The producer support estimate (the successor to the producer support equivalent) calculated by the OECD is widely used as an indicator of distortions created by agricultural policies. In this paper we demonstrate that changes in the relative (percentage) PSE are not an accurate indicator of the...

Economists have rarely considered the implications of taxation systems for the agricultural sector. Management specialists and accountants have usually approached theissue from the perspective of how farmers and landowners can avoid it. Little has been written on the extent to which the special...

New initiatives are needed in order to move the GATT negotiations forward. A Production Entitlements Guarantees (PEG) program would limit the quantity of production of individual farmers eligible to receive support payments. The payments would be tied to production. But the quantity of...

This paper focuses on the political economy of U.S. farm policy since the Uruguay Round trade negotiations concluded in 1994 and established the WTO. The continued ability of the powerful farm lobby in the United States to elicit support in the political arena is evident from this analysis. Yet...

This document was prepared by David Blandford, Penn State University and Berkeley Hill, London University. It is based on results from a research project funded by the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture entitled "Policy Reform and Agricultural Adjustment" under a...