Description:
Costa Rica is a small Central American nation that has gained an international reputation as a leader in environmental conservation. This has formed the base for its highly successful and lucrative small-scale ecotourism industry. However, there are threats from high rates of deforestation and expanding large-scale tourism that is trading on strong environmental credentials, so it is appropriate to conduct this policy analysis on such a significant ecotourism area. The paper develops an ecologically sustainable economic framework, drawing on the works of Adolph Lowe (1893-1995) and Michal Kalecki (1899-1970), to examine the Costa Rican experience and then analyse lessons for general policy development of any ecotourism area. The analysis is conducted from a political economy (and not a tourism management) perspective on the trade-offs between small-scale and large-scale ecotourism.
Description:
Costa Rica is a small Central American nation that has gained an international reputation as a leader in environmental conservation. This has formed the base for its highly successful and lucrative small-scale ecotourism industry. However, there are threats from high rates of deforestation and expanding large-scale tourism that is trading on strong environmental credentials, so it is appropriate to conduct this policy analysis on such a significant ecotourism area. The paper develops an ecologically sustainable economic framework, drawing on the works of Adolph Lowe (1893-1995) and Michal Kalecki (1899-1970), to examine the Costa Rican experience and then analyse lessons for general policy development of any ecotourism area. The analysis is conducted from a political economy (and not a tourism management) perspective on the trade-offs between small-scale and large-scale ecotourism.
Description:
This paper aims to examine the political economy role of R & D in the context of the innovation dilemma between its roles as a knowledge generating processes and the entrenched power that such knowledge creates.
Description:
This paper aims to examine the political economy role of R & D in the context of the innovation dilemma between its roles as a knowledge generating processes and the entrenched power that such knowledge creates.
Description:
Stanhope was described in the original 1988 small towns study as a manufacturing and service centre for an important irrigated dairying district. According to 2001 Census data, the role of manufacturing based on the dairy processing plant has remained significant. The same data reveals that this plant also continues to service the dairy farms in the district and provide significant jobs for these farms. The original study noted the importance of service clubs and other voluntary organisations in providing community capacity building to build and fund local facilities and amenities such as a community hall and a swimming pool. The recently established Stanhope and District Development Committee seems to be providing a similar function today for soft, or information technology infrastructure for business development and information-based transactions.The 1988 study also noted that Stanhope faced a range of issues and concerns about its ongoing viability, including its narrow dairying economic base, strong competition from larger service centres, constraints on residential growth due to lack of facilities, and closure of V/Line freight services. This update identifies that essentially the same concerns remain.
Description:
Stanhope was described in the original 1988 small towns study as a manufacturing and service centre for an important irrigated dairying district. According to 2001 Census data, the role of manufacturing based on the dairy processing plant has remained significant. The same data reveals that this plant also continues to service the dairy farms in the district and provide significant jobs for these farms. The original study noted the importance of service clubs and other voluntary organisations in providing community capacity building to build and fund local facilities and amenities such as a community hall and a swimming pool. The recently established Stanhope and District Development Committee seems to be providing a similar function today for soft, or information technology infrastructure for business development and information-based transactions.The 1988 study also noted that Stanhope faced a range of issues and concerns about its ongoing viability, including its narrow dairying economic base, strong competition from larger service centres, constraints on residential growth due to lack of facilities, and closure of V/Line freight services. This update identifies that essentially the same concerns remain.
Description:
This paper develops an analysis of innovation based on Allen Oakley's (2002) primary themes of ontological priority, agency-structure and critical realism. I develop a history of thought and contemporaneous endogenous view of innovation in an environment of uncertainty, potential novelty and policy priority. Drawing on the literature of Austrian, institutional, Schumpeterian, Penrosean and other schools, I explore a continuum of agency-structure relationships that enhance innovation. These relationships cover environments that are based on agency and contingency, through to those that balance contingency with containment (structure), and situations that are heavily contained. The literature on innovation is investigated vis-à-vis the degree to which different environments encourage creative, original marketable opportunities for the common good. Innovation policy-making is then investigated through the traverse process of irreversibility, and within a retroductionist planning process. Overall, I seek to advance the cause of realism through innovations generated in different environments.
Description:
This paper develops an analysis of innovation based on Allen Oakley's (2002) primary themes of ontological priority, agency-structure and critical realism. I develop a history of thought and contemporaneous endogenous view of innovation in an environment of uncertainty, potential novelty and policy priority. Drawing on the literature of Austrian, institutional, Schumpeterian, Penrosean and other schools, I explore a continuum of agency-structure relationships that enhance innovation. These relationships cover environments that are based on agency and contingency, through to those that balance contingency with containment (structure), and situations that are heavily contained. The literature on innovation is investigated vis-à-vis the degree to which different environments encourage creative, original marketable opportunities for the common good. Innovation policy-making is then investigated through the traverse process of irreversibility, and within a retroductionist planning process. Overall, I seek to advance the cause of realism through innovations generated in different environments.
Description:
This article analyses and speculates upon an interesting but unsettling development within the Australian economic profession. It argues that there is a schism within the profession when it comes to providing economic commentary to the media. We argue that only financial market economist voices dominate in the Australian media when it comes to commentary on current economic issues. This has implications for the acceptance of economic policy since these economists are apt to uphold the interests of their employer. In contrast, academic economists suffer from a lack of recognition and reach in the media, which biases the promulgation of economic policy options in the broader community. We present evidence showing that todays generation of academic economists, in contrast to previous generations, is becoming reticent on matters of public policy.
