SECOND NATIONAL WORKSHOP OF THE ANU'S ECONOMICS AND ENVIRONMENT NETWORK, 5-6 MAY 2005

PROGRAM AND PAPERS

Program and Organising Committees

WORKSHOP SPONSORS. For generous financial support, without which the Workshop would not have been possible, we thank our Gold Sponsors:

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)

Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF)

Department of Environment and Heritage (DEH)

Department of Primary Industries - Victoria (DPI)

National Institute of Economics and Business (NIEB)

EEN’s second National Workshop was held at ANU on Thursday 5 and Friday 6 May 2005, preceded by a social evening on Wednesday 4th. Following the precedent set by the inaugural workshop in 2003, the workshop was an important biennial event for those interested in environmental, ecological and resource economics in Australasia. It was designed to present the highest quality research on offer in Australia and the region, and to be of particular interest to people applying economics to public policy issues.

Generous sponsorship from government departments and agencies and the ANU allowed us to pay nearly all of speakers’ expenses, thus ensuring a large number of submitted papers (48, from 12 countries). These papers were refereed "blind" by an 8-member Program Committee of experts, and a Program of 12 papers were selected on the basis of their votes. Selection was mainly made on the grounds of academic excellence and policy relevance, but we also tried to cover a wide range of topics and locations.

The papers were presented in a single stream, and the conference room holds at most 100 people, thus ensuring an intimate and collegial approach to the topics. Each paper had a suitable discussant, and sufficient time to both present and discuss ideas in depth. One indication of the quality of research at these Workshops is that by March 2005, the presentations at the May 2003 Workshop had resulted in 12 papers published or accepted for publication, all but one in refereed journals. Finally, the Program included a Policy Forum, this time on natural resource management in Australia, to address specific policy issues more directly, and to encourage a wide-ranging discussion.

A highlight of the Workshop was the dinner at Vivaldi's Restaurant, where our guest of honour was David Borthwick, Secretary of the Department of Environment and Heritage. He awarded our first prizes, as follows:

The prize for the best paper by a student went to:
Sarah Wheeler, University of South Australia, for her paper on "Factors influencing agricultural professionals' attitudes towards organic agriculture and biotechnology".

The prize for the best policy-relevant paper went jointly to:
Yew-Kwang Ng, Monash University, for his paper on "Eternal Coase and external costs: A case for bilateral taxation and amenity rights";
and
Quentin Grafton, Tom Kompas and Pham Van Ha, Australian National University, for their paper on "The economic payoffs from marine reserves: resource rents in a stochastic environment".

Photos from the Workshop

Program Committee and Speakers

David Borthwick presents Sarah Wheeler the Prize for Best Student Paper

Dinner at Vivaldi's Restaurant

Donna Hazell, Deborah Peterson and Ian Thompson at the Policy Forum

Donna Hazell speaking at the Policy Forum

Breaks between sessions in the ANU's Innovations Building

The following information is no longer needed now the Workshop is over, but is left here for completeness:

REGISTRATION FORM

ACCOMMODATION OPTIONS

Information Sheet for Workshop Attendees

Map and Locations of Workshop Events

General information about Canberra

2003 INAUGURAL NATIONAL WORKSHOP OF THE ECONOMICS AND ENVIRONMENT NETWORK, 1-3 MAY

Photos from Workshop

Professor Warwick McKibbin of EEN

Speakers at the Policy Forum

Garden lunch for workshop participants

Drs Tom Kompas, R. Quentin Grafton and Jack Pezzey of EEN

For larger images click on the photos and the thumbnails below.

For any further details of the 2003 Workshop, click here.