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This study empirically estimates energy poverty levels across Queensland regions. It includes estimates of the number of households experiencing energy poverty in a region and the ability of households across regions to adapt to rising prices (price elasticity). We use these results to conduct a microsimulation exercise to examine how further rises in electricity prices could trigger a rise in energy poverty. It is estimated that 3.42% of all Queensland households – approximately 63,128 households – experience energy poverty, most of them being in the lowest income quintile. Energy poverty appears to be concentrated in certain regions, including Gladstone, Logan and Far North Queensland. A range of contributing factors may account for this pattern: high levels of income insecurity, weather and demographic differences. Beyond the distribution, our results also provide evidence that energy poverty is concentrated in certain groups, including large households. Policy implications are discussed.

PurposeWhile the monetary returns to education are well documented in the economics literature, the studies on non-monetary returns to education are scarce. The purpose of this study is to provide new insights into the non-market outcomes by exploring how education influences the food consumption choices of households and how these effects vary across different socio-economic groups using household-level calorie consumption data from Sri Lanka.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses two waves of Household Income and Expenditure Surveys – 2006/2007 and 2016. The methods adopted in analysing the data were descriptive statistics and the OLS regression model.FindingsThe empirical results show that educated poor households pay less per calorie compared to non-educated poor households, highlighting the role of education in improving the ability to make better food choices and manage household budgets more economically.Practical implicationsThis study informs policy-makers of the importance of education for formulating food and nutritional policies, which aim to raise the standard of living of resource-poor and vulnerable households in Sri Lanka as well as other developing countries with similar socio-economic conditions.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to explore the impact of education on the calorie consumption behaviour of people in the Sri Lankan context using nationwide household surveys.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-01-2022-0007

Formulation of effective policies to enhance the resilience of tourism following the COVID-19 pandemic essentially requires comprehensive empirical information on changes in tourism demand and associated economic costs. The paper makes a novel contribution to tourism literature by employing regionally and temporally disaggregated tourism data and Google search data in improving the accuracy of tourism forecasts. Further, the paper adopts two timeseries variables namely tourist arrivals and guest nights in order to understand the changes due to COVID-19 in tourism demand more comprehensively. Monthly data on international tourist arrivals, guest nights and Google trends from 2004 to 2019 are used to produce regionally disaggregated (Europe, Asia, the Pacific, America, Other) monthly tourism forecasts for Sri Lanka. We find that SARMAX models outperform the other models (ARIMA, ARIMAX, SARIMA) in forecasting tourism demand following COVID-19. Interestingly, the paper makes a further step in utilizing forecasts in estimating foregone economic benefits due to COVID-19 pandemic. We find a notable difference in estimated direct economic loss depending on the variable used in estimates. The percentage loss is 40% when arrival forecasts are used in estimates and 29% when guest night forecasts are used in estimates. This provides important policy implications for improving post-COVID tourism.

In the extensive literature on the role of government in the economy scant attention has been paid to the influence of the relative size of government on an economy’s rate of growth. This paper canvasses perspectives on why the size of government has grown, how this affects the wider economy, and why a trade-off exists between increased government size and economic growth beyond some optimal level, as conveyed by the so-called BARS curve. The paper next examines in-depth trends in government spending in Australia which has grown to a historically high level of 37 per cent of national income post GFC before econometrically estimating the optimal size of government on Australia’s BARS curve using the ARMAX approach. The results suggest the share of government spending in Australia consistent with maximising economic growth is 31 per cent of national income, significantly below the current level.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of agricultural extension services provided by public sector on the individual technology adoption behaviour of rice farmers in Sri Lanka. Design/methodology/approach The study used data from a cross sectional survey conducted in seven rice procuring regions in Sri Lanka. Eight rice technologies were selected to explore the effect of extension service on adoption behaviour of rice farmers using probit models. The extension service variable was identified as potentially endogeneous and instrumented using average extension for each region. Findings The results revealed that the extension service variable was positive and indicative of a high level of significance in all the rice technologies promoting the adoption. Hence the public agricultural extension service programmes were considered as significant explanators of technology adoption. The farmers who received agricultural extension service were more likely to adopt a technology. Social implications At present, the position of agricultural extension service is questioned and the future is unknown. Therefore, this study advises policy makers to prioritise agricultural policies to strengthen public spending on agricultural extension for effective adoption of technological innovations. Originality/value The paper adds solid empirical evidence to the literature on technology adoption behaviour from a peasant agricultural context in a developing country scenario that uses farm level data. Moreover, the study contributes to the literature by reiterating the significance of public provision of extension and training programmes as a direct motive in the technology adoption behaviour of farmers.

