In 2008, wheat futures prices spiked and then crashed along with prices for other agricultural and nonagricultural commodities. Market observers offered several theories to explain this common movement, or comovement, in prices, and have proposed policies to address the perceived problem of...

Political-economic analyses of the causes and consequences of agricultural commodity policies typically emphasize farmer and consumer (taxpayer) interests and underplay the role of agribusiness. A more complete understanding of agricultural policy requires paying attention to the important role...

This paper examines changes in the welfare of Canadian barley and livestock producers attributable to a substantial alteration of Canadian domestic feed grain policy in 1974. Three welfare effects are determined – institutional, destabilization, and risk response. Generally, the analytical...

In the policy arena, there is a demand for "trade distortion indicators", but many of the traditional indices are difficult to compute and interpret. Recent developments in the literature have led to a new indicator: the Trade Restrictiveness Index (TRI). This paper analyzes some problems...

With China’s accession to the WTO, concerns have arisen over the possible negative welfare impacts on domestic agricultural producers. The broad concern is that China’s domestic agricultural prices will be pushed down even further, leading to a greater widening of the gap between rural and...

China is the world's largest producer and consumer of food. In the past, China's governmental policy advocated regional self-sufficiency in agricultural production, and it is generally believed that regional self-sufficiency was enforced at high economic cost. However, this changed with the 1979...