, including in-depth discussions with 26 indigenous tourism businesses, examines this problem and suggests ways forward. The results indicate that between 50% and 70% of indigenous tourism businesses are located in remote or very remote areas and utilise the environment to a substantial degree. Communities, couples and families dominate ownership patterns. Only 25% operate on a full-time basis. However, indigenous operators do not necessarily see themselves as being “ecotourism” businesses, despite their concern for and care of country. Very few are accredited: the ecotourism accreditation process is complex and expensive with guidelines based upon Westernised views of nature. Major changes in accreditation practice are suggested along with education and support for indigenous tourism businesses to ensure a stronger relationship between indigenous tourism and ecotourism and to improve Aboriginals’ socio-economic status.     

Age-Specific Patterns of Exit and Entry in U.S. Farming, 1978–1997

Gross entry–exit rates by operator age group suggest there is still an underlying trend toward declining numbers of commercial farms, aging of the farm operator population, and an increasing share of farms operated part-time. The number of entries by young farmers declined steadily from 1978 to 1997, as did the exit rate for older operators. Between 1992 and 1997, the entry rate rebounded for farmers over age 35 and those principally employed off-farm. A sharp decline in the exit rate for midcareer farmers also helped stabilize the decline in farm numbers.     

Buyer Alliances and Managed Competition

In a health insurance market, a large employer or an organized "buyer alliance" is in a position to influence the design of plans offered to its members. We study how the sponsors of buyer alliances manage competition among insurance firms by focusing on their choices of the format of competition, the number of firms allowed to compete, and the quality of care offered by the firms. We find deviations from optimality in all three dimensions. Specifically, we find a tendency toward too many firms and too much quality, and a bias toward a format involving the prescreening of insurance plans by the sponsor.     

Consumers' Valuation of Functional Properties of Foods: Results from a Canada-wide Survey

Very few economic analyses have been done about functional foods and nutraceuticals. The current paper seeks to characterize Canadian consumers' attitudes, beliefs, knowledge and willingness‐to‐pay for functional foods. In the spring of 2001, a telephone survey of 1008 Canadian household food shoppers was conducted. The questionnaire included stated‐choice experiments to derive distributions of price‐functional property trade‐offs. The majority of respondents appeared willing to purchase and to pay a price premium for functional foods, particularly if the functional property were added to foods derived from plants. Consumers were less receptive to a functional property incorporated in a meat product. A large proportion of respondents negatively perceived genetically modified (GM) and organic foods relative to conventional foods, after controlling for price and the health property. This suggests that there could be a niche market for organic functional foods and that GM functional foods would have to be discounted to attract a wide range of consumers. Peu d'études ont été réalisées sur les aliments fonctionnels et les nutraceutiques. Notre papier a pour but de caractériser les attitudes, les croyances, les connaissances et la volonté des consommateurs canadiens de payer plus cher pour des aliments fonctionnels. Un sondage téléphonique fut administré auprès de 1008 répondants à trovers le Canada. Des expériences amenant les répondants àénoncer leur préférences en faisant des choix de produits ont été réalisées pour générer les distributions des compromis entre les prix et les propriétés fonctionnelles. La majorité des répondants sontprêt á payer des suppléments pour des propriétés fonctionnelles, surtout si celles‐ci sont ajoutées a des produits dérivés des plantes. Les répondants semblent mains réceptifs aux propriétés ajoutées à de la viande. Une proportion élevée de répondants entretiennent des perceptions négatives des aliments GM et organiques, relativement aux produits conventionnels après avoir contrôlé pour les prix et les propriétés fonctionnelles. Ceci suggère qu'il y aurait un marché niche pour les aliments fonctionnels organiques et que les aliments fonctionnels GM devraient être réduits en prix pour attirer une vaste clientele.     

Bayesian learning in social networks

We extend the standard model of social learning in two ways. First, we introduce a social network and assume that agents can only observe the actions of agents to whom they are connected by this network. Secondly, we allow agents to choose a different action at each date. If the network satisfies a connectedness assumption, the initial diversity resulting from diverse private information is eventually replaced by uniformity of actions, though not necessarily of beliefs, in finite time with probability one. We look at particular networks to illustrate the impact of network architecture on speed of convergence and the optimality of absorbing states. Convergence is remarkably rapid, so that asymptotic results are a good approximation even in the medium run.     

Network architecture, salience and coordination

This paper reports the results of an experimental investigation of dynamic games in networks. In each period, the subjects simultaneously choose whether or not to make an irreversible contribution to the provision of an indivisible public good. Subjects observe the past actions of other subjects if and only if they are connected by the network. Networks may be incomplete so subjects are asymmetrically informed about the actions of other subjects in the same network, which is typically an obstacle to the attainment of an efficient outcome. For all networks, the game has a large set of (possibly inefficient) equilibrium outcomes. Nonetheless, the network architecture makes certain strategies salient and this in turn facilitates coordination on efficient outcomes. In particular, asymmetries in the network architecture encourage two salient behaviors, strategic delay and strategic commitment. By contrast, we find that symmetries in the network architecture can lead to mis-coordination and inefficient outcomes.     

Determinants of environmentally responsible behaviours for greenhouse gas reduction

Canadian household consumption and driving behaviours are responsible for a significant portion of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced across Canada. This paper examines and characterizes two sets of consumer behaviours, indoor GHG reduction behaviours and automobile GHG emissions, using data from a 2006 telephone survey of a representative random sample of 1002 Canadian households with cars. Two statistical models are used to analyse the impact of four groups of variables (environmental attitudes, policy opinions, automobile‐related indices and socio‐demographics) on GHG reduction at the household level. Results were obtained using ordered probit and Ordinary Least Squares regressions. Indoor GHG reduction behaviours were not correlated with automobile GHG emissions. Dominant factors increasing consumer GHG reduction behaviours both indoors and on the road were sense of personal responsibility and previous environmental activism. Canadians who least actively participate in GHG reduction activities were more likely to be living in the Prairie provinces and to be male.     

Incomplete markets and incentives to set up an options exchange

Traditional analyses with incomplete markets take the securities that are traded as exogenous. In this paper we endogenize the market structure by considering incentives to introduce (costly) options exchanges which issue derivative securities. The method of financing the exchange is critical in determining whether the market structure is socially efficient. If the exchange can charge fees to all agents and make every agent's participation a necessary condition for establishing the exchange then the market structure chosen in equilibrium is efficient. However, if either of these conditions is not satisfied then an inefficient market structure may be chosen.We would like to thank the editor, Herakles Polemarchakis, and an anonymous referee for helpful comments and suggestions. Financial support from the NSF (Grant nos. SES-8813719 and SES-8720589 for the two authors respectively) is gratefully acknowledged.