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Despite evidence of sub-standard working conditions and low rates of pay, drivers working on the Uber platform report varying levels of job-satisfaction. In order to better understand driver experience most research conducted to date differentiates driver experience by driver investment (time) on the platform. While this approach offers insight into driver motivations, it obfuscates key socio-political aspects of the globalised labour market; namely the precarity of many migrant workers. We present findings from a mixed methods study into migrant and non-migrant drivers on the Uber platform in Queensland, Australia. Specifically, our data illustrates key differences between migrants and non-migrants’ motivations to drive, their dependency on the platform, and their sense of autonomy and agency. Our findings suggest that migrant drivers experience greater levels of job insecurity, specifically around factors of job tenure, agency, and personal safety.

This article examines the correlation of post-migration factors and in particular parental mental health with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and happiness levels of adolescent refugee migrants in Australia, with a special emphasis on associated age and gender differences. Data were sourced from the child module in the 2015–2016 Building a New Life in Australia data set. Results indicate that factors associated with happiness are quite different from those associated with PTSD and this varies across gender and the age groups of 11–14 and 15–17. For example, discrimination related to religion/culture and language have different correlation with boys’ and girls’ well-being measures. While father’s education and mental state have no significant association with any well-being measure, mothers’ education plays some role. Of concern is the intergenerational correlation of mother’s PTSD with their daughters. The results in this study caution against a one-size-fits-all approach to intervention and suggest that a targeted focus on older and younger adolescents further differentiated by gender is likely to be more effective.

Using a computable general equilibrium framework, this paper uses Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as case studies in examining the associated macroeconomic and sectoral impacts under two different climate change scenarios. Our results indicate that a nation’s welfare deteriorates due to technical efficiency losses from climate change. Neither unilateral nor regional trade liberalization as a mitigating option improves welfare in these countries. For Sri Lanka, global full trade liberalization of all commodities is the optimum policy with some welfare gains. For Bangladesh on the other hand, regional partial agricultural trade liberalization is the optimum option with the least welfare deterioration. These results show that under climate change, countries within South Asia should respond differently to climate-induced crop productivity changes and no one optimum policy fits all.

This paper examines the effectiveness, efficiency, and economy-wide impacts of a carbon tax, fuel tax, and some policy mix options for Sri Lanka and Pakistan using their global commitments to reduce carbon emissions. The results indicate that the carbon tax is best for Sri Lanka to reduce emissions by 7% from 2010 levels. This policy shows the least welfare deteriorating effect with increases in real GDP by 0.2%. Although Pakistan has a distorted market of energy subsidies and taxes, the carbon tax is appropriate for emissions reductions of 5% from 2011 levels with no adverse impact on GDP. Thus, both economies can achieve their emission targets cost-effectively and any welfare loss can be compensated from the carbon tax revenues. However, a carbon tax is not a one size fits all climate change policy instrument given the associated cost effectiveness-efficiency trade off, and the countries' dependence on domestic and imported energy resources.

The case study revealed that, on average, volunteers not only spent less than visitors at the festival but they are also not willing to pay more to keep the festival going. However, this lower nonmarket valuation of the festival by the volunteers does not reflect the fact that they appeared to have gained more satisfaction than visitors from attending the festival. But in terms of the regional festival generating social capital, pride, and community benefits, both volunteers and visitors shared similar views. More than 50% of the volunteers were under 30 years, which is twice the proportion of visitors in that age group. However, females were the dominant gender among both volunteers and visitors, and overall, volunteers traveled a longer distance than visitors to attend the regional festival.

While many studies have identified the important aspects on the ship to cruisers, none has evaluated these attributes to determine cruisers’ willingness to pay for each attribute. This paper is the first to use a choice experiment to unbundle the overarching cruise price to explore the preferences of cruisers. The absence of a status quo effect suggests that cruise passengers are novelty lovers who welcome innovative offerings apart from those who cruise specifically to “get away”. Overall, males, Gen X-ers and first timers were willing to pay the most for a cabin with a view while the desire to be pampered influenced preferences for cabin comfort and shore excursion choice. Concern over value for money explained whether a respondent would be more prone to choosing the new options presented instead of remaining with the status quo.

