Political Economy of Agricultural Distortions: The Literature to Date

The 1980s and first half of the 1990s were a very active period in the field of political economy of agricultural protection. While the past decade has witnessed a slowdown in this area, there have been very important developments on political economy in other parts of the economics profession. This paper reviews key new insights and developments in the general political economy literature and draws implications for the study of the political economy of distortions to agricultural incentives.Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, Political economy, agricultural distortions, high-income countries, developing countries, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18, N50, O13, P16, P26,

Is State Building the Road to World Order?

We summarize Francis Fukuyama’s State Building: Governance and World Order in the Twenty-first Century (London, Profile Books, 2005)and explore the limits of its arguments. State Building is a book with a very wide scope that essentially tries to “ground” and expand the fields of political science and international relations with insights from the New Institutional Economics. We suggest that doubts remain concerning the theoretical framework proposed and that many links between theory and a series of substantive claims are left unarticulated; this raises the possibility that the book’s policy recommendations are unwarranted.Democracy, International Political Economy, New Institutional Economics, Political Economy, State building, World Order

Kang teaches the political economics of the Far East

“All my life North and South Korea have been a divided country. Almost all young people in South Korea have to serve in the military. I felt that I needed to understand what is going on in the world—not only international relations, but political economy and social relations. I tried to figure it out, and that was the motivation. Another thing was my ignorance of international relations, especially political economy.” That’s how Dr. Myung-koo Kang explains why he became the political economist he is today. After studying international relations at Seoul National University, he received a master’s and a doctoral degree in political science from the University of California at Berkley. Today he is an assistant professor of political science in the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences of Baruch College/CUNY

Beyond bilateralism: rethinking the study of China's international relations

This paper attempts to provide a new framework of analysis for understanding China’s international relations. It argues that “traditional” conceptions of international relations, based on “statist” and “realist” methodology, do not capture the dynamics of China’s international relations in an era of globalisation. Rather, we need to consider the analytical tools of international political economy as a means of breaking down the barriers between the domestic and the international, and between politics and economics. At the same time as enriching the study of China, such an approach can also enrich the discipline of international political economy, by breaking away from the OECD-centric nature of much research in the field

IR, area studies and IPE: rethinking the study of China's international relations

This paper attempts to provide a new framework of analysis for understanding China’s international relations. It argues that “traditional” conceptions of international relations, based on “statist” and “realist” methodology, do not capture the dynamics of China’s international relations in an era of globalisation. Rather, we need to consider the analytical tools of international political economy as a means of breaking down the analytical barriers between the domestic and the international, and between politics and economics. At the same time as enriching the study of China, such an approach can also enrich the discipline of international political economy, by breaking away from the OECD-centric nature of much research in the field

International political economy I : theory & history

In this chapter you will gain understanding of the following; • What is meant by International Political Economy • How the global economy has evolved over time • Rival theoretical approaches to understanding International Political Economy • How trade is regulated in the contemporary world • The significance of increased transnational flows of money in relations between government

Trade Agreements, Political Economy and Endogenously Incomplete Contracts

We develop a political economy model of trade agreements following along the line of Grossman and Helpman (1995a) yet incorporating contracting costs, uncertainty and multiple policy instruments. We show that rent-seeking efforts do not affect tariff rates as they are offset by the substitution effect of domestic production subsidies. Similar to Horn et al (2010), we find the coexistence of uncertainty and contracting costs make optimal trade agreements incomplete contracts. Our model helps explain differential treatment on subsidies, countervailing duties, and the national treatment principle - all key provisions of the current WTO agreement.Trade agreement, political economy, contracting cost, uncertainty JEL Classification:, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, Political Economy, Public Economics,

TURKEY BEYOND CAP: AGRO-FOOD COMMERCIAL RELATIONS WITH EMILIA-ROMAGNA

The objective of this paper is to analyse the role that European countries’ institutional relations and economic policies have in improving the competitiveness, sustainable development and structural adjustments of farms and agro-food economy in Turkey by supporting sustainable and long-lasting foreign agricultural commercial relations. In particular, the paper analyses the case study of Turkey and Emilia-Romagna region agro-food economic trade and the institutional relations developed within a political and institutional framework of actions over the last decade showing how these initiatives have contributed to enhance the role of Turkey as an increasingly important trade partner country. The paper concludes that future CAP budget constraints should lead to a forward looking European enlargement policy towards candidate countries with agriculture oriented economies aiming at supporting agro-food economic relations and eventually a diminishing role of direct CAP support.Agro-Food Policy, Turkey, International Trade, Cap, Enlargement, Agricultural and Food Policy, Political Economy, Q10, Q18,

Land reform on multinational corporate plantations in the Philippines : case studies of the application of the comprehensive agrarian reform programme (1988) : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies, Massey University

This thesis examines the implications of a recent agrarian reform programme in the Philippines for multinational corporate (MNC) plantations. Its central purpose is to assess and explain the land tenure consequences of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Programme as it applied to MNC plantations. This entails an examination of the economic and political factors underlying both the passing of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Programme in 1988 and its subsequent implementation on plantations. Though there is no coherent theory of land reform as it applies to MNC plantations two bodies of literature are very relevant: the political economy of land reform and the political economy of MNC expropriation in developing countries. These were drawn upon to provide general hypotheses that are tested in this study. These are that the relationship between the political and landowning elites of developing countries and the relationship between the political elites and the transnational economy are critical determinants of the political economy of land reform on MNC plantations. More specifically, in the context of the Philippine political economy, it is hypothesized that the close ties between the political and landowning elites, and their shared interests with, and ties to, MNCs, coupled with the economy's dependence on the corporations, has resulted in the agrarian reform programme bringing about no substantial change in MNC land tenure relations. In order to test these hypotheses, four multinational plantations in the Philippines that had been subject to land transfer under the agrarian reform programme were used as case studies. These were two pineapple plantations operated by subsidiaries of American-owned MNCs, Del Monte International and Castle and Cook International, and two oil palm plantations, one owned by an Indonesian corporation, Raja Garuda Mas, and the other by a Singaporean company, Keck Seng Private Ltd. It is found that the agrarian reform programme has not brought about any substantial change in MNC land tenure or production relations. This is in part attributed to the predominance of landed and agribusiness interests in the Philippines political economy, coupled with their shared interests with, and ties to, the MNCs. But it is also found that the MNCs, through their indirect lobby efforts, were able to influence decisively the consequences of the programme for their plantations. Finally, the MNCs' control over technology and markets, coupled with the substantial contribution of their plantations to employment and export earnings, ultimately constrained the degree of government intervention in their land tenure arrangements