The Political Economy of Agricultural Price Distortions


Book Description

Despite numerous policy reforms since the 1980s, farm product prices remain heavily distorted in both high-income and developing countries. This book seeks to improve our understanding of why societies adopted these policies, and why some but not other countries have undertaken reforms. Drawing on recent developments in political economy theories and in the generation of empirical measures of the extent of price distortions, the present volume provides both analytical narratives of the historical origins of agricultural protectionism in various parts of the world and a set of political econometric analyses aimed at explaining the patterns of distortions that have emerged over the past five decades. These new studies shed much light on the forces affecting incentives and those facing farmers in the course of national and global economic and political development. They also show how those distortions might change in the future.




The Political Economy of Agricultural and Food Policies


Book Description

Winner of the European Association of Agricultural Economists Book Award Food and agriculture have been subject to heavy-handed government interventions throughout much of history and across the globe, both in developing and in developed countries. Today, more than half a trillion US dollars are spent by some governments to support farmers, while other governments impose regulations and taxes that hurt farmers. Some policies, such as price regulations and tariffs, distribute income but reduce total welfare by introducing economic distortions. Other policies, such as public investments in research, food standards, or land reforms, may increase total welfare, but these policies come also with distributional effects. These distributional effects influence the preferences of interest groups and in turn influence policy decisions. Political considerations are therefore crucial to understand how agricultural and food policies are determined, to identify the constraints within which welfare-enhancing reforms are possible (or not), and finally to understand how coalitions can be created to stimulate growth and reduce poverty.




Political Economy of Policy Reform in Developing Countries


Book Description

In this examination of the political economy of economic policy determination and evolution in developing countries, Anne Krueger provides concrete insights into the interaction of economic and political variables that determine the success or failure of such policies an understanding that is essential if economists are to provide realistic technical assistance in the formulation of economic policy reform programs. The debt crisis of the 1980s accompanied an era of slow economic growth. Developing countries had widely divergent experiences. Some, like the East Asian countries, weathered the recession to resume and even accelerate growth and to lower their debt-servicing ratios. Others, like those in Africa and Latin America, fell into slow or even negative growth, were unable to tighten their debt burden, and experienced declines in per capita income. Krueger analyzes the interaction of politics and economics in experience with slow growth and debt crisis in terms of three major themes. The first is that politically determined policies have economic consequences that can and do change the political equilibrium that generated those policies. Second, the analysis of the political economy of economic policy determination in developed countries can only be undertaken on the basis of assumptions about the nature of government. These two themes, which have been taken up in current economics and political science literature, imply yet a third and less frequently noted proposition that neither economic policies or governments can be looked at as enduring phenomena. Both the nature of the government and the economic policies can be changed according to the political and economic responses one sets off in the other, resulting in various types of "policy cycles" that need to be better understood.




The Economics of Agriculture, Volume 2


Book Description

D. Gale Johnson, one of the world's foremost agricultural economists, has over the last five decades changed the conduct of research on agricultural economics and policy. The papers brought together in The Economics of Agriculture reveal the breadth and depth of his influence on the creation of modern agricultural economics. Volume 1 collects for the first time in one source Johnson's most important work. These classic papers explore the consequences of government intervention in United States and world agriculture; the economics of agricultural supply and of rural labor and human capital issues; and the analysis of agricultural productivity in poor countries, including the centrally planned economies of China and Eastern Europe. Models of precise reasoning and powerful empirical research, the papers cover a wide range of topics—from U.S. commodity price policy to the economics of population control and farm policy reform in China. Volume 1 includes a definitive bibliography of Johnson's published writings. Volume 2 presents twenty-two papers by Johnson's former students and colleagues. International in scope, these papers explore themes and topics inspired by Johnson's work, including agricultural policy and U.S. farm prices; European Common Agricultural Policy; and agricultural and rural development in the Third World. Contributors to Volume 2 are David G. Abler, John M. Antle, Richard R. Barichello, Andrew P. Barkley, Karen Brooks, David S. Bullock, Robert E. Evenson, B. Delworth Gardner, Bruce L. Gardner, Dale M. Hoover, Wallace E. Huffman, Paul R. Johnson, Yoav Kislev, Justin Yifu Lin, Yair Mundlak, John Nash, Keijuro Otsuka, Willis Peterson, Todd E. Petzel, Vernon W. Ruttan, Maurice Schiff, G. Edward Schuh, Theodore W. Schultz, James Snyder, Vasant Sukhatme, Daniel A. Sumner, Vinod Thomas, George Tolley, and Alberto Valdes.