This article identifies temporal differences in the factors that influence a cruise passenger’s intention to cruise again in the short-, medium- and long-term. Using a sample of Australian cruisers, the reputation of a cruise line and indulging in interesting and different ship activities are found to be weakly influential, while satisfaction from past cruises and educational cruises are important factors in the choice to cruise again in the short-term. But variety in ports of call and cruise destinations, recent frequent past trips and recommended cruises influence cruising again in the medium-term. While first-time cruisers are not likely to cruise again in the short-term, neither are those looking for a sense of exoticism and adventure, and wanting to go to places not accessible by land. These findings have implications for the effective targeting of marketing and advertising, keeping in mind the time frame of the likely intentions to cruise again.

In this paper, we draw on established theoretical work to analyze empirically which segments of the population in the target states bear the most cost when economic sanctions are imposed. Using a cross-country analysis of 68 target states from 1960 to 2008, we find robust empirical evidence that the imposition of sanctions have a deleterious effect on income inequality. Focusing on various sanction instruments, financial and trade sanctions were found to have different impacts on income inequality. Lastly, the adverse effect of the sanctions was more severe on income inequality when sanctions span longer duration. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This study on Indonesia decomposes poverty gap using the equally distributed equivalent method and by tracking the poverty status of the same households over four time periods. Empirical evidence shows that unlike all previous studies on Indonesia, chronic poverty was far more prevalent than transient poverty over time. This was robust for developed and less developed provinces, Islamic and non-Islamic groups, and for various education levels of the household head. In addition, it was found that narrowing the cost of inequality in the poverty gap between households holds the key to reducing chronic poverty. This calls for a rethink of the poverty alleviation programs in place for a more targeted focus.

This paper examines the effects of China's foreign direct investment (FDI) on the carbon emissions of its domestic economy and the Belt and Road countries (BRCs). Total inward FDI into China as a host country shows a pollution reducing effect in the western and eastern regions while that in the central region remains unchanged. But China's outward FDI particularly from its eastern region reduces pollution in China. This suggests that China could be exporting carbon emissions via its FDI in the BRCs. The effects on BRCs' pollution from China's FDI is however different depending on the country's level of development. China's FDI was found to have no effect on high and upper middle income BRCs; a decreasing effect on low income BRCs; and an increasing effect on lower middle income BRCs. Evidence shows that China needs to consider a mix of policies to manage its inward and outward FDI to ensure its move to a low carbon economy benefits its own regional development and the BRCs by not contributing to increased carbon emissions.

Recently there has been an abundance of research on “grey nomad” travel in Australia and this subset of drive tourism is regarded as an expanding travel market segment. Grey nomads are older people, 55 years and older, who travel independently for extended periods of time. However, little attention has been given to short-stay travel by older adults who are members of a caravan club. Such membership involves attendance at monthly rallies over a weekend at a selected destination that is usually approximately 200 km from the club's base location. A total of 30 interviews were conducted to explore the benefits of short-stay caravanning to older people's lives. A number of motivations emerged from the interviews, such as friendship with like-minded travelers; discovering new places; and experiencing feelings of enjoyment. Overall, short-stay travel was strongly linked to the importance of making new friends and being part of a social group, as well as the enjoyment received from discovering new and exciting places to visit.

Using the energy-environmental version of the Global Trade Analysis Project, this study compares the effects of three carbon emissions mitigation strategies – a carbon tax, a fuel tax and an emissions trading scheme (ETS) to combat the intended emissions target for Indonesia, a large emitting developing country. Although the fuel tax was found to raise economic growth by 0.29% in 2030, the carbon tax and ETS which reduce economic growth by about 0.11% have less adverse effects on inflation, welfare loss, wage decline, and employment loss. Unlike the fuel tax, the carbon tax and ETS are also likely to promote substitution towards renewable energy given the massive increase in the price of coal of over 100% due to the carbon tax and ETS. To meet Indonesia's emissions target, a carbon tax of US$36/ton of CO2 is needed. The carbon tax which is simpler and more swiftly implementable is the more practical choice compared to the ETS in the short to medium term for developing countries with political economy constraints in their energy and transportation sectors.

This article examines the issue of trade reforms confronting many African Caribbean and Pacific countries such as Fiji, which are set to lose their European Union sugar price subsidy at the end of 2007. It was found that attempts to offset the adverse impacts of the subsidy removal by targeting to improve the performance of any particular sector are counterproductive. Although the optimal policy for Fiji is a broad-based diversification of exports, it is further argued that small developing economies need to address supply-side constraints so that structural reforms can effectively sustain the economy's competitiveness in an increasingly globalised world economy.

