Because of the short-term nature of existing futures contracts, farmers are subject to intertemporal income uncertainty, yet price stabilization may be detrimental because it negates the benefits of (intertemporal) production flexibility. Multiyear futures, if they existed, would be preferred to...

This paper investigates optimal trade policies for a developing, small open economy that faces international price uncertainly. Trade taxes are used to finance provision of a public good, which enters the utility function of consumers. If demands for private goods are independent of the public...

Statistics demonstrate the diversity of EC agriculture. Agriculture in southern Europe is characterized by many small farms, most of which emphasize crop production. In northern Europe, farms are larger and more likely to emphasize livestock production. More than 70 percent of all EC farms are...

Milk production is seasonal in many European countries. While quantity seasonality poses capacity management problems for dairy processors, a European Union policy goal is to reduce price seasonality. After developing a model of endogenous seasonality, we study the effects of three E.U. policies...

The Saskatchewan short-term hog loan program of 2002 provided a non-market credit line to participating hog producers. The repayment conditions for cash advances committed to by the provincial government depend on later hog prices, and so the program has derivative contract attributes. We model...

Livestock policies in the European Community (EC) are explained and analyzed. Then we provide a review of the literature on models that attempt to explain livestock production and meat demand in the EC.

To identify the winners and the losers from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in agriculture, it is necessary to know which countries will be required to reduce which subsidies by what amounts. Rules that seem fair may actually impose very different future obligations on the...

Worried by rapidly increasing milk and beef policy costs, but constrained by political considerations, the European Community (EC) Council of Agriculture ministers introduced a milk quota regime effective April 1984. The extent to which a quota regime reduces economic efficiency and influences...

A dynamic multicountry, multicommodity model is used to evaluate the impact of a moderate General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) agreement. The terms of this agreement are as follows. 1) Export subsidy quantities (using annual and price wedges) are reduced by 50 percent from the 1986-88...