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The Australian per capita consumption of ruminant meat such as beef and lamb has declined over the last two decades. Over the same period, however, per capita consumption of non-ruminant meat such as chicken and pork has continued to increase. Furthermore, it is now observed that the human consumption of kangaroo meat is on the rise. This study investigates the implications of these changes in meat consumption patterns on Green House Gases (GHGs) emission mitigation in Australia using a Vector Auto Regression (VAR) forecasting approach. Our results suggest that the increase will continue in non-ruminant meat consumption and this will not only offset the decline in ruminant meat consumption, but will also raise the overall per capita meat consumption by approximately 1% annually. The per capita GHGs emissions will likely decrease by approximately 2.3% per annum, due to the inclusion of non-ruminant meat in Australian diets. The GHGs emissions can further be reduced if the average Australian consumer partially replaces ruminant meat with kangaroo meat.

Energy poverty measures are gradually becoming less relevant for fast-developing countries, where the energy mix consists of traditional and modern energies. We propose a new approach for measuring energy poverty by modifying the Exact Affine Stone Index (EASI) demand system to include implied disutility of energy use. The disutility arises from the effects of price or income changes and the use of polluting energies. Using data from Vietnam, we found that energy poverty could happen at higher income levels than the level considered in the literature, and higher incomes may not encourage households to climb the energy ladder. However, consuming carbon-intensive fuel does not necessarily mean energy poor.

As people become wealthy, the type of food they consume tends to fundamentally change. Bennett’s law states that the budget share of starchy food staples, such as cereals and rice, tends to decline as household income rises, while the budget share of other foods, such as meat and vegetables, tends to rise. We argue that an important factor behind this shift is the extent to which the caloric value of the household’s diet meets their energy needs. When the caloric value of the diet is too low, the demand for calories is unsatiated and household’s will ‘eat to live’ and prefer to consume more calorie-dense staple foods, relative to other foods. If the calorie intake exceeds daily energy needs, satiated consumers will ‘live to eat’ and prefer to dedicate additional income to consuming more non-starchy foods that satisfy other wants, such as taste, novelty, or social status. Using Sri Lankan household data, we employ a finite mixture model (FMM) to analyze how satiated and unsatiated groups of consumers alter their calorie intake as income rises. We find empirical evidence that supports this conjecture and suggests that calorie satiation plays an important role in enabling food preferences to evolve as income rises. Policy implications are also discussed.

PurposeWhile the monetary returns to education are well documented in the economics literature, the studies on non-monetary returns to education are scarce. The purpose of this study is to provide new insights into the non-market outcomes by exploring how education influences the food consumption choices of households and how these effects vary across different socio-economic groups using household-level calorie consumption data from Sri Lanka.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses two waves of Household Income and Expenditure Surveys – 2006/2007 and 2016. The methods adopted in analysing the data were descriptive statistics and the OLS regression model.FindingsThe empirical results show that educated poor households pay less per calorie compared to non-educated poor households, highlighting the role of education in improving the ability to make better food choices and manage household budgets more economically.Practical implicationsThis study informs policy-makers of the importance of education for formulating food and nutritional policies, which aim to raise the standard of living of resource-poor and vulnerable households in Sri Lanka as well as other developing countries with similar socio-economic conditions.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to explore the impact of education on the calorie consumption behaviour of people in the Sri Lankan context using nationwide household surveys.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-01-2022-0007

While many alternative poverty measures have been found in the development literature based on income, consumption, or combinations of the two, direct consumption-based measures are rarely found. This study develops a consumption-based deprivation index to measure poverty using household-level calorie consumption data from Sri Lanka. As cereal consumption forms a significant share of the diet in many developing countries, deprivation is measured as the average shortfall from the population's saturation level of cereal calorie consumption. The results show that expenditure-based deprivation measures tend to overestimate consumption-based calorie deprivation. This study also found that there has been a slow decline in calorie deprivation compared to traditional poverty estimates from 2006 to 2016 in Sri Lanka. Further, the results revealed notable differences in calorie deprivation by gender, ethnicity, education, occupation, and income group of the head of the household and by sub-national location of the household. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into understanding calorie deprivation and suggests direct intervention strategies in Sri Lanka and other developing countries.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of agricultural extension services provided by public sector on the individual technology adoption behaviour of rice farmers in Sri Lanka. Design/methodology/approach The study used data from a cross sectional survey conducted in seven rice procuring regions in Sri Lanka. Eight rice technologies were selected to explore the effect of extension service on adoption behaviour of rice farmers using probit models. The extension service variable was identified as potentially endogeneous and instrumented using average extension for each region. Findings The results revealed that the extension service variable was positive and indicative of a high level of significance in all the rice technologies promoting the adoption. Hence the public agricultural extension service programmes were considered as significant explanators of technology adoption. The farmers who received agricultural extension service were more likely to adopt a technology. Social implications At present, the position of agricultural extension service is questioned and the future is unknown. Therefore, this study advises policy makers to prioritise agricultural policies to strengthen public spending on agricultural extension for effective adoption of technological innovations. Originality/value The paper adds solid empirical evidence to the literature on technology adoption behaviour from a peasant agricultural context in a developing country scenario that uses farm level data. Moreover, the study contributes to the literature by reiterating the significance of public provision of extension and training programmes as a direct motive in the technology adoption behaviour of farmers.

