The Industrial Organisation of the Australian Agricultural Economics Society
There has recently been much soul searching among US agricultural economists concerning future directions of the American Agricultural Economics Association. In Australia, however, little direct attention has been paid to the Australian Agricultural Economics Society. Utilising an industrial organisation framework, this paper seeks to investigate issues pertaining to the structure, conduct and performance of the Society. To that end, a survey of members was recently undertaken. This information, along with the views of Past Presidents of the Society, minutes of previous Annual General Meetings and student feedback on the future direction of the profession, is used as the main database for the analysis. The results suggest that, while demand for the product mix is generally strong, supply constraints are impinging on the performance of the Society. Alternative approaches to overcoming these constraints are explored.
The Australian Agricultural Economics Profession: An Appraisal of Some Current Trends
Using the results of the first part of their 1994 membership survey, Ahmadi-Esfahani and Brakey (1996) examined the structure, conduct and performance of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society qualitatively. This paper extends that analysis by appraising some current trends in the Australian agricultural economics profession quantitatively. It concentrates on the second part of the survey to address a number of fundamental questions. A comparison of the US and Australian agricultural economics professions is made. The implications of the analysis for the product mix of the Society are explored.
Two weddings and a lawsuit: Marriage litigation in fourteenth-century Portugal
Based on one of the few surviving records of marriage cases brought before
 ecclesiastical courts in fourteenth-century Portugal, this article offers a rare
 glimpse of marriage practice in a small village in a remote corner of Western Europe
 and the complex ties that bound its inhabitants and which secular and ecclesiastical
 authorities sought to regulate. Clear parallels can be drawn with the patterns of
 marriage litigation observed in England and Northern France, but evidence also
 suggests that royal legislation played an important part in the resolution of marital
 disputes and in the shaping of conjugal behaviour.