The Australian dollar is considered primarily a commodity-based currency. The high level of commodity-based exports in Australia’s trade balance is given as an explanation. Accordingly changes in world commodity prices should bring commensurate changes in the value of the Australian dollar, such that changes in world commodity prices are only partially transmitted to the Australian economy and ...

The purpose of this article was to study the economics of Sweden's scheme of 'multiple' arable nitrogen abatement instruments. A large-scale, spatially distributed mathematical programming model that linked changes in agricultural production practices to coastal nitrogen load was developed. Actual abatement policy induced 21% abatement. A rst-best solution to 21% abatement required increased co...

Important agricultural commodity prices more than tripled from prices observed in 2005 and 2006 to those observed in the spring and summer of 2008. Prices subsequently fell precipitously so that by early November 2008 (and continuing in the subsequent few months), the near-term futures prices of corn, wheat, and soybeans stood about 50–70% higher than before the price run-up began.1 The huge pe...

This paper investigates the role of aid in mitigating the adverse effects of commodity export price shocks on growth in commodity-dependent countries. Using a large cross-country dataset, we find that negative shocks matter for short-term growth, while the ex ante risk of shocks does not seem to matter. We also find that both the level of aid and the flexibility of the exchange rate substantial...