This paper explores how the household’s capacity to grow food impacts their ability to achieve economies of scale in food consumption and how this impacts the geographic distribution of poverty across rural and urban areas. An accurate understanding of consumption economies of scale is vital for comparing poverty levels across households of varying size. Using Sri Lankan data on home-grown food consumption, we empirically confirm that such economies of scale exist and that large households tend to consume relatively more home-grown food than smaller households. The magnitude of these scale economies are found to be larger than those in market purchased food, but smaller than those found in housing expenditure. Consuming more home-grown food is also found to be positively correlated with per-capita calories consumed. Taking these effects into account in poverty estimates leads to a 15 per cent decline in the number of household who fall below the poverty line in rural regions.

This paper examines the nexus between excess currency growth and inflation in Australia. It first canvasses the operation of monetary policy. Using different econometric techniques, it next examines how well excess money supply growth, measured in terms of currency and M3, explains Australia's inflation over the long term from 1970–2015, and then more specifically before and after the adoption of inflation targeting. Its key result is that excess money growth has been the main determinant of Australia's inflation, although became less important during the inflation targeting era. This implies the velocity of currency, the sine qua non of the Quantity Theory of Money, has been remarkably stable. Given the role excess currency plays in generating Australian inflation, it should be afforded greater prominence in monetary policy deliberations.

While it is well known that new technologies enhance consumer welfare, the manner in which these technologies impact the ability to realize economies of scale in consumption is not well understood. We use Sri Lankan household data to examine how the adoption of new technologies by households positively impacts their ability to achieve household economies of scale. This suggests that new technologies not only deliver a greater variety of consumption goods to consumers, but they may also play an important role in enabling large households to escape poverty by lowering the per-capita costs of maintaining a given standard of living. Given the importance of consumption economies of scale in the measurement of poverty, this study provides some insights on the extent to which the number of poor households changes when food consumption scale economies due to technology adoption in the domestic sphere are incorporated.

This paper focuses on Vietnam's exchange rate whose official rate has been pegged by the State Bank against the US dollar since 1989 despite wider market liberalisation over this time. Whether Vietnam's official exchange rate is appropriately valued has important implications for the economy's international competitiveness, trade balance and gross domestic product (GDP). The main aim of the paper is to assess whether the official exchange rate has been valued appropriately with reference to macroeconomic fundamentals, as proposed by the purchasing power parity and the behavioural equilibrium exchange rate approaches to evaluating equilibrium exchange rates. Our main empirical finding based on co-integration analysis using quarterly data from 1995 to 2014 is that according to both these approaches the Vietnamese Dong was significantly overvalued for extended times, most notably due to Vietnam's relatively high inflation rate.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to test whether household preferences satisfy the assumption of base-independence, to examine the effects of household income on equivalence scales and thereby food consumption economies of scale and to examine how far conventional poverty rates require adjustment when scale economies in food consumption are taken into consideration. Design/methodology/approach To achieve these aims, the authors use a Pendakur (1999) adaptation of the test of base-independence, and income dependent Engel (1895) equivalence scales. Findings In Sri Lanka, the hypothesis of base-independence is rejected: the equivalence scales increase with household income both at the national and the sectoral level, that is urban, rural and estate sectors. This suggests that low-income households enjoy greater scale economies. After adjusting for scale economies, urban, rural and estate poverty headcount ratios decline by 3.2, 8.8 and 13.7, respectively, while at the national level the decline is about 8.3. Research limitations/implications The results are based on the assumption that all of the adults in the households have identical tastes, irrespective of their gender and age. Furthermore, the survey data exclude three districts in the northern province of Sri Lanka due to resettlement activities took place after the civil war. Practical implications Higher scale economies among the poor imply that poverty among low-income households is overstated when using traditional measures of poverty rates. Originality/value The novelty of this paper is that it provides insights on the effect of income on food consumption economies of scale and implications of this phenomenon on poverty estimates in the context of a developing country like Sri Lanka.

