This thesis consists of a summary and four papers. The first two papers address political economy and industrial organization aspects of agricultural policy, and the last two international aspects of environmental policy. Paper [1] explains Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidies to farmers...

While financial liberalization has in general favourable effects, reforms in countries with poor regulation is often followed by financial crises. We explain this variation as the outcome of lobbying interests capturing the reform process. Even after liberalization, market investors must rely on...

The food crisis of 2008 in Nigeria was influenced by price changes in the world market and the escalation of the price of imported fuel into Nigeria which led to sharp increases in the prices of agricultural inputs and transportation cost. The soaring prices of food staples benefited the...

This paper identifies eight political economy factors that influenced governments' policy choices during the most recent global food price crisis. To explain the variety of responses and the policy failures, a framework is proposed that locates policies along the twin dimensions of unitary vs....

Agriculture plays an important part in Kazakhstan´s self-image, and continues to be a significant economic sector, employing about a third of the workforce. In the two decades since independence, agriculture has experienced dramatic swings in performance and in public policy. During the 1990s...

CAP reform is the major bone of contention in the negotiations of the next long-term EU budget beyond 2013. This paper reviews the political landscape so as to make it more legible to the public. First, it summarizes the arguments concerning key reform issues: What should be the size of the CAP...

The study focuses on the period 2004-09 during which Egypt experienced food crisis. The political economy context on how the government responded to the crisis is analysed while pinpointing to what extent there was a pass-through effect from international to domestic prices. The complexity of...

The food price crisis revealed contradictions in creating food policy. Much of the common policy response can be explained by a benevolent, unitary government. To understand the variance between countries, however, requires understanding fractured government decision-making, path dependency, and...

Since independence, Senegal has been highly reliant on international markets to meet its food needs, and this tendency has only increased with rapid levels of urbanization in recent decades. Poor domestic cereal harvests prior to 2007 exacerbated this import-dependence during a time of high...

The overall goal of this paper is to analyse the political economy of food price policies in China during the global food crisis. The results show that given China's unique economic and political context and the nature of its agricultural markets, the government's reaction to the crisis was...