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...

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...