This study analyses asymmetry in price transmission between wholesale and retail rice markets in Sri Lanka, using the threshold autoregressive model. We found that the wholesale and the retail rice markets in Sri Lanka are integrated, with price changes moving from the wholesale to the retail market. However, the price transmission process is asymmetric. In particular, price increases at the wholesale market transmit immediately to the retail market while price decreases transmit more slowly. Parameter stability test and follow-up analysis indicated that the price transmission process is asymmetric only during periods of price surges, suggesting that the rice market is not efficient during these periods.

The increasing demand for forest resources in Vietnam has increased the need for investment in research and development in the forestry industry. Recent research has investigated the viability of introducing hybrid nursery stock to forestry plantations in Vietnam as a strategy to meet the increased demand for forest products. The study reported in this paper measured forest plantation owners' willingness to pay (WTP) for technologically-improved Acacia hybrid nursery stock in Vietnam using a double-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method. The study was based on 188 face-to-face surveys with forest plantation owners in three provinces in Central Vietnam. The results indicate a WTP value of VND855 (US$0.037) in standard estimation and VND794 (US$0.034) in certainty-adjusted estimation per Acacia hybrid nursery stock. These figures, respectively, represent a 70% and 58% higher WTP value for Acacia hybrid nursery stock than the base price used in the research (VND500). Among the factors analysed, the forest plantation owners' total income, level of education, income from forestry, experience and amount of time spent each year on forestry activities had a positive impact on the WTP for Acacia hybrid nursery stock. These findings can guide the formation of governments to enhance the development of technologies in Vietnam's forestry industry.

This paper proposes a new measure of competitiveness based on the ratio of non-tradable goods and services prices to tradable goods and services prices. It first presents a straightforward framework for understanding how key macroeconomic variables determine this alternative competitiveness measure with reference to output and expenditure behaviour in a two sector open economy. It then econometrically examines its most significant determinants with reference to private and public sector consumption and investment in Australia. Results based on quarterly data from 1998 to 2013 suggest that government expenditure on non-tradable goods and services was the most significant factor to worsen Australia's competitiveness. This provides an alternative perspective on the efficacy of fiscal policy to those previously advanced in standard international macroeconomic models.

Purpose – The four Asian tigers, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan (also called Four Dragons) experienced miraculous high growth rates in the pre-1990s period and rapidly transformed their economic status from less developed “basket cases” to developed high-income countries gaining entry to the rich OECD club of countries. These countries even in the post-1990s, barring few years, have continued to grow further and are an inspiring role model for the newly emerging economies. The purpose of this paper is to adduce certain trends in these countries since the 1990s and specifically examine role of human capital and knowledge building, productivity convergence and intra-regional trade in the Asian tigers’. The authors examine these in the context of India. Design/methodology/approach – The paper in a simple descriptive yet analytical approach explores the relevance of above factors in the Indian context. Findings – The study observed that India ranks far below the Asian tigers in the knowledge economy index (KEI). The results at the sub-national level showed large disparities across the states in knowledge economy reflecting country’s difficulties in catching up with other countries overall. Regarding labour productivity, the results show that India was moving away from the benchmark country until 1990 (pre-reform period) and started catching up particularly due to physical capital (not necessarily human capital) since 1995 onwards. Originality/value – The study is unique due to several reasons. First, it contributes to the literature examining contemporaneous Asian tigers and Indian economies performance as not many studies exist in this area. Second, the study also builds a unique first ever KEI at the sub-national level for India and is, therefore, a contribution in this respect. Finally, the study also contributes to the literature on Indian economic development.

