Theodore Levantis

• National Research Institute of Papua New Guinea

The management of Land Court records in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is in a dire state. As a result, the proper operation of the Land Court has been compromised. Land Court o cials are navigating through the dark, unaware of even the most rudimentary information such as the scale of case backlogs. Archiving and storage of Land Court les is failing to me...

Purpose The aim of this paper is to consider how well the PNGDSP 2010‐2030 contributes to the target of reducing emissions to 70 per cent of 2010 levels by 2030. The PNG Development Strategic Plan 2010‐2030 (PNGDSP) is the Government's strategy for sustainable development to 2030. Although a small developing country, Papua New Guinea is conscious o...

Papua New Guinea has entered its sixth year of solid economic growth. Understanding the constraints to growth and reviewing the changes that have taken place in the past few years shed light on this unprecedented outcome. A giant liquefied natural gas project has been confirmed, giving Papua New Guineans tremendous optimism that they are on an acce...

The European Union grants preferential market access for sugar to a group of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. Sugar exported under these quotas receives between two and three times the world price. These trade preferences are intended as a form of aid, but they tend to stifle productivity growth in the recipient countries. The Europe...

This study analyses reform exercises in Papua New Guinea. The measures adopted so far have been extensive. Politically, some of the reforms have been significant in that they required constitutional amendments and bordered on politico-constitutional re-engineering. A number of reforms have led to structural changes since they have altered the power...

The international tourism industry is booming, giving many developing nations unprecedented opportunity in trade. But for some developing nations, law and order problems appear to have obstructed growth in tourism. With little attention in the literature given to the influences of safety considerations for tourist demand, this paper investigates th...

Papua New Guinea has pinned its hopes for economic development on its mineral wealth but, so far, this has been a false promise. Given Papua New Guinea’s vulnerability, this raises questions of a Dutch Disease effect. Dutch Disease is dismissed in principle, but an appreciating real exchange rate is considered to have important offsetting economic...

Over three decades the law and order situation in Papua New Guinea has deteriorated to a level at least as bad as anywhere in the world, with profound consequences for the legitimacy and integrity of property rights and personal rights. This state of affairs undercuts the attainment of objectives of economic and social development. A fundamental pa...

The most recent (third) coup in Fiji will have catastrophic consequences for the economy. Modelling suggests output could decline 10 per cent or more for the year as a direct result of the coup, with the impact likely to be felt most by the poor. Moreover, the implications for investment will have perennial consequences. Sanctions and reprisals by...

In the mid-1970s, minimum wages in Papua New Guinea were more than doubled in real terms. Following almost 20 years of stagnant urban employment and growing urban crime, minimum wage regulations were largely removed in 1992. We use a CGE model which incorporates the estimated effects on urban crime of changes in legal job opportunities to estimate...

Despite possessing very different resource and skills bases, Papua New Guinea and Fiji have followed remarkably similar paths of development since 1970. Underlying this has been the comparable evolutionary path of the respective countries' institutions, policies towards international trade and governance. Success in economic and social development...

If the Papua New Guinea gas project proceeds, it will provide a major boost to the economy which will be sustained for at least the next two decades. This will help to offset the effects of declining exports of oil due to depletion of reserves. But the main domestic beneficiary of the gas project will be the government; so the extent to which the p...

With economic turmoil in East Asia causing a collapse in Papua New Guinea's export market for logs, there has been an announcement of yet another change in the export tax regime. The wisdom of the large reduction in rates is examined in the context of what would be optimal given the various constraints and complexities in the market. Logging contra...

Papua New Guinea is a nation of immense natural beauty and incredible cultural diversity, yet it is completely shunned as a tourist destination despite being so close to the enormous East Asian market. This paradox is almost completely due to the law and order situation, which United Nations data shows to be as bad as anywhere in the world. The tou...

The prolonged drought in Papua New Guinea has crippled the rural sector with devastating consequences. One side effect of the drought is migration to urban centres, already overwhelmed by an enormous surplus labour problem and soaring crime rates. This paper investigates the ability of the urban labour market to cope with drought-induced rural-to-u...

This paper documents the sequence of interventions followed by deregulation of Papua New Guinea's urban labour market. Intervention began in 1972 and was mainly in the form of a heavily distorting minimum wage for unskilled workers. 1992 saw the dismantling of these minimum wage restrictions amidst fears of a dramatic deterioration of workers' cond...

Much has been said about the enormous unemployment problem in Papua New Guinea's urban centres and the terrible crime situation which it has generated. The gravity of these problems is profound yet little is really known about the extent of unemployment and crime. This article reports on a survey carried out in 1995 on unemployment and crime in Pap...