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.

Many governments of developing countries burdened with international debt are under ever-increasing pressure to use their scarce economic resources wisely. Faced with slow progress in alleviating poverty and stimulating economic growth, they especially need to end wasteful subsidies and revise inefficient tax policies. This book will help staff members of government planning agencies and ministries of finance and agriculture to analyze the effects of government policies on the production, consumption, and export of agricultural commodities. The analytical techniques that Isabelle Tsakok demonstrates in this book are the essential first step in reforming agricultural price policy to bring about a more efficient allocation of resources. After mastering the techniques of single-market, partial-equilibrium analysis, which are the book's focus, policy analysts can use the techniques to identify when more sophisticated methods, such as multi-market analysis and computable general-equilibrium models, are needed to determine what agricultural price policies are "right." Tsakok begins with graphical analysis and data requirements in order to build intuitive understanding, and progresses through steadily more complex techniques, demonstrating—step by step—the calculation of domestic resource costs, effective rates of protection, and related coefficients of protection. Providing a wide range of numerical real-world examples to illustrate the practical application of the partial-equilibrium framework, Agricultural Price Policy is an invaluable reference manual and teaching tool.

The international environment for national price policies; Domestic market intervention; Production response, technology, and commercialization; Consumers' welfare.

The starting point of Paul Streeten's book is the dilemma, faced by policy makers in many developing countries: should the price of food be high, in order to stimulate production, or low, in order to prevent poor food buyers from starving? The author goes on to discuss the role of prices in the light of these and other objectives. 'It is the work of one of our wisest scholars on what I consider to be the key policy issue for economic development in the 1980s...this provocative essay will be required reading for anyone working on agricultural price policy.' C.Peter Timmer 'It provides solid and practical guidance to scholars and decision-makers. It is lucid, balanced and, above all, useful.' Robert Klitgaard 'Paul Streeten is well known for his gift of explaining the pros and cons of difficult policy issues in a clear, simple and realistic way, appealing to policy-makers, students and the wider development community, as well as to academic colleagues. This gift is fully displayed in his new book, and readers are bound to emerge with a better awareness of the conflicts and policy reforms which are involved.' H.W.Singer

Attempts to connect the diverse aspects of appropriate price policy in the following sequence: 1) the implementation issues and impact on the domestic marketing sector, 2) the nature of the world market price, 3) the disaggregated effects on producers and consumers, 4) the short-run macro effects on budgetary, fiscal, and monetary policy, 5) the impact of macro prices, especially the foreign exchange rate, 6) the spillover effects of price policy for one commodity market on other commodity and factors markets, on the agricultural sector as a whole, and on the entire economy, 7) the dynamic effects on employment, investment, and economic growth (Author).

Using economic models and empirical analysis, this volume examines a wide range of agricultural and biofuel policy issues and their effects on American agricultural and related agrarian insurance markets. Beginning with a look at the distribution of funds by insurance programs—created to support farmers but often benefiting crop processors instead—the book then examines the demand for biofuel and the effects of biofuel policies on agricultural price uncertainty. Also discussed are genetically engineered crops, which are assuming an increasingly important role in arbitrating tensions between energy production, environmental protection, and the global food supply. Other contributions discuss the major effects of genetic engineering on worldwide food markets. By addressing some of the most challenging topics at the intersection of agriculture and biotechnology, this volume informs crucial debates.

Since 2006, global food prices have fluctuated greatly around an increasing trend and price spikes were observed for key food commodities such as rice, wheat, and maize.