This study examined economic well-being of sub-national units in India since the economic reforms. For this purpose, the study constructed well-being index for 17 major states of India for the period 1981–2011 based on five broad dimensions. Our results showed that the economic well-being of states has declined since the reforms. The interstate disparities have increased and the states (except Punjab and West Bengal) which performed well prior to the reforms continued to perform well in the post-reform years too. In addition, our regression results for the high well-being and low well-being states revealed that the reforms have benefited more developed high well-being states, rather than low well-being states. While human capital was found significantly and positively related to per capita incomes in both groups of the states, financial development was positively related in high well-being states, but a negative association was visible in the low well-being states.

We study a political economy model which aims to understand the diversity in the growth and technology-adoption experiences in different economies. In this model the cost of technology adoption is endogenous and varies across heterogeneous agents. Agents in the model vote on the proportion of revenues allocated towards such expenditures. In the early stages of development, the political-economy outcome of the model ensures that a sub-optimal proportion of government revenue is used to finance adoption-cost reducing expenditures. This sub-optimality is due to the presence of inequality; agents at the lower end of the distribution favor a larger amount of revenue allocated towards redistribution in the form of lump-sum transfers. Eventually all individuals make the switch to the better technology and their incomes converge. The outcomes of the model therefore explain why public choice is more likely to be conservative in nature; it represents the majority choice given conflicting preferences among agents. Consequently, the transition path towards growth and technology adoption varies across countries depending on initial levels of inequality.

While the existing literature on rising food prices in recent years has mainly focused on the causes and calculating the number of people falling below the poverty line in developing countries, less attention has been paid to rising food prices and food security in terms of calorie intake. The main objective of this study is to fill this gap using a case study of a developing country, Sri Lanka. In this study, we estimate the change in individual calorie intake associated with food inflation using the Stone–Geary utility function. The impact at national level is assessed using a calorie intake distribution curve. The results demonstrate that the percentage of undernourished population in Sri Lanka is expected to rise rapidly with food inflation on the basis that there is no income increase during the period under consideration. However, the rise in undernourished population is remarkably low when the income effect is taken into consideration.

The stylized facts that motivate this article include the diversity in growth patterns that are observed across countries during the process of economic development and the divergence over time in income distributions both within and across countries. We construct a dynamic general equilibrium model in which technology adoption is costly and agents are heterogeneous in their initial holdings of resources. We interpret the adoption cost as the resources expended in acquiring skills associated with new technologies. Endogenous growth occurs in our model largely as a result of human capital deepening. The analytical results of the model characterize three growth outcomes associated with the technology adoption process depending on productivity differences between the technologies. These outcomes are labeled ‘poverty trap,’ ‘dual economy,’ and ‘balanced growth.’ The model is then capable of explaining the observed diversity in growth patterns in addition to the divergence of incomes over time and across countries.

In this paper we examine the dynamics of the link between inequality and inflation from a political economy perspective. We consider a simple dynamic general equilibrium model in which agents vote over the desired inflation rate in each period, and inequality is persistent. Inflation in our model is a mechanism of redistribution, and we find that the link between inequality and inflation within any period or over time depends on institutional and preference related parameters. Furthermore, we find that differences in the initial distributions of wealth can yield a diverse set of patterns for the evolution of the inflation and inequality link. Relative to existing literature, our model leads to more precise predictions about the inflation–inequality correlation. To that end, results in the extant empirical literature on the inflation and inequality link need to be interpreted with caution.