Agriculture, Price Stabilisation and Trade Rules


Book Description

In Agriculture, Price Stabilisation and Trade Rules, Irene Musselli offers a comprehensive doctrinal and historical analysis of stabilisation tools and approaches in agriculture. Using her extensive practical experience in the field, she takes up the interface of the tools discussed with trade rules and offers the first comprehensive analysis of WTO rules from the perspective of stabilisation policies. This volume offers a fresh look at the tool box of managed trade in agricultural commodities and develops new and refined solutions that take into account the legal role of equity and of graduation. Musselli offers new insights and is able to invigorate a debate caught in overly ideological entanglements between market oriented and interventionist schools.




The Plundering of Agriculture in Developing Countries


Book Description

Many adults in developing countries suffer from chronic medical problems that seriously burden health services. Because adult illness can consume more than half of the developing worlds limited medical resources, a better understanding of adult health is urgently needed. This book documents the burden of adult ill-health in the developing world. The overall death rate for adults is analyzed, including such major causes of death as tuberculosis, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and injury. The study examines problems that lead to adult ill-health and suggests ways of deterring them. Also discussed are cost-effective preventive options and ways of reducing the severity of many diseases.




Developing Country Agriculture and the New Trade Agenda


Book Description

Abstract: May 1999 - In the new round of World Trade Organization talks expected in late 1999, negotiations about access to agricultural and services markets should be given top priority, but new trade agenda issues should also be discussed. Including new trade agenda issues would increase market discipline's role in the allocation of resources in agriculture and would encourage nonagricultural groups with interests in the new issues to take part in the round, counterbalancing forces favoring agricultural protection. A new round of World Trade Organization negotiations on agriculture, services, and perhaps other issues is expected in late 1999. To what extent should those negotiations include new trade agenda items aimed at ensuring that domestic regulatory policies do not discriminate against foreign suppliers? Hoekman and Anderson argue that negotiations about market access should be given priority, as the potential welfare gains from liberalizing access to agricultural (and services) markets are still huge, but new issues should be included too. Including new trade agenda issues would increase the role of market discipline in the allocation of resources in agriculture and would encourage nonagricultural groups with interests in the new issues to take part in the round, counterbalancing forces in favor of agricultural protection. They also argue, however, that rule-making efforts to accommodate the new issues should be de-linked from negotiations about access to agricultural markets, because the issues affect activity in all sectors. This paper-a product of the Development Research Group-is part of a larger effort in the group to analyze options and priorities for developing countries in the run-up to a new round of WTO negotiations. Bernard Hoekman may be contacted at [email protected] or [email protected].




Macroeconomic Policy Reforms and Agriculture


Book Description

This report investigates the income and equity effects of macroeconomic policy reforms in Zimbabwe, emphasizing linkages between macroeconomic policies and agricultural performance and agriculture's influence on aggregate income and its distribution. Analyses focus on reform of the foreign trade regime, public expenditure, and tax policy, along with the potential benefits of combining these structural changes with various land reform scenarios. The study uses a CGE model that provides a policy simulation laboratory in which exogenous policy changes are analyzed for their economywide income and equity effects.The report highlights the need for policy complementarities in Zimbabwe that can contribute to equitable growth. It should be of interest not only to those concerned with recent economic developments in Zimbabwe but also to those concerned with the broader issues of macroeconomic reform and its ultimate effects.