Exceptional Persistence: Drought and Drought Policy
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Drought policy in Australia has a long history of being criticized for muddling means and ends, and for
being inefficient and inequitable. The broad proposition of this paper is that analysing agricultural policy,
such as drought policy, is likely to be more productive if analysts went further than the common
approach of describing the situation as failure of markets, with the implication that once recognising
this, government will implement efficiency-oriented policy. Better can be done. Rather, defining the
genuine benefits, costs and transfers, using a few simple figurings to estimate the magnitudes of
benefits, costs and transfers, where possible, and making the results of the policy benefit-cost analysis
approach transparent and widely known, should not be a 'step too far' to contribute to forming policy.
Taking this step would add significantly to public debate and, maybe, edge policy further towards better defined
ends and means, improving efficiency and equity.