This study determines how production and trade policy distortions affected rice productivity in thirty-three rice-producing countries. A rice-productivity index for each country is constructed, and a model linking the productivity gap with policy distortions is presented. After controlling for...

This analysis uses a residual demand elasticity model to measure market power in the international cotton market. The results indicate that China exerts significant market power and affects cotton prices. Those results, combined with a partial equilibrium model of the international cotton...

In its periodic declarations of domestic support to the WTO, the EU has progressively reduced its amber-box declarations in line with its changing system of farm support. Surprisingly, however, in 2007/08 it managed to more than halve its amber box compared with that of the previous year, easily...

Horticulture provides many developing countries with opportunities for export diversification, poverty alleviation and rural development. However, stringent public and private-sector food-safety standards, for example EurepGap, pose a challenge especially to small export farmers. Compliance with...

Since late 2010 and continuing into 2011, price volatility, in relation to basic agricultural commodities, has occupied center stage on the agendas of decision makers. An additional concern has been uncertainty about a new global economic crisis in the wake of the macroeconomic difficulties...

We study the structure and performance of the coffee export sector in Ethiopia, Africa’s most important coffee producer, over the period 2003 to 2013. We find an evolving policy environment leading to structural changes in the export sector, including an elimination of vertical integration for...

This article provides an overview of the most important reforms, their background, and corresponding changes in Estonian agriculture during the transition period from 1988-2008. The past two decades have been divided into three sub-periods to outline differences in dynamics and the direction of...

This paper investigates the effects of network based individual social capital on the access of rural households to services. In the context of development economics, an innovative data collection approach is used to determine network based social capital. The approach originates from the field...

U S wheat exports have fallen nearly 20 percent since 1981. Major contributing factors appear to be the strong U S dollar, debt problems m many gram-Importing countries, and mandated support levels providing an umbrella under which U S competitors can produce and sell their grams US subsidies...