[1] Household survey data for 10 countries are used to quantify and test the importance of price and nonprice factors on residential water demand and investigate complementarities between household water-saving behaviors and the average volumetric price of water. Results show (1) the average volumetric price of water is an important predictor of differences in residential consumption in models that include household characteristics, water-saving devices, attitudinal characteristics and environmental concerns as explanatory variables; (2) of all water-saving devices, only a low volume/dual-flush toilet has a statistically significant and negative effect on water consumption; and (3) environmental concerns have a statistically significant effect on some self-reported water-saving behaviors. While price-based approaches are espoused to promote economic efficiency, our findings stress that volumetric water pricing is also one of the most effective policy levers available to regulate household water consumption.Citation: Grafton, R. Q., M. B. Ward, H. To, and T. Kompas (2011), Determinants of residential water consumption: Evidence and analysis from a 10-country household survey, Water Resour. Res., 47, W08537,

Using energy data over the period 1981-2011 we find that US biofuels subsidies and production have provided a perverse incentive for US fossil fuel producers to increase their rate of extraction that has generated a weak green paradox. Further, in the short-run if the reduction in the CO 2 emissions from a one-to-one substitution between biofuels and fossil fuels is less than 26 percent, or less than 57 percent if long run effect is taken into account, then US biofuels production is likely to have resulted in a strong green paradox. These results indicate that subsidies for first generation biofuels, which yield a low level of per unit CO 2 emission reduction compared to fossil fuels, might have contributed to additional net CO 2 emissions over the study period.

We examine the relationship between immigration to Australia and the labour market outcomes of Australian‐born workers. We use immigrant supply changes in skill groups, defined by education and experience, to identify the impact of immigration on the labour market. We find that immigration flows into those skill groups that have the highest earnings and lowest unemployment. Once we control for the impact of experience and education on labour market outcomes, we find almost no evidence that immigration harms the labour market outcomes of those born in Australia.

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Using US and global data we estimate autoregressive models of US and global food prices as a function of oil prices, GDP per capita and biofuels production. Our model results show: (1) biofuels production and crude oil prices have a statistically significant effect on food prices in the US and globally; (2) during the global food price spike in 2008, increases in US biofuels production and the US crude oil price accounted for 38 and 41 %, respectively, of the increase in US food prices; (3) during the global food price spike in 2008, increases in global biofuels production and the global crude oil price accounted for 19 and 40 %, respectively, of the increase in global food prices; (4) an independently projected global oil price to 2040 and a projected annual growth in global biofuels production would increase the global food price index in 2040 by 47 percentage points compared to a reference case of constant biofuels production; (5) an independently projected global oil price to 2040 would increase the global food price by 41 percentage points compared to the reference case where global oil price remains at its 2013 level. In sum, we demonstrate that both higher oil prices and increased biofuels production have raised food prices, and that this has contributed to global poverty and chronic undernourishment.