School of Economics

Most of us go through life believing we know exactly what we need to make us happy. The pursuit of this thesis is to find out what makes one happy and satisfied in life. This thesis using individual utility models, examines and finds significant effect of homeownership on wellbeing of children, significant effect of housing wealth and housing wealth inequality on happiness, and significant welfare reducing effects of changing petrol prices on wellbeing, under a range of conditions.

Fiji’s mining industry is experiencing significant increase in activity with a number of foreign investors interested in exploring and extracting Fiji’s mineral wealth. While most mining is concentrated in Viti Levu (Fiji’s largest island), Vanua Levu (Fiji’s second largest island) is also attracting interest with bauxite mining in Bua, exploration of copper and zinc in Udu point and the proposed reopening of the gold mine in Mount Kasi. The mine in Bua is Fiji’s first ever bauxite mine and is suggested to provide significant economic benefits to Vanua Levu in terms of export earnings, employment and infrastructure development. However, given the Pacific’s torrid experiences with mining, some feel that this may be another case of developed countries exploiting the resources of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and where the economic benefits of mining will not outweigh the associated environmental, health and social costs. As bauxite mining in Vanua Levu is still in its early st...

This study investigates the asymmetric adjustment of the sectorial lending-deposit rate spread in Fiji’s banking industry using monthly data from January 2000 to February 2020. The study uses the threshold autoregressive and the momentum threshold autoregressive models to test for cointegration and to detect asymmetries. The analysis provides evidence of an asymmetric adjustment process in the sectorial lending deposit rate spread among Fijian commercial banks. This finding has important policy implications and provides better understanding of the asymmetric behaviour in Fiji’s banking industry.