tailieunhanh - AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF DEGRADATION IN THE QUEENSLAND MULGA RANGELANDS

The impact of a rise in oil prices differs significantly across countries, and depends upon factors such as the oil (and gas) intensity of output, the speed of reaction of the wage-price system, the role of expectations2, the response of the monetary authorities, the export exposure to oil producing markets and the speed at which oil revenues are recycled back into the global trading system. In terms of inflation, the negative effects of higher oil prices tend to be felt less acutely in the Euro Area than the US as the Euro Area is. | AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF DEGRADATION IN THE QUEENSLAND MULGA RANGELANDS John George Irvine Passmore Bachelor of Agricultural Economics Hons 2 1 University of New England . A thesis submitted for the degree of s Master of Agricultural Economics in the ị University of Queensland ị 1 Department of Agriculture August 1991 iii Abstract The economic issues involved in arid rangeland degradation have become an increasing focus in agricultural economics research world-wide. The economic and social factors which contribute to degradation in Queensland s arid mulga rangelands are explored In this thesis. Many of the region s problems including the small property size structure grazing management practices and land tenure have their origins in the historical development of the region. These and other factors are identified using both a regression analysis of crosssectional data and a stochastic dynamic programming model of the rangeland. - Regressions performed on data from parallel economic and land condition surveys of 46 graziers in the south-west Queensland mulga rangelands are used to establish a link between degradation and land utilisation policy. Land degradation is shown to be more severe on properties with higher stocking rates. The importance of property size financial and domestic cost pressures land condition and proportion of residual land types in land use decisions are explored. .The analysis supports the hypotheses that smaller property sizes and higher interest cost commitments are associated with higher stocking rates. ÀS expected properties with a greater proportion of poorer quality land types tend to adopt lower stocking rates. Kangaroo numbers an effective regional proxy variable is positively related to stocking rates indicating the tendency for native grazer populations to be higher on more productive land types. The regression analysis also provides some evidence that incomes are higher on properties with a greater degree of land degradation. While .