This paper discusses economic arguments for government intervention and support in agriculture. Two types of arguments seem plausible. The first one refers to the classical view that agriculture has a chronic income problem and therefore governments must intervene to ensure a fair income...

When it comes down to reality the political objective of securing reasonable income to farmers succeeds all other objectives in agricultural policy making. To be able to evaluate policy and design new policy it is of vital importance to know the overall income situation and how the agricultural...

The multifunctional character of agriculture is used as a main argument for agricultural support. This argument is theoretical analyzed in a model with decreasing marginal utility and it is shown that such a support must depend on the size of the agricultural sector. Consequently the argument is...

The development of theory on agricultural income problems springs from empirical investigations showing that agricultural income is unstable over time, and that compared to other trades, it is diminishing. The theorists explain this with the fact that agricultural production factors are...

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was founded in the 1950s with price support as the main policy instrument. Despite massive criticism from both within and outside the EU, price support remains the backbone of the CAP. This paper argues that the choice of price support was logical viewed in...

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was founded in the 1950s with price support as the main policy instrument. Despite massive criticism from both within and outside the EU, price support remains the backbone of the CAP. This paper argues that the choice of price support was logical viewed in...