Ignoring consumption inequality between individuals within a household is shown to not only underestimate the Gini coefficient and poverty measures but these vary considerably over different income groups even in a small island state like Fiji. Interestingly, the Kuznets curve for intra-household inequality is absent and to our knowledge the paper provides the first attempt in determining the factors that influence intra-household inequality. It was found that variation in the age of family members only affected inequality in low-expenditure groups while total assets affected inequality in the mid-level-expenditure group. Age variations arise due to the existence of intergenerational family structure among the poorer households and strong affinity towards asset accumulation among the middle class could have harmful effects on the development of children and the welfare of the weaker members within such families. These intra-family distributional problems can be addressed through targeted redistributive po...

The objective of this paper is to use a set of varied scenarios related to the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) and the loss of European Union (EU) sugar preferences (in the form of partial and full price liberalization) in combination with the recently committed EU development aid to examine the impact on Fiji using a dynamic computable general equilibrium model. It is shown that without aid, the loss of sugar preferences has devastating impact on real output, exports, rural employment, and other macroeconomic indicators. Without aid, the EPA scenarios, on the other hand, lead to some growth in real output but depress rural employment and non-sugar agricultural exports. Although improvements are observed across the scenarios with aid, it is argued that aid would be more effective if it directly addresses the supply-side constraints in Fiji instead of focusing on the sugar sector.

The European Union's sugar subsidy since 1975 has kept attempts to reform Fiji's sugar industry at bay, until recently due to the expiry of the subsidy at the end of 2007. This paper looks at the high price at which Fiji's sugar has remained sweet, in particular, with regards to efficient production and soil erosion. When the extent of soil erosion was included in the production function, farms on average produced at about 69% of their potential output and this finding was robust to both parametric and nonparametric approaches. In addition, soil erosion was estimated to result in a 9% loss in cane output which translates to a loss of US$8 million in farm income and US$12 million in sugar sales to the industry. Lastly, empirical evidence supports the recommendation of an integrated package of policies related to land tenure and the adoption of soil conservation practice and management.

This paper examines the causal links between productivity growth and two price series given by domestic inflation and the price of mineral products in Australia's mining sector for the period 1968/1969 to 1997/1998. The study also uses a stochastic translog cost frontier to generate improved estimates of total factor productivity (TFP) growth. The results indicate negative unidirectional causality running from both price series to mining productivity growth. Regression analysis further shows that domestic inflation has a small but adverse effect on mining productivity growth, thus providing some empirical support for Australia's 'inflation first' monetary policy, at least with respect to the mining sector. Inflation in mineral price, on the other hand, has a greater negative effect on mining productivity growth via mineral export growth.

To date, the concept, measurement and interpretation of total factor productivity (TFP) growth remains highly discussed but poorly understood. This paper attempts to provide a review of these issues. First, the definition of TFP growth and the related concepts of embodied and disembodied technical change are discussed. Second, a brief overview and critique of TFP growth measuring techniques is provided. Third, the debate surrounding the accounting identity underlying the estimation of a production function for TFP growth is highlighted. Fourth, the usefulness of TFP growth is evaluated (and maintained) in the light of the criticisms hurled at this measure. Finally, some direction for future work on TFP growth is suggested.

This study undertakes an empirical investigation of the macroeconomic and sectoral impacts of two forms of regional trade agreements vis-a-vis global trade liberalisation on a small island country, using Fiji as a case study. In order to capture the feedback effects of such a complex set of policies, we employ a dynamic computable general equilibrium model of the Fijian economy to investigate (i) the impact of the Pacific Island Countries Trade Agreement (PICTA), (ii) the impact of PICTA, the Pacific Agreement for Closer Economic Relations (PACER), and the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), (iii) the impact of full tariff liberalisation (i.e. tariff removal only), and (iv) the impact of full trade liberalisation, with removal of both tariff and non-tariff barriers. While PICTA consistently provides the least benefits across a range of macroeconomic indicators including real output, welfare, trade volumes and employment, full trade liberalisation involving the removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers provides the greatest benefits compared to the other scenarios in terms of real output. However, the latter scenario is outperformed by PICTA, PACER, the EPAs and full tariff liberalisation in terms of welfare effects, trade volumes and employment. The policy implications hold important lessons for developing countries considering trade liberalisation.