We investigate preference stability and respondents' levels of choice consistency within discrete choice experiments. These are investigated via a discrete choice experiment featuring four information treatments and a retest survey completed 6 months after the first. Three information treatments concern a novel, stem cell, food technology with the fourth information treatment featuring a non-novel technology. We find stable welfare estimates over the three information treatments; the use of emotive keywords does not systematically change WTP to avoid the stem cell food technology. We find a significant WTP to avoid the non-novel technology. We find high levels of intertemporal preference stability and choice consistency. The determinants of choice consistency are examined. Two factors are significant: a measure of the choice task's complexity (entropy) and a novel measure of respondents' cognitive capability, derived within the survey. We find a significant selection issue, not previously identified in discrete choice experiment test-retest studies, with those opting to take the retest exhibiting greater choice consistency in the initial survey. This suggests that studies which report high levels of test-retest choice consistency, without accounting for the selection issue, are overstating population choice consistency.

The increasing prevalence of anthelmintic (drench) resistance in gastrointestinal parasite populations is decreasing the profitability of the Australian sheep industry. Refugia management can delay its development by not exposing a proportion of the worm population to chemical control. A dynamic-optimisation model is used to assess the economic value of refugia for management of the worm species Teladorsagia circumcincta and macrocyclic lactone drenches in an application to Western Australian sheep flocks. A low rate of refugia (2 per cent) is most profitable under standard circumstances because it slows the development of resistance, but also reduces the proportion of the flock not exposed to chemical control. Frequent drench application should remain the primary method of control. However, its efficacy should be preserved through refugia management, rather than greatly reducing treatment frequency.

Improving water management in rural towns such as Wagin, Western Australia, will decrease infrastructure damage caused by water and salinity and produce a ‘new water’ resource. The aim of this paper is to predict feedlot water demand using a bioeconomic model, H20Sheep, to determine if using such a ‘new water’ resource could be a viable option for this production system. Wagin (–33.3075 S, 117.3403 E), a township south-east of Perth, was chosen as the specific location for a sheep feedlot producing prime lambs. In this paper, the H20Sheep model was used to show how feedlot returns are influenced by the price of water, different feeding regimens and climate change. This was done by integrating feed and water intake of lambs, general feedlot water use and waste disposal. To show relative sensitivity of changing other model parameters that are not directly connected with water, changes in the purchase and sale price of lambs were also investigated. As might be expected, H20Sheep shows that returns from a sheep feedlot enterprise can be extremely sensitive to changes in lamb purchase (just over 7% increase will result in negative returns) and sale prices (a 4% decrease will generate a negative outcome). With respect to water, the findings indicate that, while increases in water use in the feedlot and price have to be greater than the increase in relative price of sheep, monitoring the biological parameters associated with water as well as water prices is still important both from a management and an economic perspective. Hence, if towns involved in the Rural Towns – Liquid Assets project, such as Wagin, decide to sell their water, the relevant policy makers should ensure that the sale price enables an effective water management system for the town and is also attractive to end-users such as feedlots.

This chapter reports the findings from some preliminary analyses of the impact on prices at farm gate and at retail of introducing a system of retail labelling of non-genetically modified food. Of interest here is the nature of market segmentation and price differentiation after a first generation genetically modified (GM) crop (rape, in this example) is produced and marketed. The simple model presented explores some possible scenarios for future prices for GM and non-GM rape under a few key assumptions. First, the GM crop is of the first generation such that consumers will not purchase food produced using GM rape unless it is sold at a lower price than conventional rape. Clearly the model would need to be adjusted to allow for any positive attributes associated with GM foods, such as those in second and third generation GM foods. Secondly, the production function for both types of foods is assumed to be constant returns to scale with a constant elasticity of substitution. The market is characterized by perfect competition. Identity preservation costs are presented as simple fixed costs in each market.

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