Description:
This article analyses and speculates upon an interesting but unsettling development within the Australian economic profession. It argues that there is a schism within the profession when it comes to providing economic commentary to the media. We argue that only financial market economist voices dominate in the Australian media when it comes to commentary on current economic issues. This has implications for the acceptance of economic policy since these economists are apt to uphold the interests of their employer. In contrast, academic economists suffer from a lack of recognition and reach in the media, which biases the promulgation of economic policy options in the broader community. We present evidence showing that todays generation of academic economists, in contrast to previous generations, is becoming reticent on matters of public policy.
Description:
Since the origins of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, innovation and investment have been crucial to capitalism and economic development. This chapter sets up a link between innovation and investment in historical time, without reference to any static equilibrium. In this manner, the relationship between the instability of cycles and growth trends can be identified. Australian data is then used to identify important linkages between these two crucial elements.
Description:
The focus of this paper is peripheral urban growth centres on the edges of capital cities in Australia and the challenges they face as dormitory suburbs attempting to establish their own local business development. These challenges create dilemmas as infrastructure and climate change place pressure on long commuting times, while developing strong locally based communities is limited by many resource and demand constraints. The main research question is to examine how these challenges are being addressed in both public policy and academic research. Two propositions emerge from this analysis. The first is that, despite clear recognition of these challenges by public policy makers, there is a lack of coherent policy vision in addressing the dilemmas that are facing these urban growth centres. The second is that, despite all the concerns and lack of policy vision, there is a dearth of useful academic research in Australia to understand the dilemmas and provide guidance for appropriate policy options. In the context of ad hoc policy and academic neglect; Casey, Melton and Wyndham are the three major urban peripheral local government areas in Victoria that are profiled in this paper. They serve as examples in examining incoherence of policy and then analysing the elements that are needed for effective and strong peripheral growth centres that could propel these centres towards efficient and equitable liveable communities. A broad composite model of regional economic development is used to examine the attendant problems in these urban centres and the various viable policy options for addressing these problems. In the process, this paper aims to provide a basis for further rigorous academic investigation of peripheral urban growth centres in Australia and, arising from this, more coherent policies for the economic development of such centres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Description:
Small-to-medium sized agribusiness enterprises (SMAEs) in developing countries have a complicated nature on co-joint business to create a high value of output. Most of the businesses tend to work individually, isolated and uncooperatively. They are not aware that if they do business cooperatively, this will create a higher value of output. Modern sophisticated Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in business can play an important role in enabling cooperation to flourish. In developed countries, ICT adoption in SMAEs has resulted in significant value addition to management improvement and output. In this paper, selected ICT adoption models from SMAEs in developed countries are studied as a benchmark for application to ASEAN developing countries. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of ICT in SMAEs as a linkage among the agribusiness sub-system in order to reduce both transaction and information cost. A proposed model is developed as an alternative approach for value creation of agribusiness in developing countries.
Description:
Small-to-medium sized agribusiness enterprises (SMAEs) in developing countries have a complicated nature on co-joint business to create a high value of output. Most of the businesses tend to work individually, isolated and uncooperatively. They are not aware that if they do business cooperatively, this will create a higher value of output. Modern sophisticated Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in business can play an important role in enabling cooperation to flourish. In developed countries, ICT adoption in SMAEs has resulted in significant value addition to management improvement and output. In this paper, selected ICT adoption models from SMAEs in developed countries are studied as a benchmark for application to ASEAN developing countries. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of ICT in SMAEs as a linkage among the agribusiness sub-system in order to reduce both transaction and information cost. A proposed model is developed as an alternative approach for value creation of agribusiness in developing countries.
Description:
This paper describes a project which seeks to identify the role of human capital formation in promoting innovation in Australian enterprises and the ways in which enterprises can improve their human resource management and learning and development practices to improve their innovation performance. There are a number of factors that affect enterprises' ability to innovate. These include internal factors such as the ability to detect technological changes in the environment, the development of core competencies from which innovation can developl and external factors such as the maturity of the market which the enterprise serves and the impact of government policy to stimulate innovation. Thus the ability of enterprises to innovate depends on the effective management of human resources and in particular, the learning and development practices that enable enterprises to increase the skills of workers to innovate (human capital formation). Studies in Denmark and Spain have shown that better
Description:
The paper outlines a research framework that can serve as a guide to regional research. This is an inter-disciplinary framework allowing all researchers from any discipline to focus on the regional problematic with the objective of serving a regional community. No research can begin without a perspective on the broad issue for study and deliberation. This presentation begins with the “vulnerability/inability” problematic of the domestic regional (non-urban) situation and the innovation strategy required in addressing the factors underlying this problematic. The framework around this problematic-strategy dimension is an economic model by Micha
Description:
The paper outlines a research framework that can serve as a guide to regional research. This is an inter-disciplinary framework allowing all researchers from any discipline to focus on the regional problematic with the objective of serving a regional community. No research can begin without a perspective on the broad issue for study and deliberation. This presentation begins with the “vulnerability/inability” problematic of the domestic regional (non-urban) situation and the innovation strategy required in addressing the factors underlying this problematic. The framework around this problematic-strategy dimension is an economic model by Micha