A survey of coffee pulpers in Benabena, Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea

Processing is important in determining the quality of finished coffee. A survey of hand­operated coffee pulpers in six villages in Eastern Highlands Province (Papua New Guinea) was carried out as part of a wider project on methodologies for evaluating smallholder coffee. Six villages were visited and 53 pulpers were inspected. The condition and maintenance of coffee pulpers were assessed. Pulper ownership and use was determined through a simple questionnaire. The study revealed that the majority of pulpers was in working condition, and that a large majority of pulpers was improperly adjusted. While the cause of the improper adjustment was not investigated, it is suspected to be due to a lack of knowledge and implies a need for grower education extension services

Labour market inefficiency and frictional unemployment in Australia and its States: A stochastic frontier approach

This paper provides estimates of labour market inefficiency and the frictional unemployment rate for Australia and its States over the period January 1978 to December 1997. These estimates are derived from parametric statistical models of employment growth in which technical inefficiencies are accounted for. The mean estimate of the (technically efficient) frictional unemployment, ate for Australia over the sample period is 5.3 per cent of the labour force. Technical inefficiency in the labour market matching process is significant and contributes around 1.3 per cent to the mean steady-state ('natural') unemployment rate. Investigation of the factors explaining the levels of inefficiency suggests that inefficiencies vary countercyclically, are related to which political party is in power and the time of year and that only Western Australia and Queensland have exhibited a significant decline in inefficiency over the period

DO THE PHASES OF THE BUSINESS CYCLE DIE OF OLD AGE?

The paper re-examines the issue of duration dependence in the Australian classical and growth business cycles in light of the somewhat surprising results obtained recently by Cashin and Ouliaris (2004). In so doing the authors use the multinomial logit regime switching modelling approach of Layton and Smith (2003). The paper also represents an extension of the earlier work on the issue undertaken by Bodman (1998); the key extensions being that the issue is framed within an explicit established business cycle chronology, a leading index is also included within the analysis, and the growth cycle, in addition to the classical cycle, is considered. Strong evidence of duration dependence is found for periods of recession within the classical cycle and for both phases of the growth cycle. Moderate evidence of duration dependency is also found for periods of classical cycle expansion. However, the evidence in this regard is significantly reduced once movements in the leading index are included in the analysis with its movements exhibiting strong power in predicting the termination of classical business cycle expansions. For growth cycles, duration dependence symmetry is found across both phases of the cycle. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd/University of Adelaide and Flinders University 2005..