ECONOMICS OF SIZE IN AUSTRALIAN FARMING

Economics of size is an important but relatively neglected aspect of Australian agriculture. The theory and methodology for analysis of economics of size are summarized and a survey made of evidence for Australian agricultural industries. The conclusion is reached that economies of size exist, particularly for small to medium farms and diseconomies appear to be absent. Further research is needed and some important areas are indicated.     

Line,staff and the systems perspective

It's time to retreat from the old principle: ‘staff advises, line decides.’ But where do we go? to a new broad principle? Conflict in line/staff relations must be handled in a pragmatic, existential approach to the design of the organization.     

Problems experienced by engineers with environmental product development projects

The environment industry has grown rapidly over the last decade. An increasing number of busines organizations are developing innovative products and processes which have neen generated by environmental concerns, increasing legislation for environmental protection and the regulation of industry's environmental impacts. There has been some research on barries to innovation and the problems affecting innovative product development in companies, but little ofthis has been applied to innovations developed for environmental protection, especially in the small firm. This paper provides empirical infomation on the problm experienced by engineers developing innovahe products and processes for environmental protection. A sample of 33 engineers, who were intmested in the competition The Environment Award for Engineers: replied to a postal questionnaire about the problas which thy had experienced in their environmental projects This is a competihon organized by the Engineering Council and sponsored by British Gas. The main aim the research was to explore the problems experienced by engineers during the developmat of environmental projects and in particular the different problems experienced by the engineers who were business owner-mangers and those who were employee engineers. The results show that the most jequent& experienced and most important problas are those concerned with securing financial backing and establishing the technical viability of the new product. Statistically significant differences were found between the most important problem expaaenced by employee engineers and business owner-mangers.     

Corruption, growth and ethnic fractionalization: a theoretical model

This paper analyzes the existing relationship between ethnic fractionalization, corruption and the growth rate of a country. We provide a simple theoretical model. We show that a nonlinear relationship between fractionalization and corruption exists: corruption is high in homogeneous or very fragmented countries, but low where fractionalization is intermediate. In fact, when ethnic diversity is intermediate, constituencies act as a check and balance device to limit ethnically-based corruption. Consequently, the relationship between fractionalization and growth rate is also non-linear: growth is high in the middle range of ethnic diversity, low in homogeneous or very fragmented countries.