Since the accession of the eight Central and Eastern European countries, farmers in these countries started to receive substantial agricultural subsidies. Agricultural subsidies alter farmer production incentives and thus factor demand and factor prices. Hence, agricultural support has an impact...

This article analyses how credit market imperfections affect the impacts of subsidies by analyzing the effects of agricultural subsidies in the new Eastern Member States of the European Union with a partial equilibrium model which integrates credit and land market imperfections. We show that...

This paper examines the relationship between structural changes and EU agricultural policies and their implications in the context of the enlarged EU. The paper examines the impact of EU policies on the restructuring and competitiveness of farms in the new member states taking into account...

Important changes took place in agricultural policies in Europe in the 19th and 20th century. The dramatic nature of the changes are illustrated by two years, a century apart: 1860 and 1960. In the 1860s European nations agree on a series of trade agreements which spread free trade across the...

The transition of a centrally planned to a more market economy provides a natural Experiment on the role of institutions and exchange in economic growth. This paper uses a unique dataset based on a survey of 305 dairy producing and supplying households in Bulgaria to analyze the impact of late...

In this paper I draw lessons from two quasi-natural experiments (the transition process in former Communist countries and the rapid globalization of food chains) on the optimality of farms and agricultural structures more generally. I argue that (a) the farm structures that have emerged from the...

Food and agricultural commodity value chains in developing and transition countries have undergone tremendous changes in the past decades. Companies and property rights have been privatized, markets liberalized, and economies integrated into global food systems. The liberalization and...

Agricultural employment in industrialized countries has been steadily decreasing despite important levels of farm subsidies. We argue that one explanation to this puzzle is the positive impact of subsidies on the education levels of farmers’ children. If farmers are credit constrained, they...

This paper presents a political economy model of public standards in an open economy model. We use the model to derive the political optimum and to analyze different factors that have an influence on this political equilibrium. The paper discusses how the level of development influences the...