Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in China and Southeast Asia

Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18,

Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Asia

Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18,

Agricultural Trade Reform Under the Doha Agenda: Ready for Takeoff?

A successful agreement on agriculture is critical for an overall agreement under the Doha negotiations. But before the final agreement is known, some critical decisions must be made about issues such as resumption of the negotiations, and the key tradeoffs to be made following resumption. We consider four of the most controversial areas of the agricultural negotiations: the relative importance of domestic support, market access and export subsidies; the sensitive-product exceptions sought for all countries; the additional special product exceptions sought for developing countries; and the proposed special safeguard mechanism. We show that the decisions made on reform in these areas will have a critical influence on whether the negotiations achieve their objectives of promoting trade reform and reducing poverty. In the end, we are cautiously optimistic about the potential for the negotiations to deliver a substantial outcome.International Relations/Trade,

The Relative Importance of Global Agricultural Subsidies and Market Access

The claim by global trade modelers that the potential contribution to global economic welfare of removing agricultural subsidies is less than one-tenth of that from removing agricultural tariffs puzzles many observers. To help explain that result, this paper first compares the OECD and model-based estimates of the extent of the producer distortions (leaving aside consumer distortions), and shows that 75 percent of total support is provided by market access barriers when account is taken of all forms of support to farmers and to agricultural processors globally, and only 19 percent to domestic farm subsidies. We then provide a back-of-the-envelope (BOTE) calculation of the welfare cost of those distortions. Assuming unitary supply and demand elasticities, that BOTE analysis suggests 86 percent of the welfare cost is due to tariffs and only 6 percent to domestic farm subsidies. When the higher costs associated with the greater variability of trade measures relative to domestic support are accounted for, the BOTE estimate of the latter's share falls to 4 percent. This is close to the 5 percent generated by the most commonly used global model (GTAP) and reported in the paper's final section.International Relations/Trade,

Long Run Implications of WTO Accession for Agriculture in China

International Relations/Trade,

Added mass of high-altitude balloons

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/76885/1/AIAA-1991-3693-927.pd

Engineering estimates for supersonic flutter of curved shell segments.

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/76272/1/AIAA-1968-284-993.pd

Gender Politics and Secure Services For Women: Reflections on a study of staff understandings of challenging behaviour.

This paper discusses the findings of a Q methodological study that investigated the complexity of professional understandings of (attitudes towards) residents in a secure unit for women with learning disabilities and challenging behaviours. Particular attention is afforded to the critical debate regarding women in psychiatric and secure care, including the significant contribution made to this literature by feminist perspectives. A multiprofessional group of staff (n = 38) participated in the study and nine distinct accounts of women's challenging behaviour are described. Despite a considerable amount of recent policy concern with the position of women in psychiatric services, the findings of this research suggest that many front line staff are reluctant to highlight gender in their explanations of women's behaviour. This supports the assertion by Williams et al. (2001), who were involved in the National Gender Training Initiative (NGTI), that most critical theorizing about women's mental health has had minimal impact at the level of individuals’ understandings of these important issues. This state of affairs suggests a powerful case for the expansion of staff training as provided in the NGTI, which makes gender central to understanding and emphasizes feminist perspectives