When the acronym of eBRICi was coined in 2001 by Jim OiNeill of Goldman Sachs, it was expected that economic growth rates in India, Brazil and Russia would eventually catch up with that of China. However, China has continued to outperform the other economies in the group, even after it was renamed eBRICSi to reflect the inclusion of South Africa in 2010. The focus of this chapter is on one of the BRICS economies, namely India. Its aim is to examine from an economic perspective, why Indiais performance has not lived up to expectations, and comment on the key challenges it faces in meeting them. We begin with some descriptive statistics regarding the progress of the Indian economy since 1990. While it has been growing at a rapid rate since the reforms it introduced in the1990s, there has been a slowdown in its overall GDP growth rates since 2008. The rate of growth experienced in the period 2003n07 was an average of 10.5 per cent. However, since the recession following the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008, the growth rate has fallen. From the period 2008n12 it has only registered an average growth rate of 6.5 per cent (World Bank, 2013). This chapter suggests that one of the major factors underpinning this slowdown is the performance of Indiais agricultural sector. The importance of the agricultural sector is highlighted by the following stylized facts.

Although rising food prices have hit hard on a large number of households in many developing countries, the vulnerability in terms of food security varies across different household sectors within a country. In this study we have developed a simple analytical model and used it to examine the food security vulnerability across different households to a shock in food prices by using three commonly-known household sectors (urban, rural, estate)in Sri Lanka. In particular, we have estimated the combined impact of income and price rises on food security of these sectors. Our empirical results suggest that the overall food security in all three household groups (measured in terms of real food consumption above the poverty line food consumption) has been marginally decreasing over time in Sri Lanka. Furthermore, the negative effect of rising food prices has been partially offset by the positive income effect in all three household sectors. The results also suggest that the urban sector is highly vulnerable to a food price shock than the other two sectors. The least vulnerable group is the rural sector, whilst the estate sector lies in the middle. Sri Lankan Journal of Agricultural Economics Vol.(14-15)No. 1 (2012-2013) pp. 1-15

Empirical evidence suggests that there has been a divergence over time in income distributions across countries and within countries. Furthermore, developing economies show a great deal of diversity in their growth patterns during the process of economic development. For example, some of these countries converge rapidly on the leaders, while others stagnate, or even experience reversals and declines in their growth processes. In this paper we study a simple dynamic general equilibrium model with household specific costs of technology adoption which is consistent with these stylized facts. In our model, growth is endogenous, and there are two-period lived overlapping generations of agents, assumed to be heterogeneous in their initial holdings of wealth and capital. We find that in a special case of our model, with costs associated with the adoption of more productive technologies fixed across households, inequalities in wealth and income may increase over time, tending to delay the convergence in international income differences. The model is also capable of explaining some of the observed diversity in the growth pattern of transitional economies. According to the model, this diversity may be the result of variability in adoption costs over time, or the relative position of a transitional economy in the world income distribution. In the more general case of the model with household specific adoption costs, negative growth rates during the transitional process are also possible.

Taking an interdisciplinary approach, Vai Io Lo and Mary Hiscock, together with scholars and researchers from around the world, investigate the rise of the BRICS and assess the extent of their further development and influence from the perspectives of economics, international relations and law.

Residential water demand management using price and non-price measures to conserve water has gained considerable international attention from water utilities over the last few decades. The objective of this paper is to explore the effectiveness of different pricing schemes on water conservation. In this study, we compare the ‘conservation-orientedness’ of two pricing schemes. These are a uniform pricing scheme and an increasing block tariff scheme (IBT) structure. A quasi-experimental method is used for this purpose involving 150 suburbs in the Brisbane City Council (BCC) in Queensland, Australia for a 4-year period between 2005 and 2008. Our results show there are more conservation benefits associated with an IBT pricing scheme than a uniform pricing scheme.