Response to price and production risk: The case of Australian wheat

A model of Australian wheat grower supply response was specified under the constrainsts of price and yield uncertainty, risk aversion, partial adjustment, and quadratic costs. The model was solved to obtain area planted. The results of estimation indicate that risk arising from prices and climate have had a significant influence on producer decision making. The coefficient of relative risk aversion and short‐run and long‐run elasticities of supply with respect to price were calculated. Wheat growers' risk premium, expected at the start of the season for exposed price and yield risk, was 2.8 percent of revenue or 10.4 percent of profit as measured by producer surplus. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 20: 345–359, 2000.     

Financial Institutions and the Estate Agents Industry in the 1980s

The changes which have taken place in the estate agents industry in the 1980s have transformed it from one dominated by small local firms, to one where the major participants are large national financial institutions. Concentration in the industry has increased substantially over the decade and entry conditions are such that it is unlikely to decrease in the coming years. The main reason why the institutions have entered the industry appears to be to market their other services through estate agents. This situation raises problems in terms of whether agents will act in the best interests of their client.     

‘Nothing gets done and no one knows why’: PCS and workplace control of Lean in HM Revenue and Customs

This article examines the willingness and capacity of public sector unions to mobilise action against changes in the labour process in order to maintain some measure of control at the point of production. Taking as an instance an extended dispute in Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs over the introduction and impact of Lean processes, it marshals evidence gathered from documentary sources, branch representatives and national lay full‐time officers to engage with the notion of a trade union bureaucracy. In taking a union with a left‐wing leadership and a section with 80 per cent membership with an expressed willingness to escalate industrial action, the article tests Hyman's 1979 contention that, rather than a concentration on a bureaucratic caste, a much better explanation for conservatism centres on the nature of social relations within the union that encompass a wider layer of representatives.     

Towards a better measure of income inequality in Indonesia

Indonesia has experienced significant economic growth in recent years (on average, 5% in 2000–08), but many people are still living in poverty. Income inequality, as measured by the official Gini coefficient, has also increased. This paper evaluates household income and income inequality in Indonesia, assessing both market and non-market income to reach a more accurate measure of how actual income affects living standards. We find that if household income considers non-market income, income distribution is significantly more balanced, the coefficient of income inequality falls from 0.41 to 0.21 and the income share of the population's poorest deciles increases more than fivefold. The results suggest that market income alone is a misleading measure of income distribution in Indonesia.     

Tourism development and behavioural changes: evidences from Ratanakiri province,Kingdom of Cambodia

This research paper presents the findings of a research undertaken in Ratanakiri province, Kingdom of Cambodia (Under the RETA 6190 ADB TA project on ‘Preventing the Trafficking of Women and Children and Promoting Safe Migration in the GMS’), with the aim to evaluate the impact of an airport rehabilitation project. It highlights the role that infrastructure development, with a focus on tourism-related projects, can play in a remote rural area and its consequences on local population, especially ethnic minorities. For remote areas, tourism is considered as an accelerating influence on globalisation and in-migration, which, in turn, are seen as the main factors affecting remote local communities to modify behaviours changing from valuing utility to valuing exchange. The rapidity of these cultural changes increase rural depopulation and the vulnerability of human beings to a range of negative situational factors, including loss of land, erosion of community structures and coping mechanisms, and as well as exploitative practices such as debt bondage, prostitution and human trafficking.     

Big ideas for a small town: the huddersfield creative town initiative

Whilst much of the attention of those concerned with culture and regeneration has rightly been focused upon the core cities and regional capitals, it would be a mistake to assume that smaller towns and cities do not also have a role to play. Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, is one of a number of towns clustered around the Pennines that grew, and for a hundred years prospered, from the textile trade but which, by the 1980s, were in serious economic decline. This article examines how culture has contributed to the regeneration of the town and the wider local authority district.¹ It reviews the developing role of the creative industries within the district and, in particular, the role of the local Council as a key catalyst for many of the institutional and policy shifts that have contributed to this development. The paper is very much intended as reflection on a particular case study. It is certainly not offered as a blueprint but as an opportunity to contribute to the developing knowledge base concerned with the role of the cultural and creative industries in urban development.     

Accounting For Financial Instruments: An Overview

The explosion in the growth of derivative financial instruments in recent years is a major cause of concern for accounting standard-setters. This paper considers the reasons for the growth and identifies the accounting problems associated with these instruments. The relevant United States and Australian pronouncements are discussed. Major proposals in ED 59 Financial Instruments are outlined and two critical issues concerning the automatic writedown of financial assets and the treatment of anticipatory hedges are identified. ED 59 contains similar proposals to E 48 issued by the IASC. However, there are some differences between the two documents and these are discussed. The paper also considers possible developments in accounting for financial instruments.