The U.S. government awarded export subsidies to agribusiness firms through the Export Enhancement Program (EEP). This study analyzes (a) whether the subsidies promoted new firm market entry and (b) whether firm characteristics influenced program participation. Trade in three commodities,...

The objective of this paper is to explore broad policy options in both the 2007 Farm Bill and the current Doha Round of trade negotiations (WTO) that could be favorable to Pennsylvania. It will be argued that the most favorable outcomes will have two features: 1) improve and stabilize market...

Most foodstuffs have quality attributes that are difficult to determine prior to purchase. Thus quality assurance is an inherent problem in food exporting. Private quality assurance can succeed if exporters can credibly signal that they have much to lose from cessation of purchases. If exporters...

Agricultural policy has been analysed systematically in Australia but the process of policy formation is not well understood. Distributional dimensions of policy issues influence decisions and policy analysts might improve their performance by better identification of these dimensions without...

The main recommendations contained in the IAC's reports on rural references are outlined. The Commission's reasoning on four issues that are widely viewed as important to the formulation of rural policy is examined. The four issues are: assistance to industry; terms of trade; uncertainty and...

It is postulated that some issues of economic policy in general, and of Australian agricultural policy in particular, may be analysed in the framework of an adaptive control model. Policy making is characterized as a rational, sequential decision-making process under conditions of imperfect...

Alternative wheat storage policies which maximise the expected present value of returns for consumers, producers, a monopoly storage agency and society as a whole are derived using a dynamic programming model. Results are compared with those from an earlier simulation model, and are found to...

In principle, the Group regards long-run market forces as the best guide to resource allocation, not only within existing production units, but also between sectors. However, in practice they perceive many instances of market failure in the rural sector which justify government intervention...