The stylized facts that motivate this article include the diversity in growth patterns that are observed across countries during the process of economic development and the divergence over time in income distributions both within and across countries. We construct a dynamic general equilibrium model in which technology adoption is costly and agents are heterogeneous in their initial holdings of resources. We interpret the adoption cost as the resources expended in acquiring skills associated with new technologies. Endogenous growth occurs in our model largely as a result of human capital deepening. The analytical results of the model characterize three growth outcomes associated with the technology adoption process depending on productivity differences between the technologies. These outcomes are labeled 'poverty trap,' 'dual economy,' and 'balanced growth.' The model is then capable of explaining the observed diversity in growth patterns in addition to the divergence of incomes over time and across countries.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to test whether household preferences satisfy the assumption of base-independence, to examine the effects of household income on equivalence scales and thereby food consumption economies of scale and to examine how far conventional poverty rates require adjustment when scale economies in food consumption are taken into consideration. Design/methodology/approach To achieve these aims, the authors use a Pendakur (1999) adaptation of the test of base-independence, and income dependent Engel (1895) equivalence scales. Findings In Sri Lanka, the hypothesis of base-independence is rejected: the equivalence scales increase with household income both at the national and the sectoral level, that is urban, rural and estate sectors. This suggests that low-income households enjoy greater scale economies. After adjusting for scale economies, urban, rural and estate poverty headcount ratios decline by 3.2, 8.8 and 13.7, respectively, while at the national level the decline is about 8.3. Research limitations/implications The results are based on the assumption that all of the adults in the households have identical tastes, irrespective of their gender and age. Furthermore, the survey data exclude three districts in the northern province of Sri Lanka due to resettlement activities took place after the civil war. Practical implications Higher scale economies among the poor imply that poverty among low-income households is overstated when using traditional measures of poverty rates. Originality/value The novelty of this paper is that it provides insights on the effect of income on food consumption economies of scale and implications of this phenomenon on poverty estimates in the context of a developing country like Sri Lanka.

Purpose – The four Asian tigers, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan (also called Four Dragons) experienced miraculous high growth rates in the pre-1990s period and rapidly transformed their economic status from less developed “basket cases” to developed high-income countries gaining entry to the rich OECD club of countries. These countries even in the post-1990s, barring few years, have continued to grow further and are an inspiring role model for the newly emerging economies. The purpose of this paper is to adduce certain trends in these countries since the 1990s and specifically examine role of human capital and knowledge building, productivity convergence and intra-regional trade in the Asian tigers’. The authors examine these in the context of India. Design/methodology/approach – The paper in a simple descriptive yet analytical approach explores the relevance of above factors in the Indian context. Findings – The study observed that India ranks far below the Asian tigers in the knowledge economy index (KEI). The results at the sub-national level showed large disparities across the states in knowledge economy reflecting country’s difficulties in catching up with other countries overall. Regarding labour productivity, the results show that India was moving away from the benchmark country until 1990 (pre-reform period) and started catching up particularly due to physical capital (not necessarily human capital) since 1995 onwards. Originality/value – The study is unique due to several reasons. First, it contributes to the literature examining contemporaneous Asian tigers and Indian economies performance as not many studies exist in this area. Second, the study also builds a unique first ever KEI at the sub-national level for India and is, therefore, a contribution in this respect. Finally, the study also contributes to the literature on Indian economic development.

Residential water demand management using price and non-price measures to conserve water has gained considerable international attention from water utilities over the last few decades. The objective of this paper is to explore the effectiveness of different pricing schemes on water conservation. In this study, we compare the ‘conservation-orientedness’ of two pricing schemes. These are a uniform pricing scheme and an increasing block tariff scheme (IBT) structure. A quasi-experimental method is used for this purpose involving 150 suburbs in the Brisbane City Council (BCC) in Queensland, Australia for a 4-year period between 2005 and 2008. Our results show there are more conservation benefits associated with an IBT pricing scheme than a uniform pricing scheme.