The reduction of the existing global distortions to agricultural incentives is sometimes stated as a priority to fight poverty worldwide. But the impacts of global trade policy and domestic development policy reforms are rarely, if ever, compared. Despite technical limitations hindering rigorous...

At national economic level there is a fierce competitivity, experienced more and more perhaps due to the crisis. Functionality of the economy has been a challenge that many have failed to honor, but at least led us to try to. The chance to succeed was related to everyone's desire to ensure...

During the recent years Mediterranean Partner Countries (MPCs) are facing major political, institutional, economic and societal changes. As a matter of fact, the agricultural sector has been interested by global trends and has become more and more exposed to world dynamics. The resulting...

It seems paradoxical that developed countries continue subsidizing agriculture even though their agricultural sectors have been declining in relative importance since the middle of the 20th century. What drives support for agricultural protection in developed countries? We answer this question...

Croatia is very close to meeting the requirements necessary for becoming a member of the European Union (EU). On February 6, 2008, the European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said that accession negotiations with Croatia are moving ahead well. As in all new member states (NMS), the...

Various South African policy statements and strategy proposals argue that farmer focused planning and farming systems research approaches are required to develop policies, strategies and project activities to serve farmers efficiently. Then, the question is how to give a practical content to...

In this paper an interest group model of rent seeking behaviour between sugarcane farmers and environmental protectionists is developed. The motivation for this scenario comes from the debate over fertilizer run-off and its possible impact on Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef. The paper takes...

Since its inception, the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been discussed controversely. Data from the OECD and the World Bank show that the protectionist effects of the CAP between the 1960s and the 1980s were larger than those of its national predecessors. Moreover, there...

Advances in genetic engineering involve more than scientific breakthroughs. Potential economic effects - some possibly undesirable - also need to be considered.