Issue 1

AZIZUR RAHMAN

Page Number - 1

We introduce a measure of cultural diversity of a population that is composed of groups classified by country of birth and/or ethnicity. Our measure takes ‘social difference’ between these groups into account. We measure social difference by exploratory factor analysis of subjective identity, attitude and value responses in Aotearoa New Zealand’s 2016 General Social Survey. We examine the level of, and change in, our social difference-based measure of cultural diversity in 31 urban areas between 1976 and 2018, using census data. We compare these patterns with those derived from a standard fractionalisation measure of diversity. We find that the two diversity measures are highly correlated across the urban areas. Diversity increased everywhere between 1976 and 2018. However, the social difference-based measure increased much faster than the standard measure in all but one of the urban areas. This suggests that growth in the fractionalisation measure of diversity is likely to have underestimated the trend in experienced social difference.

DAVID C MARÉ, JACQUES POOT

Page Number - 4

Dairy has been a major food commodity in Australia since 1788 and a core export commodity since the 1930s, with rapid growth in the 1980s and a rapid decline in 2000 with the introduction of the dairy deregulation policy. The high rate of decline of dairy farms within Australia, particularly in New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland, has left the industry and market unprepared for future development. One reason for this decline would be the domestic supply and demand mismatch. Therefore, this study examines the relationship between supply (i.e., whole milk production), market demand (domestic and international markets) and policy variables. This study collected supply and demand-related data between 1980 and 2021 and then used a multiple regression model to depict the relationship between supply and demand variables. The study found that while there is a significant relationship between total whole milk production and domestic demand, there is relationship between supply, deregulation, and export market has not been identified. Therefore, the Australian dairy industry should look at how do they increase their volume in the export market without reducing the supply to the domestic market.

GILLIAN WALKER, AZAD RAHMAN, VANITA YADAV, DELWAR AKBAR

Page Number - 27

With the development of the metropolitan real estate market in recent years, there has been a trend of residents spilling out of the metropolis, especially in the wake of COVID-19. Housing prices in the regional areas have increased. The factors that cause the spillover are unclear. This paper aimed to excavate the potential factors that make households move away from metropolitan areas to regional areas through a literature review. Literature was searched in Google Scholar using selected keywords. The spillover effect was assessed by considering the economic, geographic, demographic and social characteristics. Understanding the factors of the spillover effect is conducive to real estate valuation, provides informed information for governments formulating regional planning and land policies, advises developers to compose commercial strategy, and helps buyers to make choices.

DONGKAI LI, XIN JANET GE

Page Number - 49

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the pharmaceutical supply chain (PSC) globally. As a result, consumers, pharmaceutical industries, and retailers have been facing supply chain disruptions since 2020. This paper aims to identify the causes and effects of PSC disruptions through a scoping review and propose an analytical framework for further study in Australia and overseas. This scoping review was performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Based on inclusion/exclusion criteria, 47 full articles were included in this review. Studies show significant disruptions to PSC where important contributing factors include: (i) reduction in product supply due to production disruptions and border closures, (ii) increased demand for healthcare products and, (iii) changes in consumers' purchasing behaviour. The study developed an analytical framework that can systematically be used to map PSC disruption in regional settings in Australia and overseas.

JANNATUL FERDOUS, ANITA MEDHEKAR, DELWAR AKBAR, GULAM KHANDAKER, MD RAHAT HOSSAIN

Page Number - 73

The novel Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused unprecedented global devastation across various sectors. This study employs a five-compartmental deterministic mathematical model to analyse the transmission dynamics of this highly contagious disease in Bangladesh. To understand and control the system’s dynamics in our model, we investigated the basic reproduction number, solution existence, equilibrium states stability analysis, sensitivity analysis, and behavioural dynamics of COVID-19 through numerical simulations. We also evaluated the influence of progression and recovery rates on the COVID-19 dynamics in Bangladesh. Further, the model identifies significant parameters from Bangladesh’s COVID-19 data. The findings in this study aid in quantifying diverse parameters to assess the disease severity and formulate effective control strategies, thereby accelerating the containment of the virus spread in Bangladesh.

M. MOHIUDDIN, KHALIFA M. HELAL, FARZANA ALAM, OYELOLA A. ADEGBOYE, MD ABDUL KUDDUS

Page Number - 93

Extreme weather events are anticipated to become more common around the world and they impact yield volatility i.e. reduce food production. Given the changing nature of the world’s climate, and the disproportionate effect this might have on developing countries such as Bangladesh, this is an important topic to study. Agriculture is the major employment source and a significant economic contributing sector in Bangladesh. Moreover, extreme rainfall has a significant effect on agricultural production, which negatively affects the nation's food security and may make it more difficult to end hunger and achieve United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2. Therefore, understanding and modelling the extremes of rainfall in Bangladesh is crucial. This study considers extreme rainfall in different regional domains of Bangladesh and estimates predictive return levels using the Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) and Generalized Pareto Distribution (GPD) in the Bayesian setting. Finally, a comparative study is carried out among return levels at regional areas determined by the distributions considered here. Results depict that in the case of the GEV, once every 100 years, on average, we can expect daily rainfall levels to exceed 400 mm in some locations. However, in the case of the GPD, once every 50 years, on average, we can expect daily rainfall levels to exceed 800 mm in Dinajpur and Mymensingh regions. More rainfall will be observed in Chattogram, Cox’s Bazar, Dinajpur, Faridpur, Khulna, and Mymensingh regions compared to other parts of Bangladesh. It is also observed that the 100-year return levels are closer to the lower bound than the upper bound of the credible intervals. This information may also be used to identify regions that are particularly vulnerable to the kind of heavy rain that causes flooding.

MD. MOYAZZEM HOSSAIN, LEE FAWCETT, ANDREW GOLIGHTLY

Page Number - 114

Many free-trade agreements have contributed to abolishing and reducing tariffs across countries; however, concerns regarding trade promotion have shifted from tariff to non-tariff measures (NTMs). This study focuses on sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS) and technical barriers to trade (TBT) as NTMs. The literature suggests that the effects of SPS and TBT are likely to be negative; however, some evidence of positive effects has also been found. This empirical study examines the impact of SPS and TBT on agri-food trade in the Asia-Pacific region. The estimation results indicate that SPS and TBT become non-tariff barriers in several agri-food trades in the Asia-Pacific region. In contrast, the results for some commodities appear to suggest that, for these commodities, more transparency encourages trade despite greater bilateral divergence of rules and regulations.

YUKO AKUNE

